Little Mouse and Enumero in Tauranga are two of three Bay of Plenty companies to be selected to advance to the next stage of the ANZ Flying Start Business Plan competition.

The entrepreneurs will now have to complete a business plan for the next stage of the competition.

The Tauranga entrepreneurs, along with Chemipreneur Limited from Rotorua, will join 36 fellow regional winners from throughout New Zealand going through to the next stage.

The competition, run by Business.govt.nz, is part of a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment aim to seek out the best business plan from new or fledgling Kiwi enterprises and help them put their plans into action.

Little Mouse publishes dual language e-Books through an application called Two Tongues. Enumero is a solution service company and developer of market-leading software and robotics for the horticultural sector.

Chemipreneur is a research and development business creating products from manuka resources.

'We have been overwhelmed by the innovative and well-constructed business plans we have received from a wide range of businesses across New Zealand.

'The three Bay of Plenty finalists must now submit a more detailed business plan, along with the other 36 regional finalists.”

A second round of judging will then take place and 13 regional winners will be chosen.

From these, five will be invited to Wellington to pitch their business to our panel of experts.

Gold sponsor ANZ is again putting up $30,000 in cash for the Supreme winner.

The second and third prize winners each receive $5000 in cash from ANZ, while the competition's 10 regional winners each receive $1000 cash from silver sponsors Ernst & Young, OfficeMax and Xero.

Winners will be announced at the grand final in Wellington on October 30.