Tag Archive for Competition

How to win a £25,000 Business Boost grant for your small firm

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Simply Business has launched a £25,000 Business Boost grant for 2021.
It’s designed to help entrepreneurs launch a new business or help existing SMEs bounce back from challenges posed by Covid-19.
According to its own research, Simply Business found that:

The average UK start-up spends more than £22,756 in their first year
SMEs have lost £15,673 each so far in lost work and earnings due to the pandemic
In total, SME owners expect to lose £22,461 each on average, suggesting there are still losses to come, even despite the reopenings from the government
Over 840,000 SMEs are not sure their business will ever return to pre-pandemic trading levels
Over 2.2m SMEs (37 per cent) still haven’t been able to access government schemes and grants

How do I enter?
To enter, you’ll need to fill out a form on the competition website detailing why you think you deserve the grant. Judges will be focusing on:

Your story
A big dream
Positive social impact
Innovation

You must not have a turnover of over £500,000 or have received over £50,000 in private grant funding in the past two years – this doesn’t include government grants.
In the event that you are the winner, you must accept and agree to at least

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Win a chance to sell into China with Alibaba

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Alibaba is giving UK small businesses the chance to get help growing their market into China.
Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global, the largest cross-border ecommerce platform in China, today announced the launch of the UK and Ireland edition of Go Global 11.11 Pitch Fest. The event will provide an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to be fast-tracked into the world’s biggest shopping event, Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
Eligible brands can register to pitch their products to an Alibaba expert panel to receive valuable advice on how to grow their business in China. Selected businesses will also get marketing advice and be pitched to famous Chinese influencers.
Following on from the Success of Pitch Fest 2020, it will be opened up to British and Irish companies for the first time. The 2020 event saw more than 31,000 overseas brands taking part and, of those, 2,600 of those took part in 11.11 for the first time. During the 11-day period, $494m worth of goods from UK businesses were sold, showing strong demand for UK products among Chinese consumers.
All brands that apply will receive a follow up one-to-one consultation with a Tmall Global Expert and a bespoke report

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Win a chance to sell into China with Alibaba

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Alibaba is giving UK small businesses the chance to get help growing their market into China.
Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global, the largest cross-border ecommerce platform in China, today announced the launch of the UK and Ireland edition of Go Global 11.11 Pitch Fest. The event will provide an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to be fast-tracked into the world’s biggest shopping event, Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
Eligible brands can register to pitch their products to an Alibaba expert panel to receive valuable advice on how to grow their business in China. Selected businesses will also get marketing advice and be pitched to famous Chinese influencers.
Following on from the Success of Pitch Fest 2020, it will be opened up to British and Irish companies for the first time. The 2020 event saw more than 31,000 overseas brands taking part and, of those, 2,600 of those took part in 11.11 for the first time. During the 11-day period, $494m worth of goods from UK businesses were sold, showing strong demand for UK products among Chinese consumers.
All brands that apply will receive a follow up one-to-one consultation with a Tmall Global Expert and a bespoke report

Read more...

TikTok launches entrepreneur competition with £5,000 cash prize

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
TikTok has announced the launch of the #BeYourOwnBoss competition, with a £5,000 cash prize.
The winning entrepreneur will also win mentoring sessions from high-profile entrepreneurs, marketing from TikTok and the Purposeful Project and a year of financial and business advice from Intuit QuickBooks.
How do I enter?
The competition invites potential business owners to submit a pitch in a TikTok. You need a TikTok account to enter. Your pitch video must be 30-60 seconds long and include the hashtag #BeYourOwnBoss and you must follow @simonsquibb. Alongside your video, you’ll need to fill out a form with a link to your video. Get your entries in by June 30, 2021. Ten finalists will be chosen by the judges to present their idea in more detail to the panel during a live TikTok finale.
Enter the competition here.
Simon Squibb, founder of The Purposeful Project, is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Alongside Simon, some of the judges taking part include:

Justine Roberts CBE – The founder and CEO of Mumsnet
Ben Francis – Founder and chief product officer of Gymshark
Jess Butcher MBE– Co-founder and CMO of Blippar
Alex Depledge – CEO and co-founder of Resi.co.uk
Mark Tilbury– Businessman and influencer who runs multiple seven-figure companies
Lisa Friedrich– Head of SMB, EU at TikTok

The UK government

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Gumtree launches small business competition to win £10,000 cash prize

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Gumtree has announced a competition for small and micro businesses, giving them the chance to win up to £10,000 and a range of other prizes.
The Small Business Blast-Off competition from Gumtree UK, launched in partnership with Tide and supported by O2 Business, Builder.ai and SumUp, will help SMEs come out of lockdown and make the most of new opportunities as lockdown measures are eased.
What can I win?
There are a few different prizes up for grabs.
The winner will get:

£10,000 cash prize
Free Tide cashback upgrade for three months
A free Business Masterclass session with Tide
A free SumUp Air card reader
A free builder.ai app
12 months of free data, calls and texts from any handset on O2 Business
A free Gumtree Pro Account for three months
A display advertising campaign across Gumtree’s desktop, mobile web and app worth £3,000, including creative and production cost

Two runners up will get:

£5,000 cash prize
Free Tide cashback upgrade for three months
A free Business Masterclass session with Tide
A free SumUp Air card reader
A free builder.ai app
12 months of free data, calls and texts from any handset on O2 Business
A free Gumtree Pro Account for three months
A display advertising campaign across Gumtree’s desktop, mobile web and app

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NatWest and ITV launch £150,000 TV ad prize for small businesses

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
ITV and NatWest are launching a competition for small business to win their own TV advert, worth £150,000, from tomorrow (October 17).
Three businesses will have their own TV advert produced by acclaimed London-based advertising agency, Pablo. It’ll have guaranteed, tailored airtime on ITV and NatWest’s own media channels.
NatWest will also provide over 50 additional support packages to the top entrants, including places on NatWest’s Accelerator programme for entrepreneurs, one-to-one coaching sessions and advertising spend for LinkedIn.
The competition is open to any sector and size, business owners need to be over 18 and based in the UK to enter. It’s open to midnight on November 2.
Entrants must make a written pitch to the judges, explaining why their small business is extraordinary.
To enter, visit natwestbusinesshub.com/extraordinary
On October 17, the first in a series of the four adverts will air, featuring Cornwall-based confectionary business, Buttermilk.
Margaret Jobling, chief marketing officer, NatWest Group said: “Small business owners around the UK have been through an unbelievably difficult year, and have fought hard to continue supporting their customers through the challenges that the pandemic has brought all of us, so we want to give three extraordinary businesses the opportunity to share

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