More than 210 individual nominations were received for 118 different businesses and organisations in the ninth Rossendale Business Awards.
Judges will have a difficult decision sorting through the entries, along with enterprising young person nominations and 24 Enterprising Women.
One of last year’s success stories was Bacup-based Creation Signs Limited who said winning the title of MicroBusiness at last year’s Rossendale Business Awards helped put them on the map.
Friends Chris Hilton, from Whitworth, and Aaron Diggle, from Britannia, have known each other for 30 years, having attended primary and secondary school and even the same college.
They set up their own business HD Signs in 2008, but when that business merged with Linemark the company grew rapidly and Chris and Aaron found themselves spending less and less time at home.
Three years ago, they made a work-life balance decision; they both left HD Signs and set up their own smaller business Creation Signs Limited at Pippin Bank.
Aaron said: “We left HD Signs on good terms, but with nothing. We did have an abundance of experience and the knowledge needed to set up again, however people did not realise where we had gone to.”
In the last three years the new business has worked for national, regional and local businesses.
Work at Burnley Football Club led to the company securing a contract with Rochdale Football Club and further work at Bury.
Travel company Altham’s chose Creation to rebrand all its 30 shops and work on that contract is starting soon.
As well as winning the MicroBusiness title, the company was also selected as a finalist in the Creative category.
Aaron said: “The awards were very useful for us because they helped to tell people where we had gone to.
“We do a lot of marketing through social media and the award put us on the map and was promoted through Facebook. It was a good way for people to find out where we had gone.
“The biggest boost for us has been the recognition of what we do. After three years we are now having people come to us. We are now getting general inquiries and phone calls from people we didn’t know before.”
As well as the sporting work, the company is also accomplished at shop front design and vehicle graphics.
Aaron added: “Setting up on our own, there are just three of us in the business, was the right decision for us. We both have young families and we are now able to spend time with the people we want to be with.”
The business has again been nominated for the 2018 R-Awards.
The finalists will be announced in October and the ceremony, when 18 awards will be handed out, is on November 14 at The Riverside in Whitworth.
