𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes has said her post-athletics career in public speaking was never in her “psyche”, as she teams up with rugby star Brian O’Driscoll to judge a new small business competition by HSBC.

Three UK businesses will be picked to win their own celebrity ambassador for the day.

Dame Kelly said her career since being a professional athlete has come about from being “passionate and driven to do the next thing”.

“I’ve been a public global speaker for 20 years. Way before that, did I ever think I’d be standing in front of 2,000 business people… no, it wouldn’t have even come into my psyche but now it’s an everyday occurrence,” she told the Press Association.

“The same as now doing a campaign for small businesses – what credibility have I got?

“But then I think, hold on a minute, I did have my own project. I was into construction and I did run my own business.

“So that’s why I’m passionate about this.”

Dame Kelly said her experience project managing the building of a coffee shop in her home village of Hildenborough in Kent, and then running the business, helps her sympathise with the challenges that small firms face.

The sports star and former British and Irish Lions captain O’Driscoll have partnered with HSBC for its competition, which opened on Tuesday.

The pair, along with HSBC UK’s head of business banking, will judge the entries and look for small firms with a compelling story, a clear purpose, and the potential for the prize to have a meaningful impact on their future growth

Each winner will get to see their business stories bought to life in a bespoke promotional film co-starring Dame Kelly and O’Driscoll.

Dame Kelly said she was looking for “heart” from the entrants, but added that “you also have to have quite a good head on you when you’re thinking ahead of how that business is going to thrive”.

The competition is free to enter and firms don’t have to bank with HSBC.

Entries close at midnight on January 5, with winners announced from January 19 ahead of the promotion video being filmed in February.

HSBC UK said it was launching the competition as part of a campaign highlighting the barriers that entrepreneurs face to growing the profile of their business.

A survey conducted by the bank found that more than half of small and medium-sized business leaders, at 55%, rely on word of mouth and repeat customers to grow.

Under a fifth of the respondents felt their business is promoted enough, and 38% said they lack the time or resources to reach new customers, according to the poll of 500 people.