TODAY's tough times are unlikely to go away any time soon – so come out fighting and fly your flag like never before! Business promotion isn't the only factor aiding continued survival and success...but it can give you a great winning edge over competitors who aren't so savvy.

And this year's Nottingham Post Business Awards are a fantastic opportunity to hit a premier regional business audience – and all for free.

• Nottingham Post Business Awards 2012: The categories
• Nottingham Post Business Awards 2012: The sponsors
• Nottingham Post Business Awards 2012: How to enter

For those with courage and foresight, the awards are an opportunity to stand out from the herd, showcasing your company's successes, talents and products to an ever-widening audience. So go for it.

Now entering their 26th year, the awards are an established regional star – a firmly established highlight...with each new competition enabling a fresh group of stars to come shining through.

But it isn't just the winners who benefit. Simply being profiled as an entrant or finalist provides opportunities to attract new customers, investment, fresh blood and ideas.

Interest heightens all the way through the six-month lifetime of the competition until July's gala dinner and presentation ceremony, which are sponsored by the University of Nottingham – present in themselves a golden opportunity to attract interest from an audience of several hundred business and media figures.

This year's honours feature the: Nottinghamshire Company of the Year, Nottinghamshire Small Business of the Year, International Trade, Science & Technology Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Innovation Contribution to the Community and Apprentice of the Year Awards.

The sponsors are: KPMG, Nottinghamshire County Council, Experian, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, BioCity Nottingham, Browne Jacobson, Boots UK, and New College Nottingham.

Thanking the sponsors and launching the awards, Nottingham Post editor Malcolm Pheby said: "Too many people think that challenging times are when they can least afford to spend time and effort on promotion.

"But those are the very times when it is most important, even vital, to be shouting from the rooftops about what you have to offer, how good it is and how good your service is.

"On that front this city and county has some of the very best brains and talents in the country... and this competition is an excellent medium through which to get that message home to the much wider world."