Rulebreaker Awards Announces 6 Category Winners; Grand-prize Winner To Be Named November 15

LAKEWOOD, Calif. - Sept. 21, 2016 - PRLog -- CONTACT:
Barry Moltz
Barry@rulebreakerawards.com

LAKEWOOD, CALIF., September 21, 2016 – Six finalists have been chosen in the third annual RuleBreaker awards. The unconventional awards program, sponsored this year by Nextiva and PeakSales Recruiting, celebrates entrepreneurs who take the road less traveled and break all the rules in their pursuit of business success.

One grand-prize winner will be chosen from among the six category winners. The grand-prize winner will be announced at an awards ceremony November 15^th, 2016, at Nextiva's NextCon conference, http://nextcon.nextiva.com.

The category winners are:

• New Small Businesses RuleBreaker of the Year: Jody Harris's invention, ZippedMe, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaY6FFaJpi8, solves the problem of how to zip up dresses that close in the back when you don't have someone to help you.
• Established Small Businesses RuleBreaker of the Year: Nigel Bennett's company, Aqua-Guard, www.aquaguard.com, provides state-of-the-the-art solutions to clean up oil spills.
• Retail RuleBreaker of the Year: Adam Schulte owns Quarks American Bento, www.Quarksamericanbento.com, a fast-casual restaurant serving healthy, customizable meals based on six food groups that add up to a complete, unique meal.
• Tech Services RuleBreaker of the Year: Elaina Farnsworth founded MobileComply, www.mobilecomply.com, which provides workforce training and credentialing for professionals in the connected and autonomous vehicles industry.
• Professional Services RuleBreaker of the Year: Todd Palmer founded Diversified Industrial Staffing, www.distaffing.com, which applieswhite-collar headhunting recruiting tactics to blue-collar laborers in skilled trades.
• Manufacturing RuleBreaker of the Year: Jennifer and Michael Young's company, The Domesticated Dad, www.thedomesticateddad.net, delivers fresh, healthy brown-bag lunches to students, parents and teachers at local schools.

Rule Maker of the Year: Special mention goes to Mary-Lynn Foster, co-founder of e-learning, coaching and small business consulting firm Bigg Success, www.biggsuccess.com, for her innovative approach to promoting the RuleBreaker awards contest on social media.

"Every day entrepreneurs are starting and scaling their businesses by doing it their way—and we are proud to honor them," said Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBiz Media and a co-host of the RuleBreaker Awards.

"As we enter our 3rd year of the RuleBreaker awards, I am impressed more than ever by the continuous innovation of entrepreneurs," said co-host Mike Michalowicz, author of Surge. "You would think that all the great ideas in the world would be exhausted, but it is quite the opposite. This year is perhaps the most innovative entrepreneurs to date!"

"With over 2,000 people being nominated for this award, we can see how RuleBreakers are truly making a difference in the business world," said co-host Barry Moltz, author of How to Get Unstuck.

Winners were selected by a panel of judges including:

·      Ken Yancey, CEO of SCORE
·      Yaniv Masjedi, CMO, Nextiva
·      Anita Campbell, founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and BizSugar
·      Brian Scudmore, founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
·      Shama Kabani, CEO of Marketing Zen Group
·      JJ Ramberg, co-founder of Goodsearch.com and host of MSNBC's Your Business

For details on Nextiva's NextCon conference, visit http://nextcon.nextiva.com and for more information about the RuleBreaker awards, visit http://www.rulebreakerawards.com.

ABOUT RIEVA LESONSKY:Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. A nationally recognized speaker who regularly addresses audiences across the country, Rieva broke the rules by becoming the first female editorial director of a general business magazine; she was SVP/Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine for more than 25 years.

ABOUT MIKE MICHALOWICZ: Mike Michalowicz is the author of Surge, Profit First, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur and The Pumpkin Plan. Mike has grown and sold two multimillion-dollar companies and now operates his third. And if there is one thing he attributes entrepreneurial success to, it's breaking the rules.

ABOUT BARRY MOLTZ: Barry Moltz is the author of How to Get Unstuck: 25 Ways To Get Your Business Growing Again. He is a small business motivational speaker and radio talk show host. He breaks rules by having entrepreneurs stop doing what they have always done to move forward.