Business in General

Forbes.com $100K Business Plan Contest

What would you do to grow your business with $100,000? It's not just an idle question. Forbes.com is offering that as the grand prize in its Boost Your Business In 2008 business plan contest.

Applications are being accepted now, and through the end of May.

And here's a challenge for you: the first round is no more than 500 words, which must include (quoting):

• Description Of The Business: Specifically, what product or service is being sold and to what type of customer? What is the estimated size of the addressable market?
• Discussion Of The Business Model: How, specifically, does the company earn a profit? (Examples: retail sales, consulting fees, advertising.)
• Capitalization: How is the business funded? (Examples: loans from family and friends, venture capital, bank loans, cash flow from operations.)
• Differentiators: How is the business different from--or better than--the competition? Why do people want or need this product or service? What is the company's sustainable competitive advantage? If the business is technology-based, has a relevant patent or license been secured?
• Years Of Relevant Experience: For how long, and in what capacity, have you and your management team been involved in the industry?
• Your Plan For Using The $100,000 Prize Money: This is critical! Briefly but specifically describe how you would invest the largesse to take your business to the next level. (Examples: new equipment, new people, more marketing, etc.)

For more information, visit the Forbes.com website.

-- Tim Berry
President
Palo Alto Software

Small Business BC Business Plan Competition

The 5th Annual Small Business BC business plan competition just concluded. It sounds like the event was a huge success this year with over 170 qualified applicants, great finalists, and a great winning business plan. Meet the winners. Danita Harty, over at fundfindr.tv, wrote a nice post about the event. fundfinder.tv is also featuring a video overview of the event that includes interviews with the judges and participants - I especially like the bit that starts at about 4:36.

Winner: James Shearer from Peragro Media Inc.

-- Cale Bruckner

Boost Your Business

Forbes.com will be kicking off their Boost Your Business competition April 2nd. The prize - a $100,000 cash infusion for your business. So dust off your business plan and get ready to convince Forbes.com that your business, above all others, can do the most with that fat pile of money.

This is the 2nd year for the competition. Last year, nearly 1,000 candidates fought it out for the cash. Five finalists presented their business plans to a panel of judges and the lucky winner walked away with a check for $100,000.

I'd love to send a plan produced with some help from Business Plan Pro to this competition in April so convince me that you've got a chance of winning the Forbes.com competition in the comments section of this post and I'll give you a free copy of Business Plan Pro Premier.

Stay tuned to Forbes.com and the Boost Your Business website for details regarding the business plan submission process.

-- Cale Bruckner
-- photo credit: "Dreams..." posted by Flickr user noahwesley

Twitterlicious

I've been sucked into Twitter.

What's a Twitter you ask? Twitter is a (semi)new kind of social medium called "micro blogging"  It allows you to send updates or "tweets" to a bunch of people who follow you on the platform. Each "tweet" is 140 characters and basically forces you to get to your point very quickly.

Unlike here, where you're forced to read until I run out of letters on my keyboard.

The other day Nicole, our resident SEO specialist at Palo Alto Software, forwarded me a link to the first ever Twitter Business Plan Contest.

Russ Somers, the person behind the contest, told me he'd had around 200 people view the contest and five entrants. Anita Campbell from SmallBizTrends was one of the winners: "Monetize answering research questions for readers on a section of my website - ad supported - listing fees featured research"

I think it's a fascinating meld of business and new social media tools and I'm looking forward to the next idea to come out of the new medium.

'Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

The Virtual Business Plan Competition

McKinsey & Company is launching a virtual business plan competition in Second Life.

Be part of the first truly global business-building contest ever held in the virtual world! The Virtual Venture Competition is your chance to turn your innovative ideas into successful business operations in Second Life.

From 3pointD.com

The competition is open to students and young professionals no more than 32 years old, and first prize is US$20,000 in training and career counseling. Teams get 45 days to build a business, but there’s no fixed start or end date, you can apparently jump in at any time. Only a limited number of teams will receive initial funding, however.

It should be really interesting to see how this plays out. This is the 1st business plan competition of this type than I'm aware of. If you're a member of the Second Life community, comment here and let us know how this develops.

-- Cale Bruckner

2007 R.I. Business Plan Winners Named

The winners of the 2007 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition were announced yesterday.

PROVIDENCE – (May 1, 2007) – A local company that provides software which turns GPS-enabled cell phones into personal security devices on college campuses and a student team from Brown University that is creating a company to help employers lower their health care costs have been named the winners of the 2007 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition.

Campus Guardian Corporation, led by Michael Glier of Jamestown, RI, whose software turns GPS-enabled cell phones into personal security devices that automatically notify college and university security in emergency situations, was named the winner in the entrepreneur track.

Providence Health Solutions, LLC, co-founded by Brown University medical students Brad Weinberg and Rajiv Kumar, a workplace wellness program that relies on a peer approach and exercise competitions to motivate behavior change and weight loss, was the student track winner.

(source)

The competition winners each receive prizes valued at $62,500. The competition attracted more that 40 business plans from seven states.

Related: Top 10 Business Plan Competition Mistakes

-- Cale Bruckner

Good Ventures, Bad Plans

What's up with this? Good ventures, represented by not-so-good plans. You read the plan first, then meet the people, listen to their pitch, and ask questions.

Last week I judged a semi-finals round at the University of Oregon's New Venture Championship for the tenth time in 11 years. Every year has been different, this year was different again, but in a new way. Two outstanding observations:

1. The four ventures I dealt with were the best group of four ventures I've ever dealt with. All four had solid ventures, believable offerings, defensible positioning, interesting markets, and competent teams.
2. Three of the four teams presented not-so-good plans that misrepresented the quality of their businesses. Problems began with long winding texts sprinkled with grammatical errors. Some had financial projections that left out key elements of cash flow and working capital. They had no business charts.

That's a shame. The good news is that what they had to present was so much better than what they showed in their plan. The bad news is that the plans undervalued the ventures.

While it is true that the management team, the business offering, and the market potential are much more important than the quality of the plan, it's also true that a business plan is relatively easy to do well. Why, with such a strong venture, would they not take the care to reread and edit their plans? That isn't hard.

I think it's a matter of optimizing. Why not do your best? If you're going to a graduate level intercollegiate and international venture competition, ask somebody to edit the plan for simple practical writing. Make sure your projected income and balance link up correctly with the cash flow, and that the cash flow understands working capital.  Use business charts to illustrate the main numbers.

-- Tim Berry

Cockroach Recipe Wins $50K Venture Contest

On this one I get to think like entrepreneur and grandfather at the same time, because last week's $50K first prize winner at the University of Oregon Intercollegiate International New Venture Competition was a grandfather's recipe for cockroach bait.

This was a surprise. It's cockroach bait, not a website, not medical, not electronics, and not even new. Mullis Enterprises, the University of Georgia entry, was also a last-minute entry, invited to join the 19 other finalists only after the 20th finalist dropped out shortly before the finals.

-- Tim Berry

TechStars Winners Selected

10 startup ideas from the TechStars competition (300 applicants) were selected this week. The selected startups will move to Boulder Colorado for a 3 month, mentor backed, startup kickstart. TechStars provides seed capital, experts, infrastructure, and access for a 5% equity position. Is all of that worth 5%? Does an environment like this increase the chances of startup success? Is it limiting in any way?

Ycombinator, similar business model, made it work for Reddit. -- Cale

Your business plan on a napkin

Women 2.0 has a great concept for a business plan competition: the business plan must fit on a 5x5 napkin.

I love this for a few reasons:

First, this contest forces contestants to focus on their elevator pitch and executive summary which are arguably the most important parts of a business plan. Requiring a focus on the core of what makes a venture remarkable and how it is going to achieve its goals ensures that contestants aren't distracted by the rest of the business plan. Too often, the elevator pitch/executive summary are not given the attention that they require and don't focus on grabbing the reader and convincing them within the first few sentences that the rest of the plan is worth reading. This contest won't let that happen.

Second, there are huge opportunities to be creative with this contest. I'm sure some contestants will just fill the 5x5 space with as much text as they can fit, but the real stand-outs will be the submissions that are creative with the space allowed. How will your napkin stand out from all the other submissions?

Finally, this is unique! The contest itself is remarkable and worth talking about.