ENTRIES are already starting to flood in for this year’s If We Can, You Can entrepreneurial challenge.

Just days after its launch, aspiring business people from across the region are already staking their claim to be named one of the challenge’s winners – which could see them receive a £5,000 business support package – and to be part of the If We Can, You Can community, which pairs established entrepreneurs with people new to running their own venture.

The challenge, run by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and supported by The Northern Echo, is now in its third year, and was set up to re-instill a spirit of enterprise and a can-do-culture into the region.

The Northern Echo’s two previous winners – MES Footwork’s Matt Scott and Esther Dingley, from Graduate Toolbox – were both chosen in a public vote, and have gone on to expand their businesses and become established entrepreneurs.

The winners of this year’s challenge will receive:

● A chance to become a North-East Faces of Entrepreneurship for 2011;

● Ongoing advice from leading North-East business figures;

● A business gadget;

● A business services package worth up to £5,000;

● A place at the Entrepreneurs’ Forum annual conference and dinner, worth £270;

● One year’s membership of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

To enter the If We Can, You Can challenge, before the deadline of midnight on May 3, visit ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/ challenge