Late last week, we entered ourselves into the Westpac Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence awards.
It was a difficult decision as we questioned our place in the local business community and had many fears about it…
- we are so new (the new business category met that fear head on)
- we both led other (and continue to lead) careers outside of the business, and we are kind of making it up as we go along…(our kind reviews from our guests helped us muster the entry into the Visitor Experience category)
- we are not really awards people, and didn’t want to stick our necks out like tall poppies (a personal invitation to enter by a local business person helped us get over this)
- we have a lot on our proverbial plate – and the interviewing and judging process will take a lot of time in preparation (but shouldn’t we already be spending that much time on the business of this business – the running of it takes so much, but the planning should be just as important)
We tried to brush the fear aside and just try. We’ve created this business from scratch, from our own ideas, experiences and passions. We are running something that we love and have created a space that we would want to check in to. And we are doing it in a place that we love.
Even just putting our entry in was a win for us. If it helps us reach one new customer, than it was worth it. No harm in trying, right?
Plus we get to go to a black tie gala at the end of it….oooh la la!