IPSE opens Freelancer Awards 2015

A nationwide competition to find the UK’s “brightest and best” freelancers and contractors has been launched with a prize pot containing £13,000 in cash.

Calling for entrants, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) said it wanted to hear from the “self-employed stars of today and tomorrow.”

The biggest cash prize, £5,000, is on offer to such independent workers aged 23 or older who “truly represent the talent, work ethic and success” of people who work for themselves.

This “stand-out self-employed person” will lift the Inspire award with two runners-up, who will each win £2,500. All three, added IPSE, will receive media and presentation training.

Less established freelancers “showing promise” can meanwhile vie for the Aspire award which, like the other accolade, will be handed out a glitzy awards ceremony in London.   

Scheduled for November, the ceremony will see the winner of the Aspire category (who must be under the age of 23) walk away with a cash injection for his or her business of £3,000.

But to get to that stage, entrants must first be selected as one of 15 finalists to be invited by IPSE to pitch themselves - and their services - to a panel of business and freelancing experts.

Sounding mindful that the 15 contractors may miss out on billable hours if they attend the pitch, the association said that all finalists would get technology or business support prizes.