One way to gain recognition for your community and build visibility for your business is by earning business awards. Many are self-nominated and fairly easy to apply for. Here’s a quick guide to a few of the best business awards for 2009:

Businesses that have helped jump start our economy by maintaining growth over the past three years are eligible for the Inc. Magazine 500/5000 award. Winners are invited to attend the nationally recognized Inc. 500/5000 conference, and are featured in future magazine and online stories. This award is a great chance to gain visibility for your company and to represent your community- past winners have included social mission companies, tech startups, and beauty product lines- companies in all industries with over $2m in sales for 2008 are encouraged to apply.

For those still working on breaking the $1m mark, the Make Mine a Million $ Business contest, sponsored by Count Me In, is a great way to gain the support you need to meet this benchmark. The contest operates as a “race” to the $1m sales mark, and most participants see sales increase at least 40% over the duration of the competition. The M3 race is open to women owned businesses in one of 15 categories.

Businesses already on the fast track to earn $1m- those with $500,000 or more in sales for 2008, are eligible to enter the Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Contest. Similar to the 500/5000 conferenceInc. contest, businesses are featured in a future magazine issue or online story. Entrants are also featured on the contest website- a great way to increase visibility for your business even if you aren’t chosen as a winner.

The Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award is given annually by international accounting and consulting firm Ernst and Young. Award recipients may attend special conferences and are invited into a network of past winners and prestigious entrepreneurs. The award is internationally recognized as a great achievement- check out the website and contest rules for more details.

If you don’t have the time for a lengthy application, or don’t have the sales revenue to qualify for one of the larger contests, consider Business.com’s “What Works for Business” contest. Applicants write a quick essay about a challenge they’ve overcome. Any small business owner that has overhauled their website design implemented a new online marketing strategy knows that the small things can sometimes be the toughest to take on- here’s your chance to let other entrepreneurs learn from your success. Prizes for the top essay are awarded monthly.

Finally, Ideablob.com allows you to test out business ideas for the chance to win a $10,000 award. Award money goes toward the costs of implementing the idea- if you need to purchase inventory, equipment (such as a credit card terminal) or business software to get your business off the ground, here’s a great place to get started. Awards are given monthly, and are determined by votes from members of the site’s online community.

Whether you’re a brand-new business or a seasoned business owner, there’s a contest out there for you. Most of the above have spring deadlines, so get going- apply for the award you deserve. Good luck!

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