Winning an award often culminates in a presentation ceremony after which the certificate or statuette is placed inside a cabinet to collect dust. Dave McGregor and Katy Bailey, owners of Northern Disposal & Sanitation, have discovered that winning an award and making that award work for them are two different matters entirely.

Established in 2007, the family-run business is located in Katrine, Ontario, Canada, in the heart of the Muskoka tourist region, about 150 miles north of Toronto. The business offers septic pumping, septic system repair and maintenance, portable restroom rentals and refuse containers.

Northern was recently named 2011 Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Northern Ontario Business Awards. The award recognizes businesses that contribute to economic growth and development, while serving as positive role models for future entrepreneurs. Earlier, the company also took home the 2008 New Business of the Year Award from the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce.

Pumper: What was involved in the award application process?
Bailey: Part of it was simply telling our story. We explained how starting this business as a family put all of our resources on the line, and how we felt that entrepreneurship could give us a feeling of accomplishment and contribution to the community. We explained that, no matter how tough entrepreneurship can be, being young makes it all that much tougher.
McGregor: We also had to provide financial information on our business, and had to share our business plan with them, including a list of everything we believed we’d accomplished. Applying for the award required a significant investment of time.

Pumper: What sort of media attention did you receive from the award event?
Bailey: Northern Ontario covers a huge expanse of territory. The award event was held in Sudbury, which is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from home. In Sudbury, the awards were broadcast on local television. It was big news and received a lot of additional exposure on television and radio news and through newspaper coverage.

Pumper: What was the reaction of the media closer to home?
Bailey: That was the tough part. Muskoka sees itself more as part of Central Ontario and that determines a lot of the news the media covers. We realized that there wasn’t any local media present at the awards and that the only way we could get that local media coverage was to arrange it ourselves.

Pumper: What was your media strategy?
Bailey: We were very proud and wanted the whole world to know. To be honest, we were driving home and I used my smartphone to start Googling the media contacts in our area and I began to phone them to tell them what we had achieved with the award that was just presented.

Pumper: What sort of media coverage did you generate locally?
Bailey: We were featured in The Almaguin News, a nearby paper, who came out to the business and photographed us. We were also featured in the local paper, The Huntsville Forester.

Pumper: How did the business capitalize on the award?
McGregor: We placed the award at the office reception desk, front and center. We have it mentioned on the website with a full page devoted to the award. It’s mentioned in the signatures of our emails and it appears on our Facebook page and on any promotional or advertising material we send out. It’s everywhere we are. As part of the awards show, they sent a media crew to film us and got testimonials from people we had worked with. Those videos are also featured on the website.

Pumper: Has the award made any measurable difference to your business?
McGregor: The articles appeared in the local paper, and immediately after we were receiving calls from people who had never been customers who wanted to try us out. When I’m out working in the field, people have walked up to me and mentioned the award. Whenever you receive a testimonial from a third party, it makes people believe in what you believe. An award is a high-level testimonial that makes you instantly reputable to customers.
Bailey: Receiving an award also makes you want to live up to that award. It drives us every day and makes us want to achieve more.

Pumper: Can you share any examples of how you’ve been inspired to improve your business as a result of winning the award?
Bailey: It’s taken us almost five years to understand the full value of advertising, but the award inspired us to begin a new branding exercise. I didn’t go to school for marketing, but when you start up, you tend to do a lot of things on your own. Hiring someone with marketing expertise makes a huge difference. We combine septic pumping, portable restrooms and waste disposal under one banner, so we wanted a clean look that we could use for all the aspects of the business.
McGregor: We’re a family owned and operated business, but prior to the rebranding, we were conveying more of an image of a mom-and-pop shop. The new image has a professional edge that still says family and it’s being incorporated into our new print materials, business cards, rack cards, presentation folders and a new website. We’re even working on creating our first highway billboard, because a lot of our potential customers on the septic side are cottagers who may not yet be aware that we service their area.

Pumper: Have the awards opened any other doors?
Bailey: As award winners we perform public outreach by speaking regularly to other young entrepreneurs about starting a business, growing a business and preparing themselves for the way their lives will change when they take on the challenge. We encourage them to put a good business plan together and get all their ducks in a row before starting out.