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by business editor Trevor Sturgess

It’s your chance to help a new Kent firm with sights on a
date with Dragon Deborah Meaden to another top honour.

House sign design company Ebox Media of Cranbrook has already
scooped a regional accolade and stands to win an extra trophy -
with your help.

The Newspaper Society (NS) has launched a people’s poll to
decide the best regional winner in its successful Local Business
Accelerators campaign.

The contest, backed by Prime Minister David Cameron, Business
Secretary Vince Cable and the CBI’s John Cridland, was run by
regional media groups nationwide, including the KM Group across
Kent.

Nationally it attracted 3,100 entrants, including 60 from Kent.
Ebox Media, a web-based house sign design enterprise set up by
former chef Dan Clay, won the Kent contest.

Along with three other finalists, he received free newspaper
advertising worth thousands of pounds.

He was also given free mentoring by experts from Reeves, the
award-winning accounting firm based in Chatham Maritime and
Canterbury. National experts were so impressed by the business that
they chose him as the southern region winner.

He is competing against 11 other regional winners for a year’s
free mentoring by Deborah Meaden, a star of the BBC series Dragons’
Den. The decision will be announced at a grand final in London on
June 28.

But there is a separate poll for the public to have their say. A
video interview with each winner can be watched on The People’s
Choice page of the NS site and KMG’s www.kentonline.co.uk. The
deadline is midnight on June 24.

The winner will be announced alongside the campaign’s overall
winner chosen by an independent judging panel.

LBA national ambassador Deborah Meaden said: “These businesses
have done incredibly well to get to the final stages of Local
Business Accelerators and I would like to offer my heartfelt
congratulations to each of them.

“It has been fascinating to see how local papers can provide
lasting and practical help for young businesses, whether by
creating new links for them within the business community or by
helping them to communicate more effectively with existing and
potential customers.”

Shortlisted businesses come from a variety of sectors and
include a brewery, a confectionery maker, a recruitment consultant,
a maternity wear retailer, and communications company.

• You can vote at http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/local-business-accelerators-the-peoples-choice.