THE South African golfer, Gary Player, once said, “The more I practise, the luckier I get.”
It’s a bit like that with industry awards.
The more you practise being the best firm you can possibly be, the more likely you are to take home a prize.
But the real winners are your clients.
This is something which should perhaps be highlighted more.
It’s easy, on winning an award, to get carried away by the thrill of the prize-giving or the prospect of a shiny new logo to put on your marketing material, but the excitement should really be about how the whole process of entering awards benefits your clients.
To win a major UK award, whatever your industry, you have to demonstrate strength in almost every area of your business.
You have to show that you have robust systems and processes in place, impeccable professional and ethical standards, and that you invest in your staff.
You compete against some of the most talented firms in your industry and are judged by some of the most experienced professionals in your field.
Different awards demand different things, but all, in their separate ways, ask you to step out of the day-to-day running of your company and examine what you do.
And it’s in this process of self-examination that you discover what you could be doing better.
In trying to be "the best we can be" our clients benefit directly from higher standards of service and advice delivered by a better trained, supported and happy team.
Entering awards really keeps us on our toes in every area of our business.
Carbon has been very fortunate; in our relatively short history we have won some of the most important awards in our industry.
Last year - a particularly fruitful year for us - we were shortlisted for five major national awards and won four of them, including the much-coveted UK Chartered Financial Planners of the Year 2015 and the Gold Standard for Independent Financial Advice (for the third year in a row).
Entering these awards took a lot of work, but the benefits to our clients are considerable and ongoing.
Winning awards motivates staff and helps retain and attract talent, and in turn, this means that we can employ the very best people in the industry to deliver advice at a standard able to compete with any firm in the UK.
Knowing that a firm has been recognised by an independent third party is also reassuring to clients.
It helps us both to retain our existing clients, which is the most important aspect for us, and helps us to attract a few new ones.