The Small Business Champion Awards has announced the opening of entries for the 2024 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards and the 2024 Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards, that will honour female-led small businesses and trade businesses in the retail sector respectively.
Now on its third year, the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards has been honouring female small-business owners across more than 65 award categories – including retail categories and four special individual categories.
“We’re in the midst of an age of female entrepreneurial empowerment,” Steve Loe, Awards Founder and Managing Director of Precedent Productions – who coordinate the Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards and the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards – said. “Despite the current high cost of living and myriad challenges associated with small-business ownership at present, Australian women are simply powering through and showing incredible resilience and drive across all industries of the small business sector.”
“Precedent Productions has been running the Australian Small Business Champion Awards since 1999 but, especially during the past few years, we’ve noticed a steep rise in the success of female-owned small businesses in particular; so much so that we deemed it appropriate to have a standalone awards programme that showcases and honours the truly impressive work of women in small business,” Loe added. “Perhaps there are elements in the double-X chromosome that gives female leaders a special ‘oomph’, or perhaps it’s lived experience, but whatever the reason, small-business women today are shining and deserve to be recognised for overcoming still-existing distinct trials to reach such inspirational success.”
Meanwhile, the second annual Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards aims to pay tribute to the vital role of small businesses in the trade sector as the foundation of Australia’s construction industry, and a significant contributor to Australia’s overall social and economic prosperity.
The award is notable for being the country’s only recognition awards programme dedicated to spotlighting trades-based small-business operators, featuring more than 50 award categories and five individual categories – Apprentice Champion, Champion Tradie, Small Business Trades Entrepreneur (aged over 30), Young Small Business Trades Entrepreneur (aged 30 and younger) and Trades Champion Leader.
“Small-business owners in trade industries are crucially important to Australia,” Loe stressed. “Their contributions to this country are simply astronomical and, so, it’s in the interests of all Australians to recognise the champions of this sector and in doing so, consider how we can better support them so they can continue to support us. The Australian trades sector is arguably amongst the most complex, but it’s also among the most innovative, resilient and certainly hardworking
“A career in trades typically means early starts, long days, and exhausting labour; and, for owners, this is in addition to all the pressures that come with running a small business,” Loe added. “It can be a taxing career and those who perform to a high standard ought to be acknowledged in a big way – which is what these Awards are all about.
“From regional and rural areas to the suburbs and capital cities, trades-based and female small business operators from all parts of the country are encouraged to enter the Awards – free of charge – as we strive to celebrate the people behind the small businesses that contribute so significantly to our national economy and help to shape their local communities in so many meaningful ways,” Loe said.
Shortlisted finalists of each programme will be announced in July. Winners of the 2024 Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards will be revealed at a National Presentation Evening Gala event on Friday 23 August 2024; the evening before winners of the women’s programme will be celebrated on Saturday 24 August.
