Mike Monroe
Business plan competitions offer great potential for aspiring business owners who want to fund their investments, interest free. The bigger the payout, the stiffer the competition. These articles will help you stick out from the crowd and bring home the bacon.
The good folks at Bplans.com have assembled some of their best advice on business competitions, including common mistakes. This article is money. But the whole website is an amazing resource for anybody who's serious about taking home the cake. Check the title bar for sample plans, how tos, and resources.
Frank Peters, current business plan judge and former chairman of the Tech Coast Angels, offers 10 excellent tips. Make sure to take particular note of the revenue forecasting advice. He even throws in an 11th tip, for fun.
Champions are made in the preseason. Which is why this article should be the first one you read before picking your team and attacking a competition. The section on formulating an advisory board is brilliant advice not followed by a majority of your competitors.
8 veteran judges (from some of the most prestigious competitions) weigh in with their advice. It doesn't get any more insider than this.
This post is more for venture capital pitching... but the lesson is the exact same: keep it simple. As the article says, "in words that your grandmother can understand."
Rhonda Abrams is a small business and startup expert who has been featured in publications worldwide. In this guest post, she bluntly reveals tips applicable to nearly any competition. One nugget = contacting the screener ahead of time to reaffirm evaluation criteria. Gotta get your work in front of the celebrity judge!
Having trouble nailing your elevator pitch? Follow these 10 steps to master your speech for your next competition. This post is very thorough. If you can get past all the annoying ascii text symbols (don't know what the heck those are), there's some great stuff here.
Over 500 business plan samples for dozens of different organizations: restaurants, hotels, car washes, coffee shops, and more. Each example includes an executive summary, mission statement, financials, and more. Definitely worth glancing through.
A conversation with Steve Wunker, a managing director at New Markets Advisors. Steve offers an excellent perspective regarding financial projections, what you should, and SHOULDN'T include in your business plan.
