Entries now open for The David Awards 2025

The David Awards 2025 are now officially open for entries, offering small and home-based business owners across Aotearoa the chance to gain well-earned recognition for their grit, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Now in its 17th year, The David Awards honour the “Davids” of the business world — small business owners who, much like the biblical figure, take on seemingly insurmountable challenges with limited resources, yet deliver extraordinary results. These awards celebrate the often-overlooked champions of Kiwi enterprise: Tthe tenacious, the courageous, and the fiercely resourceful.

“Starting a small business is hard and often lonely. It can feel like you’re getting nowhere, and even friends and family often don’t regard what you are doing as ‘a real business’. The David Awards play an important role in recognising, encouraging, benchmarking, validating and providing exposure for individual small businesses,” says Founder of the Awards, Heather Douglas.

To keep the playing field as level as possible, the barriers to entry are kept to a minimum, with few criteria, a simple entry process, a relatively easy entry form and no entry fees.

“The David Awards create a platform for small business owners to connect, share experiences, and collaborate. They contribute directly to local communities too, championing local businesses, encouraging community identity and fostering community development and social responsibility.”

Voyager Internet is the principal sponsor of the Awards. Having started at grass roots, the team at Voyager have an understanding of enterprises at the smaller end of the business scale, and their commitment to forming relationships and partnering with others to achieve win-win outcomes is impressive.

“The David Awards shine a light on the incredible drive of Kiwi business owners — people who pour their hearts into what they do, often with limited resources but limitless determination. We’ve backed the awards for four years now, and it’s a natural alignment — the Davids represent the same tenacity and resourcefulness we admire in New Zealand’s small business community and in our own customers. Everything we do at Voyager is about enabling businesses to operate with the confidence and capability of much larger organisations,” says Deidre Steyn, CEO at Voyager.

“It’s always a privilege to be part of an initiative that uplifts the very best of Kiwi entrepreneurship and we can’t wait to see what the 2025 awards will bring!”

Why Enter?

Entering The David Awards is more than a chance to win — it’s an opportunity to boost your business’s credibility, increase exposure, and be recognised for the hard work that often goes unseen. Past winners have leveraged their success in the awards to build brand trust, attract new customers, and open doors to partnerships and funding.

With categories covering everything from solo operators to trailblazers in sustainability, innovation and marketing, the awards cater to a wide variety of businesses with up to 10 full-time employees (or equivalent). One of the most popular categories, the People’s Choice Award, gives entrants the chance to rally their communities and customers for support — so getting in early can make a real difference to your campaign.

The seven categories are: