INSPIRE Business Awards 2017. Connective Chiropractic Are Finalists!

I was initially a little skeptical about applying for the INSPIRE New Business of the Year award.

I spend so much time ensuring people empower wellbeing, get out of their aches and pains and perform better for longer in my business that I wasn’t sure the business side of my business was anything near as glitzy or glamorous enough to even be considered for an award. Yes, I knew that Connective Chiropractic has grown substantially this year, but I can’t deny that I suffered with a huge degree of imposter syndrome before applying for the awards.

Running through my head were questions like, “Am I able to make a Dragons’ Den style pitch about my business without seeming cheesy or unauthentic?”, “How will Connective Chiropractic compete with so many other categories of business in our region” and “How will I stand a chance if I reveal the truth that my business isn’t profitable enough so I can afford a luxury island somewhere in my spare time”.

INSPIRE Business Awards | Health and Wellbeing Blog

Connective Chiropractic owner and principal Chiropractor, James Harrison.

For me, my business has always been about being authentic, helpful and realistic. And I felt that applying for a business award perhaps didn’t sit congruently with what I thought was necessary. I’m not a person that views themselves as a businessman or entrepreneur (I just do what I love, because it is worth doing). But I did know, that we had completely exceeded our growth predictions for the year and that from the number of wonderful testimonials and stories from patients that we were doing well and were becoming fast respected within our community. So, after a number of weeks of putting it off, I decided to apply. You never know if you don’t try, I reasoned.

Looking back, however, I can definitely say it was worth applying, no matter what the outcome will be next month.

Connective Chiropractic:
Empowering Wellbeing in Basingstoke

As a completely fresh business, the application form was a little daunting to fill out. Distilling a year and a half of late nights, early mornings, business paper work, triumph stories and patient testimonials into 250 or so words per category was certainly a challenge, especially whilst most of it was written in between patients (or on the sofa at home in pyjamas!). In the end, brief was an understatement: My dad dying (A huge challenge to my business shortly after its opening) was dealt with in 7 words and one of the key documents that underpin our clinic objectives was raised in 13 words. It was certainly jam-packed with brief soundbites of information. I was completely shocked to discover that Connective Chiropractic had been shortlisted.

Becoming Finalists for
2017 INSPIRE Business Awards

It became apparent very fast that this was not a competition but a celebration of our region’s business talent and an opportunity to promote both ourselves and each other.

Being announced as a finalist for the Inspire Business Awards 2017, and knowing that there had been many worthy opponents to get even that far, was hugely humbling. To know that all the event and award sponsors had read my application and voted on it was in itself rewarding: To know that some key business people in our community had taken the time to read and find out more about my business was huge. Little businesses like mine don’t usually get an audience with representatives from a council or large firms until years of business acumen and social/business credibility are proven, so to know that key influencers know more about my business and what makes it tick was already worth the investment on time.

Members of the Connective Chiropractic Empowering Wellbeing Community in Basingstoke

The positivity in the room was palpable when we were invited to meet the sponsors, organisers and fellow finalists at an event at Hampshire Court Hotel in Basingstoke. Whilst, yes, there was a few nerves whilst having cheery photos taken with award competitors (All the entrants I spoke to seemed really deserving of recognition!) it became apparent very fast that this was not a competition but a celebration of our region’s business talent and an opportunity to promote both ourselves and each other. Even chatting to some of the judges and sponsors felt more like a business networking event as opposed to something to worry about or fear. It was an opportunity to explain about our Chiropractic clinic, our Empowering Wellbeing Community success stories and about our Employee Wellbeing, Biomechanics and health and wellbeing workshops. We’ve kept nattering to many of the businesses and business people we met at this event on social media and we can’t wait to catch up with everyone again at awards night.

Meeting the INSPIRE Business Awards Judges

Being able to audit, critically analyse, evaluate and strengthen my own knowledge of my business and business goals to prepare for the judges meetings really have helped me to refocus and refresh on my businesses wider goals. Since then, it’s been amazing how many new exciting ideas and opportunities have presented.

Our judges meeting was the following Monday. We were given just 30 minutes to present about our business performance against its objectives, our business and finance planning, our successes in overcoming business challenges to drive forward our business plan, staff involvement and our motivation to meet business objectives. I also had to set out our clear plans for growth of the organisation.

Boney, the Connective Chiropractic mascot and ‘self-proclaimed teacher of anatomy’, is based at the Arena Chiropractic Clinic, Basingstoke.

I decided on doing a presentation at our Arena Chiropractic Clinic in Basing View, Basingstoke. It was tight on time- but was, again such an opportunity. Being able to prepare and present something was not just part of the process for us, but an opportunity to plan and improve. The few days before we were judged we conducted another audit of our practice, had reviewed all our financial positions and firmed up all of our business basics so that they were both presentable and reusable (I was honestly expecting a grilling but thankfully wasn’t in the slightest).

In this time, though I had a pretty good idea already, I was able to firm up and edit our mission, vision and values statements and view our business from a different angle so to gain greater confidence in our USP and our future goals. I was able to also take a refreshing moment to step back and take stock in what I had already achieved since setting up the clinic. Being able to audit, critically analyse, evaluate and strengthen my own knowledge of my business and business goals to prepare for the judges meetings really have helped me to refocus and refresh on my businesses wider goals. Since then, it’s been amazing how many new exciting ideas and opportunities have presented. The growth towards achieving our next business steps has been significantly faster since applying for the business awards and for being able to think about our brand, care packages and patients from a refreshed perspective.

Promoting health and wellbeing with our Empowering Wellbeing Community.

No matter the result, we have gained significant benefit from and are so grateful to be part of this years INSPIRE Business Awards.

Connective Chiropractic has ambitious goals for growth and is already paving its way to make both its and its patient’s dreams a reality. We will know whether we are successful at the INSPIRE BUSINESS AWARDS in November. We have already achieved so much more benefit than we anticipated through applying for the awards that winning the award would just be the cherry on the cake. But let’s see what happens. No matter the result, we have gained significant benefit from and are so grateful to be part of this years INSPIRE Business Awards.

For more information about Connective Chiropractic or for updates, visit our website or join with our Empowering Wellbeing Community on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (@connectivechiro) or Google Plus.

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