Demonstrating that your firm is fighting fit and on an upward curve can boost its profile, help you win new business and – for the greater good – encourage wannabes to try and emulate your success.

• Click here to find out how to enter this year's awards.

Show customers and suppliers alike that your business can be relied upon to deliver, boosting their confidence in you and what you do.

Now entering their 25th year, the awards are the region's established star, and an unrivalled showcase which can be used to help turbo-charge canny entrants' profitability.

Though the stars of the show tend to change year on year, one thing remains constant: from day one the competition has been all about showcasing the very best of the best.

And it has a major role in demonstrating that this area has the business brains and talent to match the very best, and in promoting that fact locally, nationally and internationally.

Simply being a nominee can help entrants attract new staff, ideas and investment, while the sponsors – whose backing helps make the whole thing possible – are well aware of the competition's power to help stimulate the region's entrepreneurial spirit and focus on the future.

Last year's winners included Bunches Florapost, who were named Company of the Year, James Smith, who won Young Business Person of the Year as MD of electrical firm T&S Group, and auctioneers John Pye & Sons, who won the Best Use of IT & Communications award.

This year's awards line-up consists of the Nottinghamshire Company of the Year Award, the Nottinghamshire Small Business of the Year Award, the Start-up Business of the Year Award, the Science & Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the International Trade Award, and the Business Innovation Award.

The sponsors of the awards are KPMG, Notts County Council, EMB, Experian, BioCity Nottingham, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, and Browne Jacobson. The University of Nottingham is sponsoring the awards dinner and the associated video production.

Thanking the sponsors and launching this year's awards, Nottingham Post editor Malcolm Pheby said: "We are proud once again to highlight the very best of the best among the region's businesses.

"It is at difficult times like the present when it is most important, even vital, to be shouting from the rooftops about what we – as businesses and a region – all have to offer, how good it is and how good our services are."