BOB Awards: How Voting Works & How to Win

Who votes in the BOB Awards and why it matters

The BOB Awards are Vermont Business Magazine's business-to-business reader ballot, and the audience is defined before the ballot even opens: VermontBiz surveys its magazine and digital subscribers. That makes this a program where the voters are people who already follow Vermont business news, not a general public clicking through from social media. For a Vermont company, finishing near the top means being recommended by the state's own business readership.

The program is carried on the magazine's own website instead of an outside voting service, which keeps the ballot, the rules and the winner announcements in one place under the VermontBiz brand. Classified as a best-of ballot with a public-vote mechanic, its reach is statewide across Vermont. No city or county is named as the program's home market; the ballot addresses the whole state through the magazine's subscriber base.

The breadth of the slate is the other thing supporters should know going in. The awards celebrate Vermont companies across a long list of business-to-business fields, so a nominee is competing inside one narrow field among many, and the subscribers filling in the survey are choosing across the whole slate in one sitting.

The dated history behind the BOB Awards

The confirmed history of this program is substantial. Winner pages and edition years run from 2018 through 2024, published year by year on Vermont Business Magazine's site, which is what shows the BOB Awards as something Vermont Business Magazine repeats year after year instead of a promotion mounted a single time. The publisher's site also carries a separate Best Places to Work in Vermont winners list going back further, but that is a distinct program with its own ballot.

The voting window is the program's clearest dated fact: VermontBiz surveys its magazine and digital subscribers from January 1st to March 1st. The 2025 round is documented with the same span, starting January 1, 2025 and closing March 1st. That gives supporters a fixed January-to-March stretch each cycle in which the ballot is live, with winner pages following after the close.

What the publisher has not put on the awards page is the fine print. Vermont Business Magazine publishes no cap on how often one person may take part, no eligibility wording and no daily-vote policy for the survey; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The next edition year is likewise unannounced, so a supporter planning for the following cycle should watch the publisher's site rather than assume the window repeats on the same dates.

How a supporter actually votes in the BOB Awards

The mechanic is a subscriber survey carried on the magazine's website. During the January 1st to March 1st window, a VermontBiz magazine or digital subscriber opens the BOB Awards ballot, works through the business-to-business categories, and enters the Vermont company they want to back in each field. There is no nomination round described before the survey; the ballot itself is where the choices are made.

Because the slate stretches across such a wide run of fields, a supporter typically fills in only the areas where they have a real opinion, such as their own bank, their favorite public relations firm or a college they rate. The awards page names field families like Best Places, Best of Business in Vermont, Best Bank and Best Public Relations, and Best College for, but the complete roster is printed nowhere except the live ballot itself, not on the about page.

After submission, the supporter's part is done until the winners appear. Vermont Business Magazine publishes BOB Winners pages by year on the same site, so the outcome of each survey is public and permanent. For a nominee, that means the practical job during the window is making sure subscribers who know the business actually fill in the survey, since the ballot reaches the magazine's audience rather than the general public.

Where the BOB Awards sit among Vermont reader ballots

Vermont readers can pick from a long lineup of best-of ballots, and the BOB Awards occupy a specific lane in that lineup. Every other major reader program in the state chases the general consumer vote, while this one aims squarely at business-to-business categories and at a subscriber audience.

The closest relation is the Best of Business Awards, run by the same publisher, Vermont Business Magazine, as a separate program with its own page. Beyond that, the state's reader-choice field includes the Brattleboro Reformer Readers' Choice, the Rutland Herald Best of the Best, the Seven Daysies, the Stowe Reporter Readers' Choice and the Times Argus Best of the Best, each answering to its own publisher.

For a Vermont business deciding where to invest outreach effort, the difference matters. A consumer-facing ballot draws from a paper's whole readership, while the BOB Awards draw from VermontBiz subscribers who think in terms of vendors, banks, colleges and professional services. Winning here signals standing with the business community specifically, which is a different kind of endorsement than a general readers'-choice trophy.

Strengthening support for a BOB Awards nominee

Because this ballot goes to VermontBiz subscribers, outreach that works here is different from a general consumer push. The supporters who can move a nominee are the magazine's readers, so the effective ask is direct: identify the customers, vendors and professional contacts who subscribe, and ask them to fill in the survey during the January 1st to March 1st window while the fields they care about are fresh in mind.

The organizer's page gives no published rule on outside help or coordinated campaigns, so a nominee should keep its ask personal and subscriber-to-subscriber rather than automated. A reminder near the middle of the window, when early enthusiasm has faded but the March 1st close is still ahead, tends to be the ask that actually converts.

For tactics that apply across reader ballots of this kind, our get more votes online guide and the award votes overview cover the options in one place.