Your Man With A Van Finalists in the 2026 Great British Entrepreneur Awards
I forwarded the email to Dan with one line: “Is this real?”
He confirmed it was. Then I read it again anyway.
It was. Your Man With A Van has been named a finalist in the 2026 Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards, shortlisted in the Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year category. Out of over 5,000 applications. 740 businesses made the shortlist. We’re one of them.
What the Great British Entrepreneur Awards actually are
If you haven’t come across them before, this is one of the most respected business awards in the UK. Not the kind where you pay a fee and everyone gets a trophy. The kind where Grenade, ClearScore, and Zilch were recognised early in their stories, before the world caught up with what they were building.
Frankie James, who founded the awards back in 2012, put it well: these are for the founders who get on and build, the ones that don’t always get the recognition they deserve. That framing matters to us. It’s the version of success we actually believe in.
Why the Start-Up category? We started in 2010.
Fair question. Dan did start the business in 2010, in Newcastle, with a van and a genuine inability to do a job badly. But the franchise, the version of YMWAV that now has 65+ branches across the UK, only launched in January 2024.
Two years in. 65+ branches. 3,000+ five-star reviews across the network.
That’s the start-up. And apparently it’s a decent one.
This one isn’t mine
Here’s the thing I keep coming back to.
Yes, my name is on the nomination. But if you know our story, you know that nothing about YMWAV is a solo effort. Dan built the foundations over 14 years before we asked the question that changed everything: why can’t every town in the UK have this?
Every branch owner who said yes to that question, packed their van on a Monday morning, and went out to build something in their community — this is theirs too. The 19 awards already on our wall don’t belong to a head office. They belong to every person who turned up, on time, and did the job properly.
This one is no different.
What’s next
The winners are announced later this year. We’ll be there. Quietly optimistic. Not counting anything before it’s counted.
In the meantime, the work carries on. Moves to do. Branches to support. A few more towns to add to the map before we’re done.
If you want to follow along, you know where to find us.
Cat
Cat Robson-Scarborough, Co-Founder of Your Man With A Van Franchise