Entry Preparation Tips

1. Write Your Entries Offline
Write your entries offline, so that you have a permanent record of them.  It will then take just a few minutes to submit them through our easy-to-use online submission system.  Don't write your entries on the fly online - if something goes wrong with your computer or there's a momentary glitch in our online system, your work may be lost.

2. Include Supporting Materials and Links
For most categories, attaching supporting files or web URLs to your entries is optional.  But we strongly recommend that if you have no other materials to append to your entry, you at least provide the URL to your organization's website, so that the judges have access to some additional, basic information about your organization.  Judges tend to give lower scores to nominations that have no supporting materials or links.

3. Focus on Achievements During the Eligibility Period
The eligibility period for The 2025 American Business Awards® extends from January 1, 2023 through March 5, 2025.  While your entries may make reference to achievements from before this period, they should focus extensively on achievements during the eligibility period.  The judges will not give high scores to your entries if they don't.

4. How to Submit Entries for Multiple Clients
If you're a PR or marketing agency and you want to submit entries on behalf of multiple clients, you don't have to create separate entry-submission accounts in our online system for each client.  Instead, create one account in your agency's name, with your agency's contact information and description in the account.  Then begin each entry's title with the name of the client; for example, "ABC Company: Jane Smith, CEO" or "XYZ Company: The XYZ Company Website."  That will be our cue that you intended to submit the entries in your clients' names, and we'll know that if they're recognized as Stevie winners the awards should be presented to your clients, not your agency.

5. Test Your Links
If you include links to online videos, images, or other supporting materials with your entries, test your links before you submit your entries.  Preview an entry before your submit it, and click your links in it to ensure that they are valid and will present to the judges the content you would like them to see.

6. Video Entries and Other Media Materials
When you attach materials to your entries for judges' review, consider that judges have only a few minutes to review and rate each entry.  They do not have time to wait many minutes to download materials from Hightail, Dropbox, Box.com, or similar services. Your attachments should be directly downloadable and immediately accessible to judges.
   If you want the judges to review a video, we prefer that you provide a link to a hosted version on YouTube, Vimeo, or a similar service that will begin to play instantaneously when a judge wants to access it. If you absolutely cannot do that, we encourage you to upload your video file to our server.

7.  Giving Titles to Your Entries
When titling your entries it is not necessary to include the category name in the title -  the category will be very apparent to judges when they review your entries.
   When titling the nomination of an individual person, the ideal title is just the person's name and job title, such as "Jane Doe, President."  Unless you have other text that qualifies the nomination in a meaningful way, keep it simple.