Member Article

Judging Commences in the Nectar Small Business Awards

Skipton organisation shortlisted for Nectar Business Small Business Awards

Anna Chapman, managing partner of Skipton business, Centre for Crisis Psychology (CCP) has beaten off hundreds of UK small businesses to be shortlisted in the eighth national Nectar Business Small Business Awards.

Founded in 1989, CCP provides worldwide psychological first aid to individuals following traumatic incidents, as well as consultancy, specialist training and employee assistance programmes.

CCP is just ­two weeks away from finding out if it will win the Contribution to the Community category, which as in previous years, has been open to a public vote. Fans of the Facebook.com/nectarbusiness page will have their say and help to decide this year’s winner with their online votes.

The Awards celebrate the achievements of hard working small businesses and business people across the UK. If successful, Anna Chapman will win £2,000 cash, 50,000 Nectar points as well as the prestigious title for her company. What’s more Anna will be invited to the Nectar Business Round Table and awards ceremony, taking place in November, where she will meet and receive tailored, expert advice from Sarah Willingham and other business professionals who also judged the awards.

Anna commented: “After almost 30 years of pioneering trauma aftercare to win the award would be incredible. As a close-knit team we have helped thousands of people through some of their darkest moments. Due to the sensitivity and private nature of our work it is very difficult to share our experiences and successes with others. To have the recognition of the award would be wonderful for our hard working team and our valued clients.

“Receiving an invite to the Nectar Business round table event and the opportunity to get first hand advice from the likes of Sarah Willingham for our business would be really valuable in taking us to the next level. We would like to invest the prize fund in to our current e-learning project, which aims to provide remote training for UK businesses for them to be able to deal with the immediate aftermath of a critical incident. We would also like to donate the Nectar points to a charity Streetwise - Love Leeds which provides ongoing support for vulnerable adults.”

Lead judge and serial entrepreneur, Sarah Willingham, is encouraging the public to visit the Nectar Business Facebook page to vote for the business they find most inspiring:

“This year I have been absolutely blown away by the number of entries and the sheer quality of those businesses that have entered the Nectar Business Small Business Awards.

“The Contribution to the Community Award celebrates how a business’s success isn’t just decided by how much money it makes, but what it stands for and what it means to the community it exists in.

“We have selected four really special businesses in this category, each of whom has demonstrated something inspiring about the way that they work and what they’re putting back into the community around them. We now need the public’s help to decide who should be crowned the winner.”

The Awards, which celebrate the achievements of successful small businesses and business people across the UK, are judged by a panel of respected industry figures including Sarah Willingham; Adam Collett, Marketing Director at Brakes; Richard Carvell, Director Digital & Direct Marketing at Viking; Shannon Diett, VP Marketing at DHL and previous Nectar Business Small Business Awards winner, Melissa Snover.

The other categories include Small Business of the Year, Home Grown Business of the Year, Innovation of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Tradesperson of the Year and two new categories; Apprentice of the Year and Best Use of Technology.

For further details on the Nectar Business Small Business Awards 2016 and a full list of shortlisted companies, please visit www.nectar.com/smallbusiness.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harriet Watts .