The heat is on to be judged Toowoomba's top business - Toowoomba Chronicle

Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce president Andrew Wielandt says this year's nomination total "smashed" last year's number. Nev Madsen

MORE than 600 Toowoomba businesses are in the running for the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Business Excellence Awards.

Chamber president Andrew Wielandt said the number of nominations had "smashed" last year's total.

He said the next challenge was to get the nominated businesses to go through the application process for the awards, which are announced on October 11.

"I think there's a couple of reasons for the extra nominations," Mr Wielandt said.

"Every year the event is getting bigger.

"We've got the support of our major sponsors and the local economy is going quite well.

"I think the other thing is that people are really connecting with the message of supporting and celebrating what is great about business in Toowoomba.

"We think of it as a health check for your business."

Mr Wielandt said filling in the application would take most businesses two hours, and it was a chance to think about areas of success and areas to improve upon.

The nominated businesses will compete for 11 categories, including new categories for manager of the year and employee of the year.