Sole practitioners have a unique opportunity to secure unprecedented publicity and kudos this year. If you’re keen to grow your practice you won’t want to miss out, especially as it need not cost you very much if you do everything yourself.
I’m referring to the prospect of being crowned sole practitioner of the year at this year’s AccountancyAge awards. This will be the first time that such an award has been presented.
For a number of years I was on the judging panel for what are now the Taxation annual awards. When they first started the relative number of entries was quite low. Of course this did not detract from the profile and benefits that flowed from being a winner.
Years later I’m sure that the number of entries for each award has increased such that it is quite an achievement to even be short listed as the ‘Best tax whatever’.
The implication, whether you win or are shortlisted is that you have beaten all other such tax people/teams around the UK. In practice, with notable exceptions, you simply have to beat those who have entered the awards.
The same is true of most of the Accountancy Age awards. Indeed it’s true of almost any such awards which depend upon a judging panel to decide winners (rather than votes from the public for instance).
The key lesson I learned is that it’s easier to win in the first year when the relative number of entries will be lower than it will be in the future. So I would encourage you to check out the entry criteria for this award and give it a go this year. The deadline for entries isn’t until July so you have a few weeks to put your entry together.
If you do decide to enter, the biggest tip I can offer is to focus on the stated judging criteria and make sure that your entry does 3 things:
- Addresses all key points
- Makes it easy for the judges to see that you have addressed all key points
- Includes current testimonials from client to back up your assertions.
Let me know how you get on or if you’d like some help.
Oo-er. Thanks for the tip, Mark.
I’ll put that in the diary to enter for next year. Can’t do it this year because my practice is only just starting up!!
M