The News Business Excellence Awards 2020: Time to vote for your favourite business or individual

The Readers Choice award is completely separate to the other 14 categories – whose winners are picked by the main panel of judges – and the winner is picked by the readers via a text vote.

The winner of the award will be announced at the awards ceremony, which is taking place at the Guildhall, Portsmouth on Friday, February 21.

Tickets for the ceremony can be bought at portsmouthbusinessexcellence.co.uk.

How to vote by text

Simply text PEN, followed by a space and the word BA along with the three digit voting code of the name/business you are voting for to 85100 (eg PEN BA 001).

Voting by text costs £1.50 per vote plus one standard network rate message.

You can vote as often as you like before the text line closes at 11.59pm on February 14.

Here are the shortlists this year and the voting codes:

Start up Business of the Year: Trading no longer than two years

Portsmouth Outdoor Fitness, Portsmouth 001

Salon One, Waterlooville 002

Semande, Portsmouth 003

Synergy Success Network, Portsmouth 004

The Instant Kitchen Company, Portsmouth 005

The Portsmouth Distillery Company, Portsmouth 006

UKG Lifeskills, Havant 007

Small Business: 0 - 9 Employees

Parity Trust, Portsmouth 008

Pauper to King Barbers, Gosport 009

runr, Portsmouth 010

Southern Arts Academy, Denmead, Clanfield and Waterlooville 011

Space Renewable Energy, Portsmouth 012

UK Hypopressives, Fareham 013

Medium Business of the Year: 10-24 Employees

3R, Swanwick 014

AMT Evolve, Port Solent 015

Digi Toolbox, Fareham 016

easyNetworks, Portsmouth 017

My Learning Cloud, Portsmouth 018

RVG Distribution, Portsmouth 019

Large Business of the Year: 25+ Employees

Aerial Direct, Fareham 020

Biscoes, Portsmouth 021

Portsmouth International Port 022

Employer of the Year

Amber Mitchell - Abstract Dance & Performing Arts 023

Colin Thorpe - AMT Evolve 024

Debbie Brown - Biscoes, Portsmouth 025

Douglas Rotberg – BookMyGarage 026

Leisure, Retail & Tourism Business of the Year

Atlas Gym, Park Gate 027

Dolphin Boat Charter, Gosport, Fareham, Portsmouth 028

DTW Ceramics UK, Portsmouth 029

New Place Hotel, Shirrell Heath 030

runr, Portsmouth 010

Vinyl Records, Portsmouth 031

Sustainable Business Award

easyNetworks, Portsmouth 017

Portsmouth International Port 022

Solved FM Ltd 032

Southern Co-op 033

Apprentice / Trainee of the Year

Ami Hewlett - Digi Toolbox, Fareham 034

Christopher Brereton - Pauper to King, Gosport 035

Emma Dunford - BAE Systems, Portsmouth 036

Guy Bonnett - BAE Systems, Portsmouth 037

Hannah Clark - Salon One, Waterlooville 038

Harry Love - BAE Systems, Portsmouth 039

Heather Bisby - BAE Systems, Portsmouth 040

Jack Day - DigitalDinos, Portsmouth 041

Lewis Ford - Syn-Star I.T. Solutions, Petersfield 042

Megan Gamblin - BAE Systems, Portsmouth 043

Paris Williams - BookmyGarage.com, Portsmouth 044

Entrepreneur of the Year

Annelies James - Annelies James Consultancy, Gosport 045

Blake Powell - Accent IT Services, Wickham 046

Kim McGinley - VIBE Finance, Lee-on-the-Solent 047

Matthew Harper - The Instant Kitchen Company, Portsmouth 048

Nick Courtney - Vinyl Records, Portsmouth 049

Rebecca Huitson - Salon One, Waterlooville 050

International Business of the Year

Cybrid Solutions, Havant 051

Portsmouth International Port 022

RVG Distribution, Portsmouth 019

Company CSR Initiative of the Year

Charter Cutting Company, Emsworth 052

easyNetworks, Portsmouth 017

Hovertravel, Portsmouth 053

New Place Hotel, Shirrell Heath 030

Training Programme of the Year

Charter Cutting Company, Emsworth 052

M12 Solutions, Whiteley 054

New Place Hotel, Shirrell Heath 031

Syn-Star I.T. Solutions, Petersfield 055

UKG Lifeskills 007

Terms and conditions:

Voting by text costs £1.50 per vote plus one standard network rate message.

You can vote as often as you like before the text line closes at 11.59pm on February 14.

SP BBA Digital Ltd KT18 5AD, Helpline 0333 3353351. Entries made after the closing date stated will not count but may still be charged.

Open only to UK residents over the age of 18.

Bill payer’s permission must be obtained before entering.

This is a JPI Media PLC competition.

By entering, you are indicating that you are happy to receive offers and promotions from JPI Media PLC by SMS.

Please add [ NOINFO ] if you do not wish to receive these.

For full terms and conditions visit jpimedia.co.uk/competition.