IN spite of all the financial doom and gloom surrounding the UK economy there are still plenty of small business success stories around in cities and towns like Bolton.
Laura Taylor, for example, runs her own decorating firm, Décor Angels, and won the Bolton heat of the Local Business Accelerator contest run by The Bolton News and the Newspaper Society.
As well as free advertising, she also won free mentoring from successful businessman Andrew Dickson who now runs The Wow Factor business consultancy. Laura is already benefiting from his good advice, and he’s finding her a willing pupil.
This town has many potential Lauras and, fortunately, a wealth of Andrews with useful experience to pass on. It’s an effective formula and, in the long term, it will  definitely help push Bolton forward.