The 2018 British Small Business Awards (BSBAs), held at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel on October 31st, will bring together the brightest stars of the small business economy with the vendors, advisers and financiers that help them start, run, grow and succeed.

In this section, we’ll look at the winners from the 2017 Awards and learn about how they’ve got on since their win. Joe Warren, managing director of Powervault and winner of the Disruptor of the Year category in 2017, discusses how his business has grown over the last year.

What is the Powervault’s background and what is its USP?

Powervault is a company that makes batteries that go into people’s homes. They charge using solar energy or energy from the grid which can be used to heat these homes.

We’ve been going for around five years now and we have more than 500 customers.

One of the key things about us is that, compared to others, we maximise the offering to customers while giving them greater savings.

How has the business performed since the win? Were there any instances where customers found you through the BSBAs?

Things are going very well. In the past year we’ve had another round of financing and we’ve launched a new version of our product.

We include the award in all of our literature and in every presentation we do – it’s one of the key rewards we’re recognised for. It’s great to be able to reference it when we’re talking to customers.

https://youtu.be/FwotYZdE5vw

Overall, what can you say about the experience of winning an award like this in terms of the impact it can have on a small business?

Running a small business is very hard work and having our achievements acknowledged is valuable to us – the award has had a big impact on the company.

The 2018 British Small Business Awards will take place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on October 31st 2018. For more information, please visit the website here.