VISIONARY entrepreneurs from south Cumbria took on a Dragons' Den-style challenge in a bid to win thousands of pounds worth of advertising - along with priceless mentoring from some of the area's top business brains. 

Duncan Banatyne and Deborah Meaden may not have been in attendance, but the stakes were high for the owners of six businesses who this week entered the Den - not a disused warehouse, but the boardroom of the Evening Mail, in Abbey Road, Barrow - to take part in the finals of CN Group's annual Business Boost competition. 

The businesses were each pitching for a potential £10,000 of advertising within the Mail's parent company, CN Group Ltd, along with advice from marketing experts, and mentoring from one of the judging panel, Karl Burrell, managing director of the Kendal and Barrow branches of accountancy and business advice firm Lamont Pridmore. 

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Joining Mr Burrell on the judging panel on Thursday were Clare Fitzgerald, deputy advertising director of Furness Newspapers; Rick Holden, CN Group divisional reader travel manager; and Evening Mail journalist Louise Allonby.

Of the six firms, three emerged as winners - with two husband-and-wife pitches so closely matched that the judges decided to split the £10,000 of advertising between the two businesses. 

Ulverston farmers Denise and Mike Stable impressed the panel with their determination to diversify, in order to keep their dairy farm viable. 

Mr and Mrs Stable are about to launch Cumbrian Cow, selling dairy ice cream, which Mrs Stable makes from milk produced by the family's herd of dairy cows. 

Mrs Stable said: "Farmers are always being encouraged to diversify. These are difficult times for the industry; and with the poor price we receive for our milk, it's good to be able to use it in this way. 

"We did a lot of research about how to diversify our business - and the most useful advice we got was 'make ice cream - it makes everyone smile'." 

The Stables took on Edge Hill Farm on the outskirts of Ulverston, leaving the family farm at Urswick in the hands of their son Thomas and his wife Anna. 

They now provide the milk for Mr and Mrs Stable senior to use in their Cumbrian Cow ice cream business, which is set to open next month. 

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Sharing the £10,000 of advertising with the Stables were Richard and Angela Barker, who recently returned to Cumbria after working abroad and in the south of England. 

They set up The Chocolate Cottage in Grasmere, selling high end, handmade chocolates. 

Mr Barker said: "It has been a challenging time for businesses in Cumbria - especially since the floods last year - and we want to drive our business so that we can balance out our trade during the tourist season with attracting more local customers from areas such as Furness." 

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Winner of the arts, sport and recreation category was Peter Kelly, who runs Ambleside-based Swim the Lakes, providing open water swimming experiences in all the Cumbrian lakes which are safe to swim in. 

Mr Kelly said: "I started with an outdoor equipment shop, but changed tack when I realised that this is just the greatest area in the country for outdoor swimming; so I decided to start offering guided wild swims, events and short breaks for people wanting to experience the thrill of open water swimming." 

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Other finalists, who will be offered free marketing help and advice from CN, included Jonathan Adams who has set up Pastures Pantry, a vegetarian cafe in Scott Street, Barrow; Kamal Siddiqi, who runs The Old Vicarage care home in Allithwaite; and Claire Todd, who runs Todds Saddlery in Kendal, along with her parents, aunt and uncle. 

After the judging, Ms Fitzgerald said the standard of entrants this year had been exceptional. 

She added: "It was an incredibly strong field. Each business was extremely impressive. 

"We were amazed by the variety of the different businesses and the innovative way in which some of them have risen to the challenge of the need to diversify." 

Mr Burrell, who will act as mentor to the three winning businesses, said he had been impressed with the passion shown by the competitors. 

He added: "These are people who have a real passion about what they do and what their businesses are about. They all have real belief in their businesses - and that's priceless. 

"All the candidates were of a really high quality." 

Mr Holden added: "They all utterly recognise the effort that is needed to succeed in business; and they are all refreshingly open to advice. 

"All of them demonstrated that they know that in these challenging times for business, customers aren't necessarily going to come knocking on their doors: they have to go out there and find those customers."