The search is on for Essex’s most outstanding small businesses and self-employed.

The FSB Celebrating Small Business Awards 2019 is now open and small businesses and the self-employed in Essex are being urged to enter before the closing date of February 22. The East of England area winners will be announced at an award ceremony on April 5 at Newmarket Racecourse.

The awards, run by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), will recognise and celebrate the best of the East of England’s small businesses and the vast contribution they make to both regional and national economies and to local communities.

11 award category winners, from digital innovation to family business and from international business to employer of the year, will then go forward to the UK final of the FSB Celebrating Small Business Awards, held at Battersea Evolution, London, on 23 May 2019.