Did you ever think selling products on eBay could get you an award? Well as it turns out, it can.

The 7th annual eBay Canada Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, a program that recognizes and rewards Canada's most innovative eBay sellers, is now accepting applications due by midnight on August 19th.

While you may not immediately connect eBay with entrepreneurship, many Canadians have started successful e-commerce businesses. Last year alone, Canadians sold an item approximately every 2.2 seconds on eBay and the majority of these sales came from small businesses, which often times comprised of only one or two people.

Last year's winner Virendra Rajawat, for example, started his own jewelry and gemstone selling business over eBay, which now boasts sales of more than $185,000 per year.

The year of the entrepreneur

With the Canadian federal government coining 2011 the Year of the Entrepreneur, a program that recognizes the nation's top entrepreneurs in the e-commerce arena is only fitting. And this year, the competition is offering more awards than in previous years.
 
In addition to the annual Entrepreneur of the Year prize, this year's competition will also offer a "Service-preneur of the Year" award to a Canadian eBay business that provides unique, personalized or extraordinary services to eBay buyers.

Another new component of the awards will be the "Newcomer of the Year" prize, which will be presented to a seller who is either new to Canada, new to e-commerce or selling a new or innovative product.

The winners of the competition will receive a cash prize of up to $3,000 and will be featured in communications to millions of Canadian buyers who use eBay's services.

"eBay has been recognizing and rewarding homegrown entrepreneurial ingenuity for almost as long as we've been in Canada," said eBay Canada's community relation manager Kevin Wolfley. "Each month Canadians sell over a million items on eBay and this year's Entrepreneur of the Year Awards celebrates the best examples of innovation in e-commerce."

Eligibility

The Entrepreneur of the Year Awards program is open to full- and part-time eBay sellers who are 18 or older. Anybody who enters will automatically be considered for the "Service-preneur of the Year" and the "Newcomer of the Year" categories, if applicable.

In order to be considered, entrants must:

• meet eligibility criteria and answer essay questions; and
• submit their entries prior to midnight (EST) on August 19, 2011.

The winner in the Entrepreneur of the Year category will win a cash prize of $3,000 and $2,000 will be awarded for each of the "Service-preneur of the Year" and "Newcomer of the Year" titles. All three winners will also enjoy promotion of their eBay business to more than two-million online buyers.

For more information on the competition and how to enter, visit www.eBay.ca/entrepreneurs

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