THE bare truth - and the juicy facts - will be given to budding entrepreneurs in York next weekend.

A (fully-clothed) Calendar Girl, Tricia Stewart, will launch The Enterprise Show at Museum Gardens in the city, a two-day event starting on Saturday.

It is being staged by Yorkshire Forward and the four Business Links in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Tricia, who both dreamt up and appeared in the alternative WI calendar produced by the women of Rylstone and District to raise money for Leukaemia Research, will officially open and speak at each of the shows in York, Sheffield, Leeds and Hull.

The famous calendar, which has now sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide, and provided the inspiration for the Calendar Girls film starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, has since spawned a new business venture for Tricia and her husband, Ian, in Calendar Girls Holidays Ltd.

Tricia hopes to inspire people behind new ventures with the ways in which she made her own business and charity fundraising ideas become reality.

The shows, which kick off in York, are designed to give anyone either thinking of starting in business or who has been trading for less then 12 months, access to a vast array of free help, advice and expertise.

Tricia, who received help and advice from Business Link when she and Ian set up a specialist medical software company, said: "We had never run our own business before and the assistance that we received proved extremely valuable in this and subsequent enterprises - including the launch of the calendar.

"One idea led to another and, with professional help and advice along the way, we have been able to turn our ideas into reality."

The juicy facts will be offered at the York Enterprise Show by Nick Ledger and his uncle, Paul Hellawell who, two years ago, founded UK Juicers Ltd, last year's winners of the New Business and e-commerce titles in the Evening Press Business of the Year Awards.

With help and advice from Business Link, Nick and Paul have built an award-winning company with UK and overseas sales of their juicing equipment approaching £1 million.

Business Link advisers and specialists will be on hand at each of the shows to provide help and advice on all aspects of setting up and running a new business.

Updated: 11:23 Wednesday, May 05, 2004