Business Plan Competitions by:Laura Ciocan
The idea of a business plan competition first started in the 1980's at the initiative
of some MBA students from Texas and has increasingly gained popularity. Such events happen yearly and rejoice a great affluence of contestants, which highly increases their competitiveness.
Competitions
Organized by Universities
Babcock Elevator Pitch Competition - Wake Forest University
Enterprise Creation Competition - Ball State University
Moot Corp. Competition - University of Texas
Duke Start-Up Challenge - Duke University
IBK Capital Ivey Business Plan Competition - University of Western Ontario
OFC Venture Challenge - Clark Atlanta University
Venture Adventure - Colorado State University
Held by business organizations
Jungle Business Plan Challenge - Jungle Media Group
S.E.E.D. Business Plan Competition - TechKnowledge Point Corp.
Venture Bowl - National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Carrot Capital
You will wonder probably what exactly do these competitions consist of and where does their popularity come from?
Organizers
Although the organizers and sponsors are usually universities, there are several business organizations that host business plan competitions.
Contestants
Business plan competitions are student entrepreneur events. The contests are organized either for graduate or undergraduate students and it does not necessarily have to be MBA students. The contestants may be student scientists, engineers, MDs or other specialists who strive to create a viable business plan hoping to enter such competitions.
The popularity of such contests also reached some other layers: business plan competitions are also organized with the purpose of giving people the possibility of starting a business. Business plan competitions usually happen as intercollegiate events, but this contest formula has also been taken over by companies who want to facilitate the founding of new businesses.
It is also the case of Ford Motor Company that sponsored the Ford BEST (Building Entrepreneurial Success Today) Business Plan contest in association with SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" and DiversityInc. The BEST Business Plan contest took place in the winter of 2004 and addressed all U.S. citizens over 18. All the submitted business plans were judged by an advisory panel from SCORE.
Why the need to participate in such events?
Besides the cash prizes, that, although quite important, will rarely suffice for financing the foundation of a company, there is the advantage of learning from this experience - this will enrich students' knowledge in a greater degree than the mere theoretical aspects they learn from lectures.
Not in the last place, there is the valuable opportunity of pitching the business plans to quite a lot of investors in a very short time.
How Do Winners Benefit?
Innitially started as a valuable opportunity for the students with bright business ideas to express them within contest conditions, the business plan competitions have become a resource for some investors. There are two categories of results of such competitions:
You would say that choosing from purely theoretical plans would be highly improbable for a venture investor. Yet, that's how many successful firms came into being.
1-800 Contacts
A mail-order contact-lens-replacement company in Draper, Utah. The business plan won the 1995 Brigham Young University tournament in Provo, Utah.
Attorneys @ Work
An Internet recruiting and placement service in Atlanta. Competition: 1996, University of Georgia.
SensAble Technologies Inc.
In Cambridge, Mass., won the MIT competition in 1995.
Epotec Inc.
Competition: 1997, University of Chicago.
However, having good results in an important competition does not necessarily imply launching a company successfully. There is the risk that some investors consider your plan an academic exercise before really studying it and thus the percentage of trust is substantially reduced.
About the author
Laura Ciocan writes for
http://www.businessplanning.ws where you can find more information about what is a business plan
Please feel free to use this article in your Newsletter or on your website. If you use this article, please include the resource box and send a brief message to let me know where it appeared. Contact:
lauracio@gmail.com
How to Write a Business Plan While Playing by:Laura Ciocan A Blueprint for Managing your PR by:Robert A. Kelly Legally Clearing Your Credit by:T.B. Collins When Year-End Sales Resemble Coal And Leave No Room For Gifts by:Teena Rose Why Some People Almost Always Make Money With Investments by:Harold D. Swannson Finding Your Perfect Work by:Linda Matias ISO 9001 Registration - 8 Steps for Success by:Chris Anderson What's Important About PR? by:Robert A. Kelly Which Type of Fear Might Be Holding You Back from Success in Business? by:Vishal P. Rao Benjamin Franklin, Pennies, and Millions of Dollars$$$ by:Tom Levine Financial Wizards Prepare! 4 Lil' Tiny Duckies!... by:Tom Levine Understanding Bridging Finance by:Commercial Lifeline Emotional Trading by:Al Thomas