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Business Plan CompetitionsThe 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
Held by business organizations
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. Other articles by this author »
About Laura Ciocan
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 Related
And here is another random article you might be interested in... How to Get Your Procedures Project DoneWouldn't it be nice for business owners and executives to be finished with their policies and procedures project already? They know they need to get it done, but maybe it's taking too long. Or perhaps their people are staring at a blank piece of paper, and they don't know where to begin. Or maybe they're not sure what to write. Or they're just too busy. The Usual Scenario Companies face these hang-ups everyday, in every industry, in every market. And it can be frustrating when trying to balance the everyday duties with the long-term vision and mission of the company. So which takes priority, and what are the feasible options to help with the process? Save Research Time Well-defined Policies & Procedures are based on applicable US regulations, industry standards and Best Practices, all researched by experienced personnel, technical writers, and process experts. This can save companies and executives valuable time researching the same material themselves. Increase Procedure Writing Confidence Instructional content, how to books, training, consulting and live support can help to ensure companies they have the information they need to develop usable policies & procedures right the first time. Simplify the Integration of Processes A wide range of manuals for the entire company all from a single source save time integrating the procedures needed. Speed Policy Development Standard usability formats, process design methodology and numerous examples for every department reduces employee confusion and improves usability speeding up policy development by less experienced personnel. Ease Document Editing Tasks Common MS-Word features provide faster editing, easier changes and simpler document updates to such things as the table of contents compared to RTF, PDF or hardcopy formats. Get Quick Answers to Procedures Questions Companies can be prepared with answers to policy and procedures questions. They can use the table-of-contents, keyword index feature, or the provided hardcopy manual to get fast searchable answers to their process questions. Many might not be very excited about spending hundreds of man hours on your procedures project, and they don't have to. Instead, they can save time for themselves and for their business. Other articles by this author »
About Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson has over 18 years of management experience working with business process design, software and systems engineering, consulting with companies large and small. He is also co-author of policies and procedures manual products, producing the layout, process design and implementation of the information to increase performance. He is currently the Managing Director of Bizmanualz, Inc. Visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com Related
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