Judges hail Red Rose county’s young people in business for their skills, strength and desire to succeed

The judges of the Lancashire Business View Sub36 Awards have praised the diversity, strength and skills of this year’s entries.

The winners will be revealed at an online ceremony in October which will feature guest appearances from two as-seen-on-TV Lancashire entrepreneurs. Using the powers of Zoom, a panel of 27 expert judges representing all regions of the red rose county and from a wide variety of industries came together to determine this year’s worthy finalists and winners.

A shortlist was created after a full day of pre-scoring by the Sub36 Awards headline sponsor, Positive Pennine, mentoring partner Northern Mentoring Programme, and funding partner Rosebud. The panel of sponsors combed through and debated more than a hundred nominations to select the most worthy four finalists in each category.

Those chosen for the final judging stage then had to pitch and explain why they should win the award. They were given just 10 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers. The aim was to find the very best of Lancashire’s young people in the business.

Jonathan Nelson, senior loan manager at Rosebud said: “I had the pleasure of judging the Sub36 Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Apprentice Award categories. The quality and professionalism of all the applicants were incredible and despite the interviews being conducted online, Lancashire Business View ensured that the format allowed all their personalities to shine through. A most enjoyable and inspiring day.”

Individuals working in all sectors from every corner of the county are represented on the final shortlist of 52, which can be seen at https://www.sub36.co.uk/event/finalists

The winners will be revealed at the online awards ceremony taking place on Thursday 22 October, from 4pm. The special event will include guest speakers including Dave Fishwick, the Burnley entrepreneur behind the award-winning TV show “Bank of Dave”, in which he provided funding for the town’s residents who weren’t able to access conventional high street banking.

Imran Hakim of Hakim Group, who featured on BBC2’s Dragons Den with his iTeddy invention, will also share his experiences of building a portfolio of businesses, including the fastest-growing group of independent optical retail practices in the UK.