Companies who are serious about progressing their business, recognising the efforts of their staff and celebrating their achievements to date should consider entering these awards. Taking part will focus your organisation to think strategically about the future.

This category aims to award outstanding achievement and to recognise one or more individuals within a company who has demonstrated excellence and creativity in the design, development, and introduction into the marketplace of one or more technologically significant products over the past five years. To be successful in this category, you must have created one or more unique and innovative product(s), process(es), or software (hereafter referred to as "products") that have been introduced into the marketplace and achieved notable commercial success within the past five (5) years. The products developed by the individual must have demonstrated technological significance and solved an outstanding need or problem that other products up to that point in time were not able to effectively solve. The product(s) should be unique, energy-efficient, non-polluting, non-hazardous, and cost-effective to the target audience. The selection of the Innovator of the Year will be based on relative technological merits of each product, the relative value to society and the marketplace of each product(s), and the success of the product in achieving targeted business objectives within the organisation.

Award entrants must comply with the following entry criteria:

• All small businesses may enter up to a maximum of 50 employees. (This includes staff employed in the company on a fixed-term contract basis in excess of 12 months, and part-time staff who work in excess of 20 hours per week but excluding temporary agency workers).
• Be in operation at least 2 years in the Republic of Ireland.
• Not be a branch of another business.
• Franchises can enter.
• Businesses can enter more than one category.
• Businesses/individuals can nominate themselves or be nominated by other associated professionals (e.g. professional advisers, training providers, accountants etc.).

Entries to the awards will be accepted from Wednesday 10th of September to Friday 31st October 2008. Six finalists in each category will be announced in January 2009 with the award winners being announced at the Gala Awards Event which will take place in March 2009.

Previous winners have told us that opportunites to meet other finalists and learn from their experiences in business featured as a significant benefit to them during the awards programme. Therefore, this year we have introduced a comprehensive management training prize for all finalists comprising firstly of a Strategic Management Masterclass. This will be a residential weekend where finalists will be immersed in an entrepreneurial environment which is sure to stimulate new ideas for growth. Secondly, a full day Interactive Media Skills training programme will be available to all finalists, which will take place in a purpose built state of the art media training studio environment. This will ensure that companies will be prepared for and achieve maximum benefit from the SFA's extensive media and PR programme both nationally and regionally for all participants.
All finalists will have a full-page profile in a specially commissioned "Irish Independent" supplement and will also feature on Newstalk's popular 'Down to Business' Saturday show.

Finally, the culmination of prizes will be the presentation of awards to each category winner and the announcement of the overall SFA National Small Business winner 2009 at the Gala Awards Ceremony in March next year.

› Register your interest for the 2010 awards