All paper form votes must be submitted to the Examiner’s Raymond Terrace office, at 15 William Street, by 5pm.

Online votes must also be submitted to portstephensexaminer.com.au by 5pm on Friday.

Late votes will not be counted.

Since voting opened on July 1, the Examiner has received thousands of votes, going to show customers really care about the businesses in Port Stephens.

Voters are encouraged to put their name and contact number on the voting form as they will go in the draw to win a 50-inch television.

The winner of the TV will be drawn from all the voting forms on the awards night, which will be held at Wests Nelson Bay Diggers on October 12. 

Businesses will be notified that they are a finalist during the final week of August. 

Judging to determine the winner for each of the 40 categories, and the overall winner, will be done between September 1 and 15. 

EARLIER:

VOTES in the Examiner’s 2016 Annual Business Awards have been flooding in thick and fast since the start of July.

The Examiner has received more than 700 online votes since July 1, when the voting period begun.

Online voting can be done here: portstephensexaminer.com.au.

Hundreds more paper voting forms – available to cut out from each edition of the Examiner during the voting period – have been submitted to the official voting boxes.

The official voting boxes can be found at:

All voting – either online or paper – needs to be submitted to the Examiner by 5pm on Friday, August 26.

Late entries will not be counted.

Voters are encouraged to put their name and contact number on the voting form as they will go in the draw to win a 50-inch television.

The winner of the TV will be drawn from all the voting forms on the awards night, which will be held at Wests Nelson Bay Diggers on October 12. 

Awards finalists will be notified during the final week of August. 

Judging to determine the winner for each of the 40 categories, and the overall winner, will be done between September 1 and 15. 

The overall winner of the awards – the business with the highest point score from the judging process – will receive a $10,000 advertising package with the Examiner.

If you’re a Port Stephens business owner or manager and want to put yourself and staff in the running for the Examiner’s awards you need to let your customers know they can vote for you.

Hang up a sign or ask customers personally to vote for you.

Let them know which category in the awards they can vote for you in, especially if there is more than one category customers could vote for you in.

For example, if you run a restaurant, let customers know whether to vote for you in the Australian or international cuisine category (all 40 categories are listed at the bottom).

Finalists in each of the 40 categories are determined by the amount of votes the business receives.

To increase your chances of being a finalist, encourage your customers to vote in one or two categories applicable to your business.

To make it easy for customers to vote for you, leave some voting forms on a counter for them to fill in. 

You can also collect votes on behalf of your customers and submit them to the Examiner by the August 26 5pm deadline for counting.

To vote for a business in the awards, and to go in the draw to win a television, all you need to do is cut out a voting form from the Examiner newspaper, fill it out and submit it to one of the official voting boxes.

Photocopies of the form will be accepted.

Alternatively, you can submit an online vote on the Examiner’s website.

A handy tip: check to see if the business you are voting for is asking customers to vote in a certain category. The more votes a business receives in one category, the higher its chances of becoming a finalist.

Ensure you put your contact details on the form and they are readable. If your name is plucked out of the pile as the winner of the TV, we need to be able to reach you!

1. Accommodation

2. Accountant

3. Animal Services

4. Automotive Services

5. Bakery

6. Beauty Therapy

7. Boating, Camping or Fishing

8. Building, Construction or Renovation

9. Butcher

10. Cafe

11. Children's Services

12. Club

13. Dance Studio

14. Fashion or Footwear - Ladies

15. Fashion or Footwear- Mens

16. Financial Services

17. Fitness

18. Florist/Nursery

19. Fresh Produce or Market

20. Furniture/Home Decor

21. Gift Store

22. Hair Salon

23. Hardware

24. Health & Medical

25. Hotel or Bottleshop

26. Jeweller

27. Learning, Training or Recruitment

28. Legal Services

29. Newsagency

30. Pharmacy

31. Real Estate - Sales

32. Real Estate - Property Management

33. Restaurant - Australian Cuisine

34. Restaurant - International Cuisine

35. Shopping Complex/Precinct

36. Takeaway Food

37. Technology Industry

38. Tourist Attraction

39. Trades & Services

40. New Business