BUDDING entrepreneurs are battling it out in a market place in a competition geared to find the most successful trader.

Stepping Up Durham have helped traders from across County Durham get their new retail initiatives off the with financial business support and the complimentary use of a stall at the Saturday outdoor retail market in Durham.

Now, five finalists have returned to the market in a head-on battle to become Stepping Up Durham Champion 2010-2011.

As part of the final they were trading at Saturday Outdoor Retail Market at the weekend and will be there on Saturdays for three more weeks.

Colin Wilkes, managing director for Durham Markets, said: "Although it is the first time the programme has run, the Stepping Up initiative has proved a tremendous success.

"We have received a huge number of entries to take part in this ground-breaking programme and the standard has been hugely encouraging.

"I would like to wish many congratulations to all those who have made it this far and very good luck for the month ahead.

"We would encourage all members of the public to come down and offer the finalists their full support over the next three weeks. Judges will be watching closely and the most successful trader will win."

Stepping Up Durham is sponsored by Durham Area Action Partnership.

The finalists are Butterfly Barn (handmade soft furnishings); Pure Pic (pictures and photos for a wide range of uses); Season to Taste Cookery Tuition (dinner party planning, food courses and one-to-one tuition); North Pennine Ferret Welfare and Boarding (snuggle beds, hammocks and tunnels funding a welfare and boarding service for ferrets) and Happyness Dawns (handmade original cards featuring local nature photography).