B2SMB Institute Names Shopify, Verizon Business, & Kabbage as 2020 Best2SMB Award Winners, Inducts Constant Contact, GoDaddy & Zoho to Hall of Fame
Nominating panel of 35 Business-to-Small-Business Leaders nominates and 9 Small Business Influencers judge finalists and winners in 2nd annual Best2SMB Awards during B2SMB Institute’s Best2SMB Conference, now available on-demand.
CHICAGO, August 22, 2020 – The B2SMB Institute, the first professional organization focused on advancing excellence in the business-to-small-business ecosystem, today announced during the Best2SMB Conference its 2020 winners for the Best2SMB Awards, as well as 3 Inductees to the Best2SMB Hall of Fame.
A nominating panel of 35 Business-to-Small-Business brand leaders considered “Best2SMB” brands in four categories: Product of the Year, Brand of the Year, Hall of Fame and a new category befitting a year of pandemic lockdowns, social unrest and economic collapse, Best2SMB Crisis Response/Small Business Assistance.
Judges selecting finalists, winners and Inductees included 9 widely regarded Small Business Influencers: Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends; Melinda Emerson, the SmallBizLady; Steve Strauss of USA Today; best-selling author Barry Moltz; and Ramon Ray of SmartHustle.com; Ivana Taylor of DIY Marketers; Pam Slim of Mainstreet Learning Labs; Rieva Lesonsky of GrowBiz Media; and Brian Moran of Small Business Edge.
Cited for their rapid response, volume delivery and assistance offered to Small Businesses either adding or upgrading their e-commerce capabilities, the judges selected Shopify as 2020 Best2SMB Product of the Year.
Cited for their early and expansive response to Small Businesses confronting the many challenges faced throughout 2020, the judges selected Verizon Business as 2020 Best2SMB Brand of the Year.
In a category where all nominees were praised by Judges for their campaigns to help Small Business get relief, sell more, cut costs and adapt to new ways of doing business, Kabbage was ultimately selected as 2020 Best2SMB Crisis Response/Small Business Assistance winner, noting the company’s HelpSmallBusiness.com site (launched in early March) and its assistance to thousands of SMBs navigating and securing PPP loans.
Finally, the Judges considered a “Who’s Who” of Business-to-Small-Business brands who’ve delivered game-changing products and services backed by outstanding levels of support to aid Small Business growth, the Judges inducted GoDaddy, Zoho and Constant Contact to the 2020 Best2SMB Hall of Fame.
“The 2020 Best2SMB Awards capped a terrific week that saw hundreds of B2SMB professionals gather virtually to hear from Best2SMB Leaders,” said Dave Walker, CEO of the B2SMB Institute. “We were thrilled to host speakers like Ginger Siegel, North American Small Business Lead at MasterCard; Jason Dies, EVP & President of Pitney-Bowes Sending Technology Solutions; CRM Pioneer, Jon Ferrara, Founder of Goldmine and Nimble; Celebrity Entrepreneur Wendy Diamond, founder of the global (144 countries) Women’s Entrepreneurship Day; Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist of Zoho; and Todd Wilkens, Chief Product Officer at ShipStation”
Walker added, “We also focused our B2SMB Leadership’s attention on critical issues facing millions of Small Businesses in 2021, with panels on Public Policy, advocacy, local media, and digital transformation. We were especially pleased to host a terrific working group on building a diverse Small Business recovery.”
The Best2SMB Conference is offered free to anyone who cares about Small Business, with 50+ hours of on-demand content available thru the end of the year. Access to the virtual event platform, powered by Whova, can be found here. https://b2smbi.com/best2smb-awards-2020/.
“Our transition to virtual events has been highly successful,” offered Walker, “allowing us to broaden our reach, and deliver our value of peer-to-peer networking, resource sharing, insights and perspective to professionals charges with winning, keeping and growing Small Business customers at scale.”
2021 virtual events currently being planned include a Small Business Trends Forum in January to present and discuss the latest in SMB research and insights from Accenture, Womply, Alignable and more. February will see a reprise of B2SMBI’s highly successful Playbooks event, with workshops from B2SMB Leaders on reaching, engaging, selling and serving Small Businesses. Late Spring will introduce the Institute’s first-ever Small-Business-facing event, SmallBizAid – an extension of it’s SmallBizAid event this past September that showcased the best SMB assistance programs and campaigns of 2020.
“The B2SMB Institute is a passionate advocate for a healthy B2SMB ecosystem,” concluded Walker. “We are excited to gather big business leaders and their partners to share insights on how to successfully design, offer and deliver real help and lasting solutions to the more than 20 million small businesses in the US.”
