Excellence awards open for applications

NOMINATIONS are now open for awards celebrating business excellence in Ballarat.

The Federation University Commerce Ballarat business excellence awards aim to showcase local businesses and their achievements.

Businesses can nominate themselves or anyone can nominate a business they see worthy.

Being involved in the awards is about more than winning as they provide an opportunity for businesses to undertake self-assessment and reflect on their potential for growth and development.

“The application is designed to give the businesses an opportunity to do a complete review of what’s been happening over the past 12 months, a chance to come together with their teams and to do a bit of an overhaul of the business plan,” said Commerce Ballarat CEO Jodie Gillett.

“Going through the process will help them highlight areas of their business which need further development.”

Finalists will also receive promotion, networking opportunities and advice from industry professionals.

Ms Gillett said the awards are an opportunity for the community to discover Ballarat businesses.

“It’s the chance for people to learn about what’s going on in business they didn’t know and realising that wow I don’t need to go out of town for that product or service because it’s available here in Ballarat,” she said.

“Encouraging that strive for excellence as a city is really important.

“We encourage businesses to nominate themselves, this is not a popularity contest it’s a business award.”

Once applications close a judging panel of experienced businesspeople review entrants.

Site visits are then conducted for the finalists and the winners will be announced at a gala dinner in late August.

RADcentre was awarded Federation University Business of the Year in 2022 and director Chris Radford said the experience was an amazing chance to look internally at how enterprise was operating.

“We really wanted to do the reflection part of the questions because it was a great opportunity to step away from the business for a period of time,” he said.

“We did the application process as a team, and we really enjoyed the learning process that came from it all.

“It’s definitely given our business a profile boost.”

Mr Radford said he encourages all businesses to apply as the process is beneficial to all and applicants receive excellent support from Commerce Ballarat and the judges.

Nominations close on Tuesday, 4 April and to make a nomination go to commerceballarat.com.au.