Shane Mullins, managing director of Fiscal Engineers, has given advice to companies considering entering the David Norton award.

The prestigious David Norton ‘Building Excellence’ Award is organised by the Institute of Financial Planning to recognise the firm with the most potential to become an excellent Financial Planning firm.

Since winning the award in October 2011, Mr Mullins and his firm have been recognised as an Accredited Financial Planning Firm and he has launched his ‘Question of Trust’ campaign.

Mr Mullins said: “Winning the David Norton award has been very exciting for Fiscal Engineers. We have worked hard to make the most of the great prizes we’ve won and are still due to go through three more consulting days running up to the end of the year.”

The prizes on offer this year include two days of business mentoring from Brett Davidson of FP Advance and a value proposition day with Abbie Tanner of A Business Innovation among others.

To enter the process, firms must demonstrate a commitment to ‘true’ Financial Planning, identify the strengths and weaknesses for the company, embrace fee-based remuneration and have a well-thought out business plan.

Mr Mullins said firms should take the application process seriously and use it as a due diligence process for the firm.

He said: “Any firm who wants to enter the award should not underestimate the preparation and man hours involved in placing a serious entry.

“We effectively saw this ourselves as a due diligence exercise and worked with a number of our team to go through the serious questions asked of the firm and through presenting all the evidence supporting the entry to run through the round of interviews.”

Nevertheless Mr Mullins said all the preparation was worth it. “Even if we had not won the award, the process of applying and being considered told us so much about ourselves that would help us to develop our business further,” he said.

Entries are open until Friday 4 May, click here for more information.