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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.
Laura Ciocan writes for www.businessplanning.ws where you can find more information about business planning 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
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Break it up, Break it Down: Paragraphing Strategies for College Essays
First, let's imagine we are creating a couple of "outlines" for paragraphs about places in the world. [2] Fill in the blanks for the two paragraphs below, by pretending each word or phrase is a sentence, with the first word (1) the topic sentence:
Why Study the Flows of Civilization?
There is no reason we cannot fix the flows, refine the system and give this greatest gift ever to the rest of the world. Every one wins. There is also no reason why it cannot work. Such a set of systems and methods, franchise so to speak, will unite the world and set us on course for another 200 years of prosperity. There is no reason that in 1000 years we cannot look back and say that in this period we launched the human race on a course that changed the world. There is no reason not to start today and complete this project and set the course within our lifetime. Therefore without a reason not to complete this project it would behoove this species to get busy and get it done. This in depth study will give 10 or more pages (chapters) to each of the flows listed above. Where we have done well, where we could improve and observations of the absurdity of political correctness. For us to fix the World, we in the US must lead by example, fix America and simultaneously admit our own mistakes and use that knowledge to fix the world. Our goal is to fix the World, but unfortunately there are so many barriers and restrictions to doing so or assisting in the process that we must first fix the flows first and then let the flows help us as we fix the world. You cannot fix the world or convince others to join your cause if they are hateful, starving, suffering, at war, caught up in religious fanaticism or un yielding in their current point profiting in the obstruction of flow.
Self Marketing 101 - Why Students Should Tell Lies
I should know. I'm from the South and we shoot liars all the time. Of course, I'm lying. But I can't help it. After all, I am a "Southern" storyteller. I emphasis the adjective because I believe Southerners tell stories for reasons that are not always apparent to our friends in other parts of the United States. Our stories are more than entertainment. They teach lessons and those lessons are always filled with wisdom that is inspirational.
Chiropractic colleges and schools offer education and training in chiropractic health treatments. Teaching a broad spectrum of topics of diagnostics and treatment for persons suffering from muscular, nervous and skeletal system problems; chiropractic colleges and schools stand strong on the firm belief that interference within these systems can disrupt normal functioning and lowers resistance to disease. Chiropractic colleges and schools are holistic educational systems that place emphasis on the patient's overall well-being. By evaluating numerous factors such as one's exercise, diet, rest, environment and heredity; chiropractic colleges and schools teach prospective physicians to use natural, drug-free, non-surgical health treatments that rely on the body's self-healing mechanisms.
Hidden College Costs: Roommate Conflict
"Students who can't handle conflict run into trouble with roommates almost immediately," said Susan Fee who is the author of My Roommate is Driving Me Crazy! Solve Conflicts, Set Boundaries, and Survive the College Roommate From Hell (Adams Media, 2005). "They avoid the issue rather than deal it, causing increased stress, lower grades, and additional moving and housing expenses," said Fee, who is a licensed professional counselor. She said students who focus only on academic success do so at the expense of other life skills.
The Challenges College Students Face on Secular Campuses
The Intellectual Challenge Christian students on a secular campus face a great intellectual challenge. The underlying principle of the university classroom is naturalism. Students find it everywhere, not just in biology, physics, anthropology, and geology, but also in chemistry, astronomy, psychology, political science, and so on. University faculties defend this pervasive naturalism in two ways: by banishment and by confrontation.
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