Get Recognition for Your Accomplishments

Success as a small business creates opportunities to become a bigger business. But even if you have a good product or service at a fair price sometimes having name recognition, third party endorsements, and industry accolades can help kick you up a notch in the eyes of your prospects and solidify your existing relationships.

These sort of “booster shots” are available from many sources; everything from top ratings from industries, service awards from civic organizations, local better business bureaus, national chamber of commerce and industry awards, just to identify a few. By and large these are focused in two broad categories: business excellence or unique product or service innovation. Generally, the more prestigious and well-known the awarding organization, the more time (and money) you will need to spend in preparing and promoting your application.

Most of the industry awards have some sort of plaque, or statue and a certification that comes with it. If the awards organization is well-known you can use images of the awards in your marketing materials and put their award in a trophy case in your lobby to share with your customers. This reinforces to your employees and customers that your good work and innovation is more widely recognized throughout the industry, not just locally. It gives you a chance to lift your name recognition which reinforces to your customers that they made the right choice in selecting your company to do business with.

Listed below are several organizations that have the potential to improve your name recognition and put a little spotlight on your logo.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce CO-100

https://www.uschamber.com/co/co-100#the-2025-full-list

Award Philosophy: This exclusive list recognizes 100 of the best and brightest small and mid-sized businesses across America, celebrated for their remarkable contributions in driving innovation, growth, and ingenuity both locally and globally.

Geography: United States

Categories: Business, software, finance, marketing and technology

Focus: Helping SMEs to grow

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (via Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award)

NOTE: WEB SITE IS NOT BEING UPDATED DUE TO FUNDING AND STAFFING ISSUES, HOWEVER THEY ARE STILL ACCEPTING APPICATIONS.

https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-award

Award Philosophy: The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award® is the highest level of national recognition that a U.S. organization can receive for performance excellence, particularly in relation to resilience and long-term success.

Geography: United States

Categories: Organization Description, Leadership and Governance, Operations, Workforce, Customer and Markets, Finance Strategy, Organizational Learning, Community Relationships

Focus: Companies must demonstrate organizational resilience and long-term success through favorable performance. The Baldrige award is not for specific products or services, but rather overall performance.

National Small Business Association / Small Business Technology Council Awards

NOTE: THIS WEB SITE IS INACTIVE DUE TO THE GOVERNMENT SHUT-DOWN. IT HAS ALSO BEEN SUBJECT TO BUDGET CUTS AND LAYOFFS.

CHECK BACK WHEN THESE ISSUES ARE RESOLVED.

Award Philosophy: For more than 60 years the SBA has been uplifting small businesses in America, and the annual NSBW awards recognize the exemplary achievements, triumphs, contributions, and resilience of SBA-assisted individuals and businesses that help to drive the American economy.

Geography: United States

Categories: All

Specialty: Access and support for SBIR programs

Globee Awards for Technology

globeeawards.com › technologyAbout Technology Awards

Award Philosophy: The Globee® Awards for Technology is a prestigious international recognition program that celebrates achievements across all areas of technology.

Geography: International

Categories: Software and hardware, AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing, mobile apps, and emerging tech

Specialty Claims: Winners are determined solely by the average scores provided by independent industry experts and peers from around the world. All judging scores are transparently shared with both winners and non-winners.

Stevie Awards for Technology

https://aba.stevieawards.com/About/about-us

Award Philosophy: The Stevie® Awards are the world’s premier business awards. They were created in 2002 to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and working professionals worldwide.

Geography: International

Categories: Fourteen, Including American Business Award, and International Business Award. Stevies can be awarded at individual, team and departmental level in addition to the business level. Published “kit” provided on web site to submit your applications.

Specialty Claims: Highlights Business Processes, winners are judged by 1000 executives from across the world.

TITAN Business Technology Solutions Awards

https://thetitanawards.com/business-technology-solutions-awards.php

Award Philosophy: The TITAN Business Technology Solutions Awards recognizes excellence in leveraging technology to improve operations, enhance customer experience, and drive business performance. This category celebrates innovative software, platforms, infrastructure, and digital strategies that enable impactful transformation.

Geography: International

Categories: Approximately 100, awarded in both Individual Achievement and Business Excellence

Specialty Claims: Fixed, modest fee per entry

Forrester Technology Awards

https://www.forrester.com/about-us/forrester-awards/

Award Philosophy: Forrester Awards honors organizations that successfully implement strategies and initiatives to maximize customer value and accelerate their business outcomes.

Geography: NA, APAC, EMEA

Categories: Leaders across functions including B2B marketing, product, and sales; B2C marketing, customer experience (CX), digital business; and technology, security & risk

Specialty Claims: Annual B2B Summit (fee to participate), Leadership Webinars on line library with Free Membership

There are plenty more business awards besides the ones listed here. Look for one that focuses in an area that is already part of your roadmap. It could be a next generation product, a new solution to a long-existing problem in logistics, building up your customer satisfaction KPIs and so on. Then find an award opportunity that will focus your company’s efforts to raise the bar. Whether you win the top spot or end up a few rungs down the ladder, the mere act of establishing your improvement as a company goal will make a huge positive impact for your customers.