Nominations open for business awards

Arron Mclean, sales manager of Redhead Equipment, at the Samuel McLeod Business Awards in April 2017. Arthur White-Crummey/Daily Herald.

The Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce is encouraging more people to get their nominations in for the 2018 Samuel McLeod Business awards by Friday’s deadline.

Award nominations opened last week and close at 11:59 p.m. on December 21. Finalists will be announced at the Legacy Brunch on March 21, with the awards set for April 18.

There are nine categories open for nomination, with the winner of the tenth category, business of the year, selected from the finalists of the other nine awards.

“I think the Samuel McLeod awards, or business excellence awards, in general, are absolutely amazing,” said chamber CEO Elise Hildebrandt.

“I’ve had a couple of times in life where I’ve dealt with people from across Canada. You get their e-mail and on the bottom of it, it will say ‘finalist’ or ‘recipient’ of a chamber’s excellence awards. It gives them a little bit more legitimacy.”

The ten categories this year are:

  • Female business leader of the year
  • Male business leader of the year
  • Business transformation award
  • Non-profit organization award
  • New venture
  • Community involvement
  • Service award
  • Marketing
  • Young entrepreneur and
  • Business of the year.

Business excellence awards are also a great time to celebrate all that Prince Albert has to offer.

“We want to start highlighting those ten (winners),” Hildebrandt said.

“I think it’s important that we take pride in the companies that we have within our area so we a go ‘hey, that one comes from Prince Albert.’”

For those nominated, winning or not winning an award can help owners take a critical look at their business, examining what they do well and where they need to make improvements.

“I learned this from a lady in Saskatoon. For three years she was a finalist. When she finally own in that third year, I had the opportunity to speak to her about it,” Hildebrandt said.

“She said the first year she took a look at her company and thought they were doing pretty good, but didn’t win. The second year, she saw where they had improved, where they could better and where they had done absolutely amazing.

“She said when that third year came along and they were the recipient, she said she didn’t know if she would have had that same amount of pride in the first year, since she had thoroughly looked over her whole company. I hope everybody who has the opportunity in Prine Albert akes that same accomplishment, that same sense of pride because it can really show you how awesome you are and where improvements need to be.”

Full criteria for each award, as well as the nomination form, can be found online at www.princealbertchamber.com under the ‘events’ tab.

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