Ana-Maria Ciubota, the founder of Exclusive Branding Edge Academy, has been recognised with three major awards, marking a standout moment in her first year of operation. She was named National Winner (First Place) for Best Business Branding UK 2025 at The UK Small Business Awards, listed among the UK Top 50 Winner Female Entrepreneurs of the Year, and awarded the Excellence in Brand Strategy Award by Big Business Entrepreneurs UK.
The recognition arrives exactly one year after the academy officially launched in November 2024.
“I gave myself twelve months to operate with focus, discipline, and non-negotiable standards,” said Ana-Maria Ciubota. “Not as a casual attempt, but as a decision with a deadline. A year to build something that could stand next to global brands — not in theory, but in execution.”
Ciubota has spoken openly about the demands behind achieving that level of execution.
“There were highs — momentum, breakthroughs, moments where the mission felt unstoppable. But there were also more downs than most people realise: the pressure of building without shortcuts, the silent seasons where nobody claps, the mental weight of being the engine, the strategist, and the standard — all at once.”
She believes sharing this reality matters. “Recognition often arrives long after the hardest parts have already been survived. That’s the part rarely spoken about in entrepreneurship.”
From her perspective, the awards signal a broader evolution in brand strategy.
“Best Business Branding is not simply an award — it’s a spotlight on what modern businesses are finally understanding: attention is not the goal. Authority is. And authority is built through clarity, consistency, and brand decisions that are impossible to mistake.”
Being named among the UK Top 50 Winner Female Entrepreneurs of the Year is meaningful for reasons beyond visibility. “Not because it’s a list,” she added, “but because it signals something deeper: the market is rewarding founders who lead with substance, not just visibility.”
The Excellence in Brand Strategy Award resonates strongly with Ciubota’s core philosophy.
“Strategy is the invisible architecture behind every strong brand. The fonts are not the brand. The logo is not the brand. A brand is the decision you make in the mind of the market and the systems you build to keep that decision consistent. That is the work I do. And that is what Exclusive Branding Edge Academy stands for.”
Her focus remains on helping entrepreneurs convert expertise into authority that attracts premium opportunities and long-term trust.
“Not by becoming louder,” she said. “But by becoming unmistakable. Because today, the market doesn’t reward the most talented. It rewards the most positioned. And positioning is not a guess. It’s a framework.”
She outlines three essential lessons for founders serious about authority-building.
Consistency beats intensity. “Most people sprint when they feel motivated, then disappear when it gets hard. The market doesn’t trust bursts. The market trusts patterns.”
Your brand is your decision-making, not your aesthetics. “If your message changes every week, your brand stays forgettable — no matter how beautiful it looks.”
Build a brand that selects people. “The strongest brands don’t chase clients. They filter. They create a standard that makes the right people lean in — and the wrong people move on. When your brand is clear, marketing becomes lighter. Content becomes easier. Selling becomes cleaner. And your growth becomes sustainable.”
Looking ahead, Ciubota views the awards as validation rather than an endpoint.
“These recognitions are not the finish line,” she said. “They are confirmation that the standard behind Exclusive Branding Edge Academy is not only relevant but needed. The UK — and the global market — is full of founders with incredible expertise but invisible positioning. I built this academy for the entrepreneurs who are done being overlooked. For the ones who are ready to become the headline, not the best-kept secret.”
