Have you entered our Bradford Means Business Awards yet?

If not, and you’re planning to, there’s only one day left… entries have to be with us by the close of play tomorrow.

Of course, with the online entry form at telegraphand argus.co.uk/bradfordmeans business there’s plenty of time to put your company forward for one of the many categories.

If you want to nominate a business in Retail/Hospitality Business of the Year or put your company or boss forward for Employer of the Year, then you can do that online as well. If you prefer to use the paper entry form, which we’re running here for the last time, make sure you get it to the T&A offices by the end of tomorrow.

We teamed up with Bradford Chamber and Bradford Council to launch our Bradford Means Business Awards 2011, with a host of categories for the district’s companies. Even Prime Minister David Cameron has praised the awards, saying: “I’m very pleased to be supporting the Bradford Means Business Awards.

“It’s great to see the Telegraph & Argus playing such a leading role in recognising and promoting business and entrepreneurship in Bradford.

“These awards are about the companies, business leaders and entrepreneurs who can help to create a new economic dynamism in our country.”

Two categories – Retail/ Hospitality Business of the Year, sponsored by Welcome To Yorkshire, and Employer of the Year, sponsored by Last, Cawthra, Feather Solicitors – will be judged by our panel on the basis of nominations from, in the first instance, the general public and, for the second category, the workforce.

For the category Employer of the Year we want to know about the working environment, people development, training, and a commitment to the general well-being of the workforce.

Nominations in the Retail/ Hospitality Business of the Year might be a hotel, pub, restaurant, shop or any business that has day-to-day contact with the general public.

We’re also inviting entries in the following categories: small business, medium or large business, new start-up, environmentally-friendly firm, young entrepreneur, technical innovation, business woman and business personality.

The panel will choose a “winner of winners” from the short-listed entrants for each of those categories.

After tomorrow’s deadline, all those entrants who are deemed to be suitable for their chosen category will be contacted and asked to fill in another form which will ask for more specific information and which will allow the judges to properly score each entrant on a level playing field.

These forms will need to be in by NOON on MONDAY, FEB-RUARY 28.

If some entries are good but not in the right categories, the judges may well suggest at this stage that these nominations are moved to more appropriate categories.

Then the panel will convene and sort through all the second-stage entries and will draw up a shortlist of three finalists in each category, which will be completed on or about MONDAY, MARCH 7.

The shortlisted entrants will be contacted that week and then it’s just the wait for the nail-biting final on SATURDAY MARCH 26, when the winners will be announced at a gala awards night to be held at the Aagrah Midpoint restaurant in Thornbury.