THIS week we are proud to announce the very first Gazette & Herald Business Awards.

This is your chance to achieve recognition for your business and all who work for it.

To gain glory for all the hard work and effort put in to make your business a success.

And individuals will have the chance to shine for having that something that sets them apart from and above the others.

Ryedale is an area with many diverse businesses operating from a huge number of different locations.

Some are based in rural locations, others in the urban environment of our bustling market towns.

Often the work they do, which is invaluable to the economy of the region, goes unnoticed and unheralded amid the day to day hubbub of life.

There are may unsung heroes out there working in tourism, agriculture, retailing, manufacturing, cottage industries... the list goes on and on.

So now you have the chance to gain that accolade, stand in the spotlight, put your business in the public eye, raise your profile and gain extensive and prestigious publicity.

In next week's Gazette & Herald we will be publishing an entry form, the list of categories you can enter and details of the sponsors.

Each business or individual who enters the awards will be featured in the pages of the Gazette & Herald up to and after the closing date for entries.

After the closing date, a panel of judges will sift through the entries and narrow the field down to three finalists per category.

Each one of these will be interviewed by the judging panel and the winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony in December.

In the coming weeks we will be announcing the prestigious venue for that ceremony, guest speakers and who will be on the judging panel.

But just as a taster, the categories will include Small Business of the Year, E-commerce Business of the Year, New Business of the Year, Business Personality of the Year, Growth Business of the Year and Best Tourist Attraction.

Prestigious sponsors who have already pledged their support for the awards include Barclays Bank, HSBC, British Sugar, First Keolis Transpennine, W Boyes & Co and the North Yorkshire Coast Business Advice Agency.

The awards are open to all businesses, from sole traders to plcs with many employees, within the Gazette & Herald circulation area which radiates from just north of York up into the North York Moors, and from Scarborough and Whitby on the East Coast to the A19 and beyond in the west.

Our theme for the awards is 'Raise Your Expectations'. Why not raise yours by entering the very first Gazette & Herald Business Awards?

Details of how to enter and the full run down of categories will appear in the Gazette & Herald next week. Don't forget - if you want to win, you've got to enter!

Updated: 14:31 Wednesday, March 16, 2005