Are you the next UK’s Most Wanted Business Pro?

For Barrie Stephen, entering and winning Creative HEAD’s UK’s Most Wanted Business Pro Award was a career highlight and a sound business move. Here he offers his advice on how you could turn your business around by entering the biggest business award out there!

For me, entering Creative HEAD’s UK’s Most Wanted Award came quite far down the track because our concept, Fit for Business, came from an absolute desire to keep my team happy, healthy and motivated. Once we’d developed the idea and it was a huge hit in the salons, we realised we had the makings of a great entry. We had three other areas of the business we felt were truly exceptional - the Blow Dry Bar, Red Carpet Gorgeous Event and The Cut magazine.
 
So the first thing I’d say, is if you are putting an entry together, don’t make the content fit the entry, rather have something you really believe in or something that’s working amazingly for you and then make that into your entry. It’s more credible, it’s real and the judges will buy it. The award really means something when you’ve turned a heart-felt idea or concept into a winner!
 
We didn’t want to dwell on the things you’d expect to see us doing, but set out to blow the judges away with four really amazing concepts that we do very differently. We met the criteria and showed unequivocally that we think differently, deliver on promises and evaluate success. 
 
We gave a double page to each concept with a brief overview, relevant images and successes for each, such as: 30 per cent sick day reduction; press results with columns and the fact we’d reached every trade and hair consumer press and local press with these concepts AND we’d increased staff retention in that year to 98 per cent.