Two of last year's winners of the Morgan Foundation's Entrepreneur Awards have revealed how their success has enabled them to "live the dream".

Chris Larkin, from the So Baby company, and Nick Ashfield, from Championship Miniaturegolf, were speaking as Wolves chairman Steve Morgan staged a launch event at Molineux for the 2008 Entrepreneur Awards.

Steve has extended the Morgan Foundation's awards to not only include the North West but also Wolverhampton and its surrounds, with business and entrepreneurs competing in five categories for prize money and professional services totalling £150,000.

Chris and Nick were also present at today's launch to reveal just how their successes last year have enabled their businesses to prosper, providing food for thought for potential candidates from Wolverhampton.

Chris and wife Sarah were motivated towards founding their So Baby business making hand-made frozen organic baby meals following the birth of their daughter.

"We saw there was a huge gap in the market for high quality organic produce for babies but people just didn't have either the time or inclination to do it themselves," explained Chris.

"We started off renting a kitchen in a restaurant for a day-and-a-half with stringent analysis and daily visits from Environmental Health and Trading Standards.

"When we entered the awards we didn't expect even to get to the final but were bowled over when we won.

"We'd been in a Chicken and Egg situation in terms of growing the business but by winning the Entrepreneur Awards we were able to improve our equipment and take new lines to the marketplace.

"The Morgan Foundation's awards gave us the confidence our business was sustainable and enabled us to push on with ideas that we thought were important.

"Thanks to Steve and the foundation we have really been able to live the dream over the last year and long may that continue."

So Baby scooped £50,000 for the Best New Business title while Championship Miniaturegolf netted £12,000 for Best Potential Business.

Nick, who originally lived in Penn before moving up North, was able to turn his idea into reality thanks to the timely win.

"Thanks to my love of golf I had the idea for a sophisticated brand of Crazy Golf using miniature caricatures of world-famous golf holes," he explains.

"I believed I had a good idea and the market research backed that up but I just needed something to really make it happen.

"The Entrepreneur Awards came along at just the right time and just being involved in the whole process and reaching the final was a major confidence boost.

"Pitting my wits against the judging panel was also beneficial in terms of getting feedback from people who had been really successful in industry and that credibility helped get my first order for a nine hole course.

"One of them is now up and running at a Holiday Park just outside Blackpool and I'm hoping to set up another in Manchester.

"The Morgan Foundation really helped me and I just want to take this opportunity to thank them."

Steve was delighted to see the progress made by two of last year's winners as he outlined hopes that the Awards would encourage similar innovations from applicants in Wolverhampton.

He said:  "What we want is to get people talking about these awards to provide a real stimulus to the spirit of entrepreneurship.

"The North West and the West Midlands have always been real leaders in this field and I'm not sure if we still have the same sort of entrepreneurship as our forefathers did.

"The two areas were at the heart of development in this country and we're just trying to encourage that to happen again.

"The idea is not only to encourage the idea of entrepreneurship but also provided some financial encouragement as well.

"There was nothing like this around when I was starting out in business and it can really make a huge difference.

"There is some excellent young entrepreneurial talent about, and it's important that people become role models.

"To see what Chris and Nick have achieved and how big a difference it has made over the last 12 months is brilliant and makes it all worthwhile."

* Details of the application process, five categories and prize money can be found from tomorrow at the new website - www.mf-awards.co.uk  

PICTURED: Nick Ashfield describes the impact of the Enterpreneurial Awards to Steve Morgan and guests at Molineux.