According to Gregory K. Ericksen in his book Entrepreneur of the Year Award: Insights From the Winner’s Circle, the second criteria the judges use to help them determine a winner is the financial performance of the company.
In this regard, there are two categories of entrepreneurs, and two ways entrepreneurs get money for companies. Some entrepreneurs start companies that are good at earning money from customers. These leaders spend the bulk of their time managing and growing a company that makes money.
Other entrepreneurs are good at soliciting money from investors. These leaders spend the bulk of their time convincing larger companies into giving them money.
The majority of the articles in magazines like Entrepreneur are aimed at CEOs who fall in the latter category. Often, the revenue figures that are publicized about companies do not reveal the amount of money those companies earned but rather, the amount of money those companies were given.
I’ve always felt that if you are a leader who falls into the first category, you don’t have to worry about being good at the second. Run a company that earns money and a funny thing starts happening — bigger companies with money start banging on your door asking if they can give you more.
President of Outskirts Press 