Three reasons why winning a NC Companies to Watch Award is good for your business

The North Carolina Companies to Watch (NCCTW) Awards celebrate the success of startups and second-stage companies from across the state of North Carolina. The Award comes with statewide and national attention, and many of the award-winning companies experience rapid growth in the year (sometimes years) following the Award. 

Yes, there are certainly obvious benefits to being recognized as a North Carolina Company to Watch, and today, I'm going to explain three major reasons to open our new series on NCCTW and past award-winning companies.

First:  Good for Your PR Team 

This is true even if your PR Team is the same person that sweeps the floors, takes out the trash, balances the books, makes sales calls, develops the products, and/or manages your website. Many companies that are nominated are still small, and most of their time is spent sustaining and growing the business and not on marketing or building relationships with the press. 

The NCCTW Awards are not only covered by statewide press and media, the Awards dinner is attended by many members of the press, looking for local success stories. So your NCCTW Award helps you accomplish two goals with one simple task--great external PR, for minimal amounts of "work", and in addition, the opportunity to build personal relationships with members of the press. 

Second: Good for Your Business

Whatever you're selling, I'm willing to bet that you'll sell more of it after winning a NCCTW Award. Not only does the award build credibility for your business, it establishes your business as innovative, creative, and likely to succeed. This helps ease customer objections, translating into more sales for you and your team. Dr. Roy Archambault, CEO of Dry Corp, a 2011 recipient of a NCCTW Award, says "the Award helped raise awareness regarding our endeavors and lends credibility to our company and its products. This is extremely helpful when working with new buyers."

Archambault reports a sales increase of more than 200 percent year over year, and in a written interview, shared that this recognition enabled Dry Corp to "establish new business relationships that directly resulted in new sales opportunities."

Third: GREAT for your employees, and for attracting talent

In addition, receiving a NCCTW award boosts confidence within the bounds of your office walls. With the recognition from winning a NCCTW Award as one of North Carolina's most promising growth-stage companies, you establish your business and your company as credible, authentic, and established. 


Employees and potential employees will be enthusiastic to work at a place of business that has received such a high honor and distinction. This was an unexpected positive effect for Dry Corp, said Archambault. In fact, the Award "has also been instrumental when recruiting new employees because they see the prestige associated with the Award and, consequently, they want to work with us. We have been able to bring in great talent as a result."


The Best Part (for many)

Self-nominations are accepted for this year's North Carolina Companies to Watch Awards. The nominations process is easy--just fill out the online form before the deadline of February 27, 2012. Nominate someone (or yourself) today and spur that company to future success!