The winners in this year's Soutpansberg Entrepreneurs Competition will not only win cash prizes, they will also receive a considerable boost to get their businesses up and running.

One of the country's best known auditing firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is sponsoring a prize worth R12 000 for the winner in the 19 to 23 year category. The prize entails assistance with setting up a company, all the initial registrations such as for VAT purposes, a complete audit of the statutory registration and free auditing services for six months, which include monthly balance sheets.

The Soutpansberg Entrepreneurs Week is an annual event that centres around a competition aimed at promoting a culture of entrepreneurship in the region. The week is organised by the Soutpansberg Chamber of Commerce. It comprises three categories, namely for primary school children, secondary school children and a category for people between 19 and 23 years of age. Competitors need to enter a business plan, explaining how their businesses will function, what product or service they will offer and why it will be successful. The business plan may also be for a fictitious business.

In the primary school and secondary school categories, the winners will each receive a cash prize of R3000. The runners-up will receive R2 000 each and the entrants who end in third place will receive R1 000 each. In the category for 19 to 23-year- olds the cash prizes are the same as in the other categories, but the winners will receive add-on prizes. These prizes are sponsored by local businesses and are aimed at assisting the young entrepreneurs.

Apart from the PricewaterhouseCoopers sponsorship, the winning entrepreneur in the senior category will receive advertising space worth R2 000 to be used in either the Zoutpansberger or Mirror newspapers. The newspaper group will also sponsor advertising space to the value of R1 000 to the second place winner and R500 for the entrepreneur who ends in third place in the competition.

Coxwell, Steyn, Vise & Naudé Attorneys have offered to establish a Closed Corporation or a company for the second place winner. Leach Printers & Signs will add R700 to this person's prize, which can be used for signwriting or printing of stationery. Leach Printers & Signs will also sponsor a further R300 for the winner of the third place, which can be used for sign- writing or printing.

For the person who enters the third best business plan, Herman van Zyl Attorneys is willing to establish a Closed Corporation. LCV Enterprises has also agreed to sponsor corporate clothing to give this business that extra edge needed in a competitive environment.

A special prize for the school that submits the most quality entries will once again be awarded. Details about this prize will be disclosed within the next week.

Entry forms for the entrepreneurs' competition are available from schools in the region or can be downloaded from www.zoutnet.co.za/ brightsparks. The website also has more information about the competition and the various speakers. The closing date for entries is 22 July, 2002. The names of the winners will be announced on 10 August during a special gala evening at the Air Force Base, Louis Trichardt. Entry forms are also available from the offices of the Mirror and Zoutpansberger newspapers in Louis Trichardt and Thohoyandou.