A new competition to encourage online entrepreneurship in the North East of England will be launched on 18 November 2006.

Budding entrepreneurs based in the region will be encouraged to enter the YouTrade competition which rewards 10 winners with a £2,000 cash injection to set up a business and trade online through eBay.

Regional development agency One NorthEast and the North East Regional Portal have joined forces to launch the eBay competition, which will be launched at the ‘Start your Business’ event as part of this year’s national Enterprise Week.

Andy Walton, e-Business manager at One NorthEast, said: “YouTrade is a unique region-wide competition aimed at inspiring people to be enterprising and to turn their ideas into something real.

”Ten lucky winners receive £2,000 to start up an online business trading through eBay. The prize also includes valuable mentoring and support and substantial PR and marketing for their start up business.”

Regional Portal chief executive Norma Foster explains: "Enterprising people in the North East are an inspiration and an example to us all of how a great idea coupled with creativity and enterprising spirit can become something big.

"As eBusiness champions we want to encourage and support entrepreneurship in the region by providing online support and opportunities for business start-ups to make the most of trading online.

"This competition represents a fantastic opportunity for 10 entrepreneurs to develop a business idea online. We are expecting it to be a great success and can't wait to see the ideas."

Shortlisted entrants will have to submit a business plan which will be judged by a panel of industry experts.

It is expected that 10 winners will be announced in January 2007 and the 10 businesses will start trading shortly afterwards.     

Andy Walton added: “I’m really excited about this competition and believe they have the potential to uncover some real business stars of the future.

“If we are to bridge the productivity gap which currently exists between this region and the rest of the country, we have to increase business start-ups and entrepreneurialism.

"That’s why competitions like this are so important.”

In addition to One NorthEast and the North East Regional Portal, partners of the YouTrade competition are Sage (UK) Ltd, eBay, bGroup (UK) ltd, Platform One ltd and BT.

The competition will be launched on 18 November from 10am to 4.30pm at the Start Your Business 2006 event on Stand 17 at St James’ Park in Newcastle.

For more details please visit http://www.n-e-life.com/forbusiness/article2.php?id=79570