After 8 months of hard work we are thrilled to announce the Finalists, Category Winners, the People’s Choice and the Network NZ Business of the Year for 2017!
The overall standard of entries was incredibly high – in fact our Judges were blown away!
So let’s take a look at nine main categories first. You can see a more detailed overview of each Category here and a detailed description of the prizes is here.
The Nine Main Categories
Category 1: Excellence in Business Product and Services Industries.
Finalists are:
- Business Buddy - Kirsten Hawke
- Steve Cormack Mechanical Engineering - Steve Cormack
- Artiflax - Sema Morris
- Go Figure - Lisa Martin
And the Winner is STEVE CORMACK MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.
Category 2: Excellence in Consumer Product and Services Industries
Finalists are:
- Ready To Eat - Hamish Coulter
- Niesh - James Koo
- Mud Mates - Alana Steyn
- FinndieLoo – Claire Van de Merwe
And the Winner is NIESH
Category 3: Excellence in Hospitality and Tourism Industries
No eligible finalists this year, therefore no Award will be given.
Category 4: Excellence in NFP or Charity
Finalists are:
- Care for Families - Chercara Thompson
- Safe Surfer - Rory Birbeck
- One Bag at a Time - Raedon Kane
- The Commuting Book – Magdalena Lorenzo
And the Winner is THE COMMUTING BOOK
Category 5: Outstanding Start Up Business
Finalists are:
- Niesh - James Koo (second category)
- Pure Style Home & Garden – Kayne and Vicki Sheath
- Pet Life – Amy Scott Thomas
- Catapult Your Business – Natalie Tolhopf
And the Winner is CATAPULT YOUR BUSINESS
Category 6: Outstanding Sole Operator
Finalists are:
- Totally Balmy New Zealand – Sharon Holmes
- Stephanie Harris Coaching – Stephanie Harris
- Steve Cormack Mechanical Engineering – Steve Cormack (second cateogory)
- KJ Designs Handstamped Jewellery – Susan Coram-Stanley
And the Winner is STEVE CORMACK MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Category 7: Outstanding Customer Service
Finalists are:
- FinndieLoo – Claire Van de Merwe (second category)
- Urban Dogs – Leanne Coste
- Squoodles – Tracy Morgan
- Mud Mates - Alana Steyn (second category)
And the Winner is MUD MATES
Category 8: Outstanding Blogger
Finalists are:
- Eezapet – Heather Murphy
- Cute Cuddles - Tracy Nicholls
- Mayhem Creations – Mariana Martin
- Happy Mum Happy Child - Maria Foy
And the Winner is MAYHEM CREATIONS
Category 9: International Achievement
Finalists are:
- Houdini Solutions - Bianca Richardson
- The Moon Unit - Alf
- Peg & Pencil Design Studio - Kirsty-Ann Milne
And the Winner is HOUDINI SOLUTIONS.
Congratulations to all our Finalists and Category Winners so far!
Now let’s take a look at the People’s Choice and the Network NZ Business of the Year!
People’s Choice Award
All our Finalists (27 in total) from the main categories were put forward for this Award, sponsored by Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park. The winner was decided by a 50/50 split between the public voting and our Judges assessment.
And the Winner of our People’s Choice this year is HAPPY MUM HAPPY CHILD owned by Maria Foy!
Maria has won an AMAZING prize package totalling at about $2800, including that stay at the Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park! The rest of this awesome prize includes graphic design, a business risk review, social media coaching, a website review or build and accounting services generously provided by our Network NZ Experts.
It was fascinating to see the hustle with the People’s Choice Voting and it really was a race to the finish line. We’ve included the following businesses as a Special Mention since they all crushed it too with voting.
Special Mentions to:
And to top it off we are providing MUD MATES (who came in second) with one hours free social media coaching with The Online Business Academy as a runners up prize!
Network NZ Business of the Year
This Award was sponsored by NZ Entrepreneur Magazine and was based 100% on our Judges assessment. Each of our main category winners were up for this Award, they are:
- Steve Cormack Mechanical Engineering (two categories)
- Neish
- The Commuting Book
- Catapult Your Business
- Mud Mates
- Mayhem Creations
- Houdini Solutions
And the Network NZ Business of the Year is NIESH!!
James and the team have won an amazing prize package valued at $8350 which includes a PR package from NZ Entrepreneur Magazine valued at $1850, a ticket to next years NZ Social Media Conference and an awesome services based package kindly donated by our Network NZ Experts.
Thank you so much to:
- Our Network NZ Experts (Judges and Sponsors)
- Our main sponsors NZ Entrepreneur Magazine and Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park
- Pete Fullerton (Production Manager)
- Melissa Taylor (Network NZ 2IC)
- Colart Miles (Awards Presentation MC)
- Everyone who entered
- Everyone who voted in the People's Choice.
And that’s it for 2017, see you next year!
If you are a small business owner, be sure to join our FREE Business Support and Networking Group.
