JUST one week to go before deadline, so hurry and stake your claim to the title of Evening Press Business of the Year.

The pace is quickening as more and more firms enter the Evening Press Business Awards 2001 - all of them making a good, hard-headed business decision, because every entry is scrutinised for a profile story which will not only appear in the Evening Press, but also on our award-winning website which attracts more than 700,000 page impressions a month.

And the report stays there for at least the duration of the competition - it ends in December at a glittering awards ceremony at York's historic Merchant Adventurers' Hall. So the publicity is intense, and it's free!

Here are two examples of fascinating pitches for the title, adding their names to the rich variety of entrants ranging from restaurants and hotels, e-commerce enterprises and independent financial advisers to a "virtual" assistant and polythene suppliers, builders and estate agents.

Eight categories have drawn sponsors from Barclays Bank; DE Ford Insurance Brokers; the York and North Yorkshire Export Forum; GNER; telecoms company Kingston inbusiness; Yorkshire Water; York chartered accountants Garbutt & Elliott; and solicitors' practice Harrowell Shaftoe, of Clifton Moor. You can choose any two of them.

So how do you enter? It's so quick and easy you will hardly pause in your stride to success.

Details about the awards - and an interactive entry form - can be found on a new dedicated website at www.epbusinessawards2001.co.uk. Or entry forms can be obtained from Sky Ferrey, Evening Press Business Awards 2001, PO Box 29, 76/78 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN, telephone 01904 653051, or by emailing