Rachel proves that small is beautiful

The founder of Ask the Chameleon has made it through to the national finals of an awards scheme, which recognises the positive impact that small businesses have on the nation’s economy.

Rachel Hayward has been named the East Midlands Self-employed/freelancer of the Year in the 2024 Celebrating Small Business Awards, which are organised by the Federation of Small Business.

Ask the Chameleon, which launched in 2015, specialises in producing funding and commercial procurement applications and business award submissions for micro, small businesses, and third sector organisations.

Since the business began, it has secured a total of £117 million in contracts, with potentially a further £100 million contract values in the pipeline, as well as numerous high-profile awards for clients.

Rachel said: “I’m obviously delighted to have won the regional award and being part of an impressive line-up of businesspeople for the national award is a huge honour.

“I wanted to enter this award to highlight the typical characteristics of the self-employed and freelancers who need to be motivated, flexible and resilient to achieve their goals and to showcase that this has been particularly important during and post-pandemic when most of us were ineligible for support that other businesses relied on for survival.”

Rachel will now attend the national final in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens on 9 May 9 alongside the other regional winners from across the UK.