Search for Rotherham's best business brains

Cash prizes of £500 will be awarded to four category winners, and the overall winner will take home another £1,000.

Organiser and judge Geoff Link said: “We're looking for young businessmen and women to enter these awards and benefit from the cash prizes as well as the advice and PR we can give them to help make their business work.”

Mum-of-one Tara Wilson won Most Determined to Succeed at last year’s awards for her event decoration business Little Luxories.

She has now set up a sister business called Wedding Textiles, to supply raw materials to other designers in the same game around the UK.

Former PE teacher Tara (29), based at Rotherham Investment and Development Office’s Century Business Centre, said: “I was determined to make my business work no matter what.  I want my daughter Cassie to have a good life.

“I was just organising the decorations for friends’ weddings in my spare time, then friends of friends asked me to do theirs and eventually I decided I'd have to go full time.”

Nick Jones (21) scooped the Best New Business category last year for video production company Shake Multimedia.

After winning the award, he was snapped up by a regional magazine publishing firm and put his own business on hold.

He said: “To me, winning has been as attractive to my new employer as a degree. When you’re young, clients and employers need a reason to trust you.

“These business awards provide the proof that you're good at what you do and that experienced people think you're doing a great job.”

He added: “I saw an opportunity to carry on developing what I was doing on a bigger scale with better equipment and more options to help make my ideas come to life.”

Overall winner Chris Wright (23) won for his business IT Desk, which he set up in 2006.

Mr Link added: “Tara, Nick and Chris all stood out as determined individuals with a great work ethic who have got the will and the ability to make it happen. 

“Nick may have put his business on hold, but he’s an entrepreneur, so one day he may be back.”

Entry forms for this year’s events are available from 01709 254444, www.rido.org.uk or libraries.

The deadline for entries is July 16 and the winners will be announced in October.

The awards are sponsored and organised by Rotherham Enterprise Network and UK Steel Enterprise and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.