THE Venus Awards will be launching for the fifth time on January 16 at the Green House Hotel in Bournemouth.

Founder Tara Howard will join the sponsors in welcoming local business women and men, along with winners and finalists from last year.

During the event, Tara will announce the categories and sponsors for this year’s awards as well as marking the opening of nominations.

The awards have gone from strength to strength and this year will be launching in many more regions around the country.

Talking about the phenomenal growth of the awards, Tara, who is a business woman and mother of four, said: “It started off as an idea and quickly became a dream. And now thanks to the help of our sponsors, my little dream has become even bigger than I ever envisaged, which is so wonderful to see.”

The awards, which celebrate the vital input of women in business, will this year see local business women competing in up to fourteen categories, including; New Business, Green Business, Online Business, Networker of the Year, Small Business, Inspirational Woman, Home Based Business, Lifetime Achievement, High Achiever, Employee of the Year, Employer of the Year, Business Mother of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year and Customer Service Award.

There are still one or two categories left for sponsorship so any female friendly companies wishing to join the other sponsors in supporting the Awards still have a chance to support this fantastic event.

The Daily Echo will again be sponsoring the, Business Mother of the Year award, which recognises the role women play not only in the workplace, but also at home.

Anyone can nominate, a friend, client or relative thought the simple online process.