IT’S deadline day for Oxfordshire entrepreneurs wanting to enter our Business Accelerators competition.

Dozens of firms have already signed up for a chance to win three months’ free advertising in Newsquest Oxfordshire’s titles, along with free mentoring from business experts.

Mike Jennings, Brendon Cross and Bob Urwin have decades of experience working with businesses and are keen to pass on the benefit of their experience to our lucky winners.

Mr Jennings is chairman of the family business which runs the Monument Business Park in Chalgrove, the business park at The Boundary, Garsington, and three centres in Oxford, Abingdon and Didcot.

In 2008 he took over running Thames Business Advice Centres (TBAC), which provide mentoring and accommodation for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs and since then has overseen the mentoring of 160 small businesses.

He said: “It is important for people in business to have someone they can build a rapport with and understand what they are doing.”

But Mr Jennings stressed that mentors do not give business advice but share experiences to help the entrepreneur make their own decisions.

He added: “Giving your time to help someone is very rewarding and both sides get something out of it.”

Witney-based Mr Cross set up Spire Telecom in 1995, building it into a major business which was sold to Carphone Warehouse in a multi-million pound deal in 2004.

He then started STL Communications and has grown it to the point where it now employs more than 40 staff with a turnover in excess of £5m.

He spends a lot of time mentoring small businesses through TBAC and he set up Hexagon Business Centres at Hexagon House, Witney, which is home to 40 small firms ranging from a wine trader to a yoga business.

Mr Cross said: “I’d like to say that I became a volunteer mentor to give something back, or because it’s the right thing to do, but the truth is I really enjoy it and nothing gives me a buzz like sharing thoughts and ideas with anyone who is keen to grow their business.”

Mr Urwin was part of a team which launched the Oxford Journal in 1973.

He went on to help establish free newspapers around the country, including the Courier group in Oxford, which merged with the Milestone group in 2003, and raised £10m after floating on the Stock Exchange.

At that point he bought the Oxford franchise for property lettings business Martin & Co, which he set up with daughter Claire.

He said: “When I started my first business I was in my mid-30s and I would spend hours researching any relevant bit of information I could find on why some businesses succeed and others fail.

“I came to the conclusion that hard work was nearly always the common denominator. This was usually followed by the risk factor.

“I know the one thing I would have valued above everything else would have been an experienced mentor.

“This is why this Newsquest initiative is such a good idea.

“There will certainly be challenges for start-up entrepreneurs in the current economic climate.”

The Business Accelerators competition, part of a £15m campaign by the Newspaper Society to boost awareness of the power of local media, is backed by Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden and Prime Minister David Cameron.

Any businesses wanting to take part need to register their details on the website accelerateme.co.uk by tonight.