Business is about competition–for customers, for market share, for employees and yes, for financing. When you are looking for capital to launch or expand your venture, you are likely to be tapping the same sources as millions of other entrepreneurs. Lenders and investors are looking to answer just one question: Which of these entrepreneurs have the best ideas, and are most likely to make my loan to or investment in their businesses pay off?
Business plan competitions boil this concept down to its essence, identifying a group of entrepreneurs and inviting them to literally compete for the capital and expertise they need to take their business idea from concept to reality, or their venture to the next level. These competitions now include those sponsored by university business schools (the originators of such contests), others funded by major corporations looking to identify new suppliers, and reality TV shows such as ABC’s Shark Tank. Nearly all of these competitions require you to submit yourself and your business plan to the scrutiny of business experts, financiers, bankers, accomplished entrepreneurs and others who will decide which business ideas are worthy of investing in–and which are not worth the paper the business plan is printed on.
While the most obvious incentive for braving these competitions is a major cash infusion for your business, even more valuable is the chance to gain access to expert advice and business contacts that might otherwise be unaffordable or inaccessible to you as a new entrepreneur.If you have a great business plan, the ability to effectively articulate your business model, and the courage to face merciless criticism and even cold rejection, business plan competitions could be a great source of funds for your business.
ABC’s Shark Tank: The producers of the new ABC reality series Shark Tank are on “a nationwide search to discover the next successful—and possibly wealthy–entrepreneurs, inventors, businesspersons, dreamers, promoters, creators and innovators.â€
In each episode, aspiring entrepreneurs are given the unprecedented chance to convince a panel of business moguls and potential investors (the “sharks”), such as FUBU Founder Daymond Johns, to provide the financial backing necessary to bring their business concepts, products or services to the marketplace–in return for an equity stake in the ventures. A really hot idea could prompt a “feeding frenzyâ€, causing the sharks to compete for the chance to invest by bidding up the level of financing offered.
In addition to a chance to
get a significant cash infusion for your business and to add some influential and wealthy business contacts to your network, there’s another potentially valuable prize–the national exposure that comes from competing on the American Idol of business plan competitions. To answer ABC’s Shark Tank casting call, click here.The MillerCoors Urban Enterpreneurs Series: Now in its 11th year, the MUES Business Plan Competition annually identifies urban entrepreneurs ages 21-35 from across the nation to compete for a pool of $150,000 in business grants. Black Enterprise is the official magazine of the competition and several of its editors, including myself, have served as judges, along with bankers, attorneys, business school deans and other small business experts. MillerCoors has awarded $1.4 million in business grants to entrepreneurs via MUES since 1999.
For winners of the most recent MUES business plan competition, see “Urban Entrepreneurs Series Celebrates 10th Anniversary.
Finalists from regional screenings in metro areas including Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles submit their business plans for review and grading by a national panel of judges, and then pitch their business idea directly to those judges, who grill them with questions about their business model, financials and marketplace assumptions. The 2010 MUES Business
competition is now open for entry, all of which must be submitted online. The entry deadline is noon CST, on Friday, October 1, 2010. To learn more, check MillerCoorsMUES.com.WPI Venture Forum Business Plan Contest: This competition
is held by the Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute to “inspire and facilitate technology-based entrepreneurship.†The WPI Venture Forum Business Plan Contest is open to technology-based, pre-start, startup, and on-going businesses located in the Northeast. Students are eligible. The venture must involve the development of a new product, a new application, or process in an existing business or the start-up of a new technology-based business.Sponsors of the competition offer not only the chance to gain access to potential investors, but help developing your business plan. There is a $50 fee to enter the contest. Executive Summaries are 2010 contest are due Friday, October 8, 2010. Qualified applicants will be invited to make a 15-minute presentation in the First Round on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA, Saturday, October 16, 2010.  Final presentations will be made on November 9, 2010 at WPI. To learn more, go to WPI Venture Forum Business Plan Contest web page.
Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) Investor Matchmaking Event: This is an event of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a nonprofit research and strategy organization founded by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter in 1994. ICICÂ is a free program providing web-based training workshops, a day-long educational program on equity and growth financing, and a one-day event connecting business participants with investors including private equity firms, venture capitalists, mezzanine investors and angel investors. Since the launch of the program, nearly 200 inner city companies and 150 equity providers have been selected to participate. Participating companies have raised more than $335 million in capital and experienced a compound growth rate of 23 percent.
This year’s ICCC Investor Matchmaking Event will be held November 15-16 in Los Angeles and will feature a full day of speed-pitching to potential investors, along with workshops and individual assessments of investment potential. The deadline for ICCC nominations is September 30, 2010. Eligible companies must be headquartered in or have 51 percent or more of physical operations presence in an economically distressed urban area, and be a for-profit corporation, partnership or proprietorshio with revenues of more than $2 million in 2009.
Check for information on other business plan competitions in future installments of Get Money at BlackEnterprise.com.