Member Article

Biz Idol winner secures his prize

A building security device was announced as the winner of a local business competition earlier this week. Jim Taylor, a sales manager from East Boldon, has won the Biz Idol 2008 competition, which looks for South Tyneside’s next business talent.

Taylor’s winning entry was the ‘Shutter Up’, a small metal device that protects windows from vandalism damage. He beat many hopefuls who also had their eyes on the top £2000 prize offered by the annual South Tyneside Enterprise Partnership (STEP) Awards.

In addition to the financial contribution from South Tyneside Means Business, Taylor has bagged a year’s free business accommodation from the Tyneside Economic Development Company (TEDCO); legal advice from Crutes Law Firm; marketing support from Mercury Marketing; a subscription to ‘The Best of South Shields’; a year’s membership of the South Tyneside Business Forum; and, of course, a personal trophy.

The judging panel that Taylor had to impress included Ben Cottam, managing director of Cottam Brush Ltd; Gillian George, director of JAG Productions; Andrea Freeman, design and development manager ofJ Barbour Sons Ltd; and Derek Metcalfe, director of Horizonworks. Metcalfe said of the event: “We felt Jim showed great initiative and he presented very well in both rounds and was the deserving winner.”

Having received his prize package, Taylor said: “Biz Idol was a tough process - it can be quite a scary experience trying to prove yourself to a panel in only a few minutes, but I think I was honest and open and did my best, which obviously paid off.

“This prize is exactly what I need to get me started and raise the profile of the business. I think it helped that I demonstrated the strength of the product, by using a sledgehammer to attempt to break a window which certainly got the judges attention!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .