The Sharjah Entrepreneurs Award targets the most successful and leading Entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates whom had put a footprint in the business world which has a significant impact on their personal and professional life. The Sharjah Entrepreneurs Award is only open to private sector Entrepreneurs in the UAE.
A set of characteristics or traits that distinguish entrepreneurs from others and determine the method of their interaction with the business environment surrounding them and their businesses and affecting their behavior during the development and business management process such as: passion, vision, risk assessment, personal development, self-confidence, hard work, and communication skills.
Passion: Drives entrepreneurs to achieve their goals, overcome challenges, and work hard to succeed. In the absence ofpassion, it may become difficult to stay motivated and survive difficult times. It is evident in traits such as dedication and commitment, bearing hardships, continuous improvement, innovation, and renewal at work, positively influencing others, and having a vision and long-term planning.
Vision: Vision relates to the future directions that entrepreneurs see for their businesses and guides their actions and decisions. It represents the goal they aspire to and the values they espouse as a criterion for measuring performance and achieving long-term success. The vision can provide some benefits to the business such as guidance and motivation, identifying goals and strategies, consistency, cohesion, and uniting efforts and activities towards a common goal, providing a basis for measuring progress and comparing the status of the business with the future vision and attractiveness to employees and investors to join the business.
Personal Development: Entrepreneurs’ ability for personal growth and self-development plays a crucial role in their business growth and success, and the ability to adapt to changes and make informed decisions. Self-development entails continuous learningand seeking opportunities to learn new skills and expand, keep pace with the latest industry trends and best practices. Moreover, setting clear goals and a vision and creating practical plans to achieve these goals; having self-awarenessfor personal and professional development, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and professional values, identify areas that can be improved and utilize one’s strengths and taking better decisions, time managementas an effective and crucial resource to increase productivity and success, prioritize tasks, delegate responsibilities and avoid time-consuming activities and focusing on high-impact activities that contribute to personal development and business growth. Flexibility and adaptation, including the ability to face the challenges and difficulties, how to deal with these challenges and difficulties successfully, learning from failure, speed of recovery from pitfalls and acceptance of change, networkingand finding mentors and advisors and like-minded people who can provide guidance, support, and new perspectives; emotional intelligenceand personal growth through interactions with others, seeking to develop self-awareness, empathy, and strong communication skills to build and maintain relationships, inspire their teams, deal effectively with difficult situations, leverage resources and identifying and using available ones.
Self-Confidence: Plays an important role in entrepreneurs’ success, through their faith in personal values, skills, and confidence in their abilities to make decisions, manage risks, lead effectively, attract opportunities, influence and inspire others, and take responsibility for results.
Diligence at Work: Entrepreneurs pay great attention, dedication, and continuous effort in performing tasks to achieve success and their goals and develop their projects. It is manifested in dedication, putting in extra effort, and devoting time and energy to achieve the desired results. Entrepreneurs also have the determination and persistenceto achieve their goals, not to back down, and to continue working to overcome challenges and difficulties; taking responsibility, striving for continuous improvement, excellence, creativity and innovationby looking for new and innovative ways to solve problems and achieve progress; applying new ideas and using innovative technology to improve their operations and distinguish them from competitors. With commitment, disciplineand self-control; they are able to maintain focus on what has been planned and agreed upon in a systematic manner.
Communication Skills enable entrepreneurs to express ideas about their projects clearly and to listen effectively and understand others. There are some main elements of communication skills used by entrepreneurs such as verbal and written communication, listening, non-verbal communication, visual communication, social skills, and the extent to which they use these skills efficiently and effectively, they can establish effective networks of relationships, team cooperation, attracting customers, negotiation, influence and persuasion, brand building, and problem solving.
The strategic view or a set of visions, ideas and plans that entrepreneurs believe in and apply in their businesses to achieve their long-term goals, and the ability to adapt to continuous changes in the market and to achieve growth and profitability, by raising the ability to provide information about current and future needs of customers, and dealing with them in the most appropriate way, or by heading to high-risk projects and achieving a competitive advantage and focusing on providing and developing innovative products, or by adopting sustainable technological knowledge and finding solutions that meet the needs of customers.
This includes creating visions and turning them into reality, setting goals and adhering to them, building strategic alliances or partnerships, involving talented people, risk management and the necessary careful analysis of the competitive environment, understanding customers and their expectations, identifying market opportunities, developing plans to make the most of those opportunities, clearly defining goals, and setting and implementing plans to achieve these goals.
Creating Business Visions and turning them into Reality: Creating business visions and turning them into reality: Entrepreneurs are able to transform their vision, ideasand concepts into tangible and successful businesses. This includes turning a vision into a practical and implementable plan of action, and using this ability with the skills, knowledge and determination necessary to reduce the gap between the vision and the actual implementation of commercial projects, identifying the strategic constraints or what must be done for a business to grow and prosper, and the ability to utilize the driving force’s key aspects such as strategic planning, distribution of resources, effective implementation of plans, adaptation, leadership, management of work teams and their involvement in leadership and planning, problem solving, continuous learning and improvement.
Setting Goals with Commitment to Achieve: Entrepreneurs set specific, measurable, realistic, relevant and time-bound goals for their businesses and follow them up. This includes the process of setting goals, defining and directing resources, efforts and actions towards achieving them, using mental skills and discipline, in addition to appropriate tools and methodologies to set and achieve goals, plan work, monitor progress, evaluate and adapt when needed.
Building Strategic Alliances or Partnerships: One of the powerful tools which entrepreneurs can use to succeed in their business and access resources and expertise by forming relationships with individuals or companies to achieve common goals, including firms in other industries, partnerships with competitors, or with research and development agencies, government agencies, and taking the right steps to build, maintain and develop companies and alliances such as defining partnership objectives, searching for potential partners, negotiating and agreeing, and reviewing and updating the partnership.
Hiring Talented Individuals: Talent plays a decisive role in commercial, professional, and industrial work, and therefore entrepreneurs enlist talented individuals or keep them close to their project as part of the system of success in their companies and projects; enhance competitiveness, innovation and superior performance, as well as achieving growth and expansion. Talent is one of the valuable resources that must be present at the work environment and made use of to achieve sustainable success.
Risk Management: Managing potential risks is vital for entrepreneurs to help achieve set goals and enhance the resilience of businesses in the changing market, by identifying, analyzing, evaluating and managing risks, taking preventive measures, proactively planning, and implementing strategies to mitigate their impact, which leads to enhancing business sustainability and increasing the chances for success This can be done by identifying potential risks including financial, operational, legal, or technological; assessing risks, determining probability of occurrence and their impact. Then, risk analysis through careful examination of each risk to understand its causes and effects using tools such as SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) or PESTEL analysis (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal). This is followed by planning for risk management and developing strategies to manage these risks, including mitigating, transferring, accepting or avoiding them, and implementing planned risk management strategies and monitoring their effectiveness. Then, continuous review and tracking constantly changing conditions and updating risk assessments and analysis regularly, followed by good risk management that helps companies avoid potential crises and maintain business stability in order to be able to face challenges and changes in the business environment.
A comprehensive set of skills, attributes, and attitudes necessary for success, to develop and manage businesses in their entrepreneurial journey and the necessary time management, financial management, effective management, public relations and communications.
Time Management: A vital skill for entrepreneurs to achieve high productivity, organize their work effectively and achieve their goals, commitment and discipline, prioritizing tasks, setting appropriate deadlines for completion and managing time effectively, using techniques and habits that enhance time management through such as scheduling and planning, creating a task list, allocating time for going through the daily mail and e-mail, using time management applications, delegating unnecessary or repetitive tasks, avoiding distraction and frequent transition between various tasks.
Financial Management: It is one of the necessary capabilities for entrepreneurs, and the development of these capabilities in financial management helps making informed financial decisions, improve the allocation of resources, and improve the financial performance and general sustainability of their business. Financial management entails knowledge of financial planning, cash flow management, keenness to analyze and interpret financial statements, manage costs and determine their structure for their business, including identifying and controlling fixed and variable costs, improving resource allocation, knowledge of financing strategies and selecting appropriate options, and making financial decisions.
Effective Management: Effective management is necessary to run businesses successfully and achieve set goals. Developing and strengthening these capabilities facilitates managing one’s own business effectively, making informed decisions overcoming challenges, and achieving sustainable growth and success, which involves strong leadership skills, strategic planning, organization, recruitment, managing employees and giving them directions, providing them with development and training, evaluating their performance and motivating them, establishing effective communication mechanisms within the organization between managers and employees and between the various branches, if any, allowing open and clear exchange of information and promoting a culture of communication and effective teamwork, striving to develop one’s business, evaluation and control, problem solving, innovation and change, and continuous learning.
Public Relations and Communication: In order to build and maintain a positive reputation, establish strong relationships and convey their messages effectively to the various stakeholders, entrepreneurs develop and manage public relations and personal communications to manage the brand and image of their business, the relationship with the media, stakeholder participation, personal communication, crisis management, and establishing their own personal brand as reliable and influential figures in their industry and others.
Introducing new ideas and using new approaches and technologies, processes, products or services that bring positive change and create value, which distinguishes entrepreneurs in the market, achieves growth, and creates a sustainable competitive advantage.
New Approaches and Technologies used: Identifying and using new approaches and technologies to enhance efficiency and flexibility to reach customers including e-commerce to sell products and services, cloud storage media, digital marketing, artificial intelligence and others.
Innovation in Operational Processes: It includes the application of flexible methods and practices to increase and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business operations, in addition to using new technologies in managing operations including automation, electronic and cloud management software, and electronic data analysis to support decisions and others.
Innovation in Services and Products: Developing new solutions that meet the needs of customers in unique and innovative ways. This includes improving existing products or services by improving theirquality, adding new features, design and packaging, providing support and customer service, pricing, listening and responding to customer feedback in addition to introducing new products and employing technology to improve services provided, with the aim of creating an added value for the customer and achieving competitive excellence.
The Added Value of Innovation: The ability to create an added value through a product, service, or commercial process exceeding customers’ or shareholders’ expectations, which distinguishes entrepreneurs from their competitors, by improving quality, customization, efficiency, or customer experience and others.
Revenue Growth: Increase in revenues achieved by the entrepreneur's businesses overtime, preferably monthly (over 3 years, each establishment can be mentioned separately).
Net Profit: Net profit achieved by the entrepreneur’s business after subtracting all costs and expenses, including the cost of goods sold, operating expenses, depreciation, interest, and taxes, from total revenues, (over 3 years, 3 businesses at least, each establishment can be mentioned separately).
The Ability to Obtain Financing: The ability to obtain financing helps entrepreneurs launch, grow, expand and achieve their goals, whether from common sources of private, personal financing, bank loans, grants, government programs and others.
Growth in the number of Employees, Customers, Capital and Technology: Coinciding with the expansion of business or increased productivity, improving product quality or services, replacing workers or the need for new skills, technological improvements, increasing demand, providing competitive prices, promotion and marketing, developing communication and service tools, growth or change in the use of workers, or an increase in the number of customers, as well as resorting to increasing capital. It is preferable to mention at least 3 years, each facility can be mentioned separately.
Visit ourwebsite www.shjseen.ae
Fill the Registration Form
Complete and Submit the Registration on the link specified in our website
Exercise its economic activity in the United Arab Emirates.
Must have a valid license, a membership with any Chamber of Commerce in UAE and/or a valid license from any of Free Zone Authorities.
Commitment of its main person of interest who must be the owner, founder or controlling shareholder of the organization and principally responsible for its operation.
A minimum of two years of operation.
Sound and clear financial and legal standing.
Abide by the award deadlines.
Re-participation in the award is allowed after 2 cycles from date of ceremony.
Registration Form.
Valid copy of its Economic Activity License.
Valid copy of Membership (from any Chamber of Commerce in UAE and its Free Zones)
Submission Form.
Organizational structure.
Owner Cv.
Summary of achievements, activities and accomplishments. (Copies of relevant documents can be attached).
Summary of future plans and improvements. (Copies of relevant documents can be attached).
Professional career history illustrating obtained certifications, recognitions and career path (Copies of relevant documents to be attached).
Follow Format/ Margin sent.
No. of Pages in Submission Document: 35 Pgs. max.
Follow Heading and Sub-heading numeration.
Language: Arabic / English.
Font Size: 12
Font Type: Arial/ Times New Roman.
Dividers: Dividers do not count towards number of pages.
Front Cover
Standards for Charts and for Diagrams.
Numbered Attachments.
Copyrights © All Rights Reserved by Sharjah Excellence Award 
Terms & Conditions
Innovated by Innovation Box
