Octopus Springboard is delighted to welcome back the Entrepreneur Awards for another year. These annual awards provide us with a chance to celebrate those who have started their own business.

In particular, the awards will shine a light on the entrepreneurs who, through their own hard work and bright ideas, have improved their local community or found innovative ways to make their business more sustainable.

Previous winners include Cooper King Distillery who diversified during the pandemic to supply hand sanitiser to frontline workers and produced the first-ever carbon-negative gin in England and 1683 Chocolate Place, founded by Joe Vaughan who opened a shop aged just 16 and was celebrated as Britain’s youngest chocolatier.

How it works

Every Member of Parliament has the opportunity to nominate entrepreneurs in their constituencies who they feel deserve recognition.

There are no specific criteria for entering nominees, they just need to be an entrepreneur making a truly positive impact whose business is registered and operating in the UK.

The winners will be chosen by a panel of experts who have a background in entrepreneurialism. This includes Shadow Skills Minister Seema Malhotra MP and Jo Gideon MP, who started her own business before becoming an MP. They will be joined by Karen Taylor, Founder of Parent Cloud, Jimmy McLoughlin OBE, Presenter of Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future podcast, and Octopus founder Chris Hulatt.

The winners will have the unique opportunity to receive £5,000 worth of scale up advice from experts within Octopus. They will also be invited to the Octopus headquarters to meet with Chris Hulatt and discuss first-hand how they can grow their business.

How to get involved

Octopus will be hosting an event in Parliament for MPs on 25 October in Room U, Portcullis House between 3-5pm. This will provide an opportunity for MPs to learn more about the awards and speak to the former winners from Cooper King Distillery and 1683 Chocolate, where we will also be handing out goody bags with entry packs and samples from their companies!

To enter, MPs should send a short submission answering the questions below and send via email to [email protected] by 31 January 2024.

If you are an entrepreneur who would like to be entered, please get in touch with your local MP and ask them to nominate you can check who your local MP is here.

Nominations have been extended and will now close on 31 January. Terms and Conditions apply.

To find out more about last year’s winners, go here.