As the saying goes, you’ve got to be ’in it to win it’ but what could your company or charity get out it? A winner and a finalist from last year’s Awards describe their experiences.

Paula Gelling, manager of Victim Support Isle of Man who won the award for Charity, Cultural and Social Enterpise, told us that the benefits begin when you make your submission.

She said: ’The process of filling out the entry form puts it into context what you’ve actually achieved because until you do that you don’t know what you’ve done.

’And, having done that, you then have that document you can use for grant applications and other things so that’s helpful.’

The main reason most people enter the Awards is yo get their business or charity, and what they do, known more widely. Paula said it definitely worked for them:

’It was about raising awareness of the charity and what we do because I know there are people who don’t know about us.

’The Awards brought it into the limelight.

’It also brought an opportunity to work with one of the large corporates so that they could get to know what we do. Then, when we had an appeal on behalf of a client for some everyday items like toiletries and soap powder their staff committee came up with them for us.’

The Awards night itself itself is always remember by those who attend and Paula was no exception, starting with the pre-event drinks reception at the Sefton.

She said: ’It’s an opportunity to network. It was good to learn from other people what they had entered and what they had done - it was a learning curve.’

Then it was on to the awards ceremony itself and Paula gave us her memories of that: ’Oh wow! For us in particular as a third sector organisation you don’t usually get to go to something like that - my eyes were like dinner plates! I would definitely encourage and third sector organisation to go for it.’

Edward Cox founded Island Travel in 2013 with his partner, Rikki Dunnage. They were finalists in the Customer Service award.

He said: ’Excellent customer service was the number one thing we wanted in our company.

’The whole process of entering the awards, from start to finish, was exciting and it was good fun being there with all the other companies.

’It was definitely worth raving about!’

There are 16 award categories in this year’s Isle of Man Newspapers’ Awards for Excellence offering opportunities for buisness of all sizes, charitable and cultural organisations, individuals and public sector teams. You can find more information and download entry forms at excellence-awards.im.