Sanlam and Business Partners are calling for entries for the annual South African Entrepreneur of the Year” competition. The closing date is the 16 June 2013. Get your entry in by filling out this form.
Purpose of the Award
The following is quoted directly from the competition website.
The original intention remains that we celebrate entrepreneurial excellence and make heroes of those who are truly successful. South Africa desperately needs more entrepreneurs and this competition helps give shape to the ideas and aspirations of those heroes of tomorrow.
The judging process is completely independent and is audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The judges represent different areas of the business community and include a representative from the education environment. The evaluation process runs through three different filtering processes, which ensure that everything is checked and rechecked to remove any human error or human preference which may creep in from time to time.
The data requested also gives the judges very important and critical information which they need in order to make a complete and holistic judgment on the candidate being reviewed. The judging process is then completed through an interview with each finalist to ensure that any questions or issues needing clarification are addressed. Furthermore, site visits are also conducted at times.
But Entrepreneur of the Year® is not just about the competition. It is more than that. Entrepreneur of the Year® is about developing the standard of excellence in entrepreneurship all over South Africa. It is about promoting that excellence as the norm and not the exception. It is about promoting entrepreneurship as an honourable and rewarding, yet challenging career. It is about educating entrepreneurs so that they reach that standard of excellence.
It is about educating the youth about what it entails to be an entrepreneur so that they can make better choices about their career options. And at the end of the day we expect to influence government legislation in not only how we facilitate the subject of entrepreneurship in our schools but also what legislation should be in place to ensure that we create a healthy legal environment in which our entrepreneurs can operate their businesses.
By showcasing our winners and running the competition, as well as all the workshops with our grand SME conference, we hope to build the momentum of media activity that usually follows such events and through the media activity showcase the role models that Entrepreneur of the Year® has selected as pillars of our community. These roles will help influence the SME sector for good, and in five years from now we will have begun changing the face of entrepreneurship in South Africa.
Entrepreneurs should take their rightful place as pillars of strength in our communities and our economy, and they need to have a powerful force behind them ensuring that all involved in this sector are stepping up to their responsibilities.
EOY prides itself on the credibility of its assessment process hence the need to supply the judges with the detail needed to make an informed and thorough decision on finalists and winners of this competition.
Criteria
To enter the Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® competition, you need to be based in South Africa and qualify under at least one of these criteria.
Emerging Entrepreneur: An entrepreneur who has been in their present business for less than 3 years on the date the entry form is received by the steering committee.
Small Business Entrepreneur: A business, irrespective of length of time during which it has been active, with a turnover of R20 million or less in the tax year immediately preceding the date of entering the competition.
Medium Business Entrepreneur: A business, irrespective of the length of time during which it has been active, with a turnover of R20 million or more in the tax year immediately preceding the date of entering the competition.