Mosaic Events Ltd

The company, which is the brainchild of 26-year-old Sarah Byrne, was only launched at the start of 2004 but already has big clients, including law firm Eversheds, Leeds City Council and chartered accountants Baker Tilly.

Much to her surprise, Sarah was runner-up in the York Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition, making it through to the regional final last April. "I only entered as practice for next year," she said.

Now Sarah's business venture is being entered for New Business of the Year, and Sarah herself has been nominated for Young Business Entrepreneur of the Year.

Sarah has always wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and run her own business. Having worked for the Swallow Hotel, corporate law firm DLA and the West Yorkshire Police, she felt she had enough public and private sector experience to set up her own corporate event management agency.

Her childhood dream started to take shape after attending the Yorkshire Forward Enterprise show in February 2003, where she was amazed at the amount of support available. An adviser guided her through the business planning process.

The name, Mosaic Events, was chosen because a mosaic is made up of lots of small pieces, just like the tiny details that go into planning an event.

One of the biggest challenges facing Sarah, like many other business owners, was raising the cash for the venture.

However, she would not let a small thing like lack of money stand in her way and secured an overdraft even though this was not her original plan.

She hopes to have at least four employees by the end of her third year trading. Already ahead of budget and set to make a profit in the first year, it looks like Sarah and Mosaic Ltd may have a successful future.

Updated: 09:50 Thursday, August 19, 2004