THE Northern Echo today reveals the two finalists of The if we can, you can challenge.

Claire Mitchell, from Barnard Castle, the co-owner of astonmitchell, an online men’s make-up retail business, will battle it out with Esther Dingley, from Durham, who runs PostGraduate Toolbox, a recruitment and training agency that gives postgraduates the chance to show off their additional skills over other graduate jobseekers.

The pair beat four other entrepreneurs.

Judges put them ahead for their vision, concept and drive.

Over the next four weeks, the Echo will follow the two finalists to get an insight into their entrepreneurial journeys before announcing the winner on June 11.

As well as becoming a face of entrepreneurship, the winner will get a “money can’t buy” mentoring surgery, £5,000 worth of business services and a business gadget.

Readers can cast their vote for one of the finalists by either texting necho, followed by a space and the name of their finalist to 07624-803199 or by emailing Northern Echo, and their choice, to voting @entrepreneursforum.net The public vote will be combined with the judges’ scores to determine the winner.

The challenge is part of the if we can, you can campaign by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and funded by One North East.

More than 100 entrepreneurs entered and have now joined the online community of entrepreneurs.

To find out more about the finalists, and other entrants, go to ifwecanyoucan.co.uk, which now lists more than 500 members and 65 mentors.