Albany chamber Small Business of the Year nominations being sought
Albany Area Chamber of Commerce to honor area small businesses
By Brad McEwen
ALBANY — The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce is preparing to recognize the area’s most outstanding small businesses and is now accepting nominations for this year’s Small Business of the Year award.
The award, which is presented every year at a special awards reception, allows the chamber to shine a spotlight on some of the community’s small businesses and highlight some of the ways in which the Small Business of the Year award winner and other finalists are making a significant impact on the community.
“The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce annually hosts its Small Business Awards, which really pay homage and recognition to small businesses that are knocking it out of the park and really representing their companies very well, and also the community and marketing Albany as a business location with a talented work force,” Albany Area Chamber of Commerce President Barbara Rivera Holmes said Thursday.
Nominations for deserving businesses are open until March 24. Once closed, those nominations will be reviewed by a panel of chamber representatives to determine a group of finalists and the overall winner.
“It’s a pretty rigorous process to go through,” said Holmes. “We have the Small Business Resource Committee go through many nominations and applications to ensure that it’s been well-vetted. So we’re looking forward to another great year.
“We’ve had great participation from our businesses in the past, and we’re looking forward to that again. Businesses must be members of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, and there’s a variety of other criteria to look at.”
Holmes added that the presentation of the Small Business of the Year award, the winner of which will be announced at the May 2 reception, serves as a way to not only recognize one of the community’s vital and deserving businesses, but also as a way for the chamber to provide opportunities to members businesses.
“It’s an opportunity,” she said. “In everything that we do, we focus on a couple of different things. We want to promote our community as an ideal business location, we want to promote our businesses and our members and we also want to provide them opportunities. This brings it all together so that we can tell the story of the businesses that have an impact on our community.”
Nomination forms and the full nomination criteria can be found at http://albanyga.com/small-business-year-nominations/ or by contacting the chamber at (229) 434-8700.
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