A YOUNG business woman from York is riding high with her new marketing company.

Pick and Mix Marketing Solutions, founded by 29-year-old Sally Trousdale, is the latest company hoping for success at The Press Business Awards 2012.

Miss Trousdale, a former equine science and business management graduate, is pitching for the New Business Of The Year and the Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards.

She said she was using her experience in newspaper advertising sales and management, combined with her know-how as a horse-riding instructor, to keep a growing local customer base happy.

“The whole art of training people to ride horses relies on encouraging them to empower themselves,” she said. “It is what propelled me upwards in my newspaper career and that is precisely what I do for my clients.”

The former Tadcaster Grammar School pupil also said that while offering a traditional marketing service, she was keen to harness the importance of the internet and social media when it came getting the best results for her clients.

She said: “I enjoy managing clients’ social media campaigns, ensuring they have an impactful presence on popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

“But beyond that I want to ensure that clients who are capable are empowered to best use these sites for themselves. It’s no good tackling this without training.

“They need to be in control of that horse lest it bolts and unseats them.”

Looking to the future, she said: “I would like to see other businesses benefiting from the enormous opportunities offered by social media and see Pick and Mix grow on the back of that. I would also like businesses to understand that there is an alternative to the ‘one-size-fits-all’ offerings by some other marketing organisations.

“They should have the right to choose – as the title of my business implies – which area of marketing suits them best and be charged accordingly.”