The are also plenty of local business awards, for example in Northamptonshire there are the Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards. Check out the local business papers in your area.

Once you enter your work has only just begun through, should you make it through to the finals then all the hard work of maximising your publicity potential comes in. Don't waste a single opportunity, and I highly recommend getting a PR company to work with you on this. For some suitable PR companies have a look on our UK Business Forums at www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk

Credibility is something that new businesses will find it hard to establish, so I urge you all to read up on the various business awards that you may be eligible to enter and do it. It worked for me!

I've Been Nominated
Last year I started work with the East Midlands Development Agency's initiative called The Business Champions. As part of these initiative I volunteered some of my time every month to work with Young Enterprise and various Universities and Colleagues in the East Midlands region.

This week I found out I had been nominated for a Championing Change award for my contribution to these organisations. Although surprised, as its an award I didn't enter nor have I been a Business Champion for very long, I'm still very pleased to have been recognised for my efforts.The ceremony is next month, so I'll keep you all posted in next months newsletter.

Protect Your Business
Many businesses are still becoming victims of Company Hijacking, where fraudsters can update their company details at Companies House without the business owners knowledge or consent.

Companies House have a scheme called PROOF, that ensures your company
records can only be altered through the services of an approved E-filer such as Quick Formations or the Companies House Webfiling services. To use this service you only need a Document Authentication code and to complete a simple form.

All companies registered through Quick Formations automatically get allocated a random document authentication code, and the form needed to sign into this scheme can be downloaded from the Companies House website at http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/forms/generalForms/PR1.pdf

Should you need any assistance in protecting your company against this kind of fraud, whether your company was formed through us or not, please do not hesitate to call 0800 061 2288 and we'll be happy to advise you free of charge. We are happy to helping fight business crime.

What's hot the UK Business Forums this month?

Do you have a question, or simply like to network with other business owners, pop along to the UK Business Forums at www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk. Its completely free, and the support is invaluable.

Keep up the great work in your own businesses, and I look forward to networking with you all on the UK Business Forums.

Kind Regards,

Richard Osborne
richard.osborne@Quickformations.com