Entries are coming in for our search to find the businesses in Bradford who provide the best public service… and who make the best bosses.

We launched our Bradford Means Business Awards 2011 just before Christmas, with a host of categories for the district’s companies – from single entrepreneurs to organisations which employ thousands – to enter themselves in.

We also want to hear about the best employers and those who provide the best public services or customer satisfaction, and those nominations are better coming from the people who know best.

Two categories – Retail/ Hospitality Business of the Year, sponsored by Welcome To Yorkshire, and Employer of the Year, sponsored by Last, Cawthra, Feather Solicitors – will be judged by our panel on the basis of nominations from, in the first instance, the general public and, for the second category, the workforce.

The first category in which we’ll be seeking public nominations is the Retail/Hospitality Business of the Year. We want to hear about the highest standards of customer service from our readers’ favourite businesses.

It might be a hotel, pub, restaurant, shop or any business that has day-to-day contact with the general public.

We’re accepting first-stage nominations on our website at telegraphandargus. co. uk/bradford-meansbusiness, via the usual online form which is used for any of the categories, but today we’re also running a coupon for you to fill in and send to us by the deadline of Friday, February 11.

When it comes to the category of Employer of the Year, we know that the only people who can truly nominate for this award are those who work for the business.

We want to know about working environment, people development, training, and a commitment to the general well-being of the workforce.

Again, online entry is permitted but you can use the same coupon for this. We want as much information as we can get about why a particular organisation should be Employer of the Year, with plenty of examples of the things they do to make working for them a pleasure.

When we’ve got all the first-stage entries in, they will be passed to the judging panel who will assess their suitability for the next stage of the awards.