The University of Dayton Business Plan Competition

A special thanks to our sponsors

UD National Alumni Association 

Overview of today’s presentation

What is a Business Plan competition? Elevator Pitch Cameo Round ◄ The new wrinkle! Finalist round Prize money ◄ $59k this year! Key dates Support

What is a Business Plan Competition?

It’s where you investigate an opportunity for starting a new business– Markets, costs, competition, benefits

You present a 1 minute overview of the opportunity– “back of the cocktail napkin”

Finalists write up their findings in a commonly used format (the business plan has 11 parts)

Ours is a 3-stage competition

Stage 1—Give a one minute speech, write one page of information about your product– Judges select ten semi-finalists, and also identify

top ten oral presentations Stage 2---The ten semi-finalists write up 2-3

pages and talk for five minutes. Judges select five finalists

Stage 3---Five finalists write a full business plan during the winter semester

3 Stage CompetitionPrize Money: $59,000 overall

Prize Elevator Cameo Finalist

1st Place $1,500.00 $1,000.00 $20,000.00

2nd Place $1,000.00 $1,000.00 $10.000.00

3rd Place $500.00 $1,000.00 $5,000.00

4th Place $500.00 $1,000.00 $3,000.00

5th Place $250.00 $1,000.00 $3,000.00

6th-10th $250.00 $1,000.00

Plus a chance for even more money!

The three highest placing finalist teams will be invited to pitch the Connor Foundation Seed Fund for an additional $50k investment!

We also network our finalists to other competitions and potential investors as well

How our competition works—

Three stage competition Solo or team effort (teams 1-8 in size) 1st & 2nd stages open to everyone-two entries

per person Finalist round must include current UD

students or UD Alumni.

What is an Elevator Pitch?

It is a one minute presentation where you – Present your idea– Cover six general areas

In our elevator pitch, Judges don’t ask you questions—you have one full minute to present.

What are the 6 areas of an Elevator Pitch?

1. Introduction

2. Problem Statement

3. Opportunity

4. Resources Required

5. Returns to Investor

6. Tag line and closing

What do the EP judges look for?

1. Novelty/Cleverness/Usefulness

2. Quality of Benefits provided

3. Competitiveness

4. Growth Potential

5. Ability to Execute

6. Quality of presentation

Elevator Pitch Stage:Application process

Application:– Opens 13 September, 2010– Closes 20 October, 2010

What we ask you to tell us – Demographic information– 6 areas of elevator pitch

Space limited to roughly one page.

Elevator Pitch & Cameo stages: Key dates

September 13th: Online system opens October 20th : Application deadline October 22nd, & 29th: Dress Rehearsals October 30th: Elevator Pitch November 20th: Cameo Round December 3rd : Finalists announced

Final Plan Stage:Process

Finalist teams notified on 3 December, 2010 Teams are paired with Mentors. Each team given 15 hours of Mentor time. Coordinator will conduct training sessions for

all teams Teams prepare Business Plan, presentation

slides during the winter semester

Final Stage:Presentation

Each team given 20 minutes to present, plus ten minutes Q & A time– Props, multi-media are acceptable– Break after 3rd presentation

Order of presentations is random, and announced the day of presentations

Full team must be present, but not all team members are required to speak

What do finalist round judges look for?

Quality of the idea Quality of the written plan Quality of the oral presentation Quality of the financial analysis Quality of the team

Why enter a business plan competition?

Entrepreneurship courses teach three critical items

A. Spotting opportunitiesB. Planning to seize those opportunitiesC. Executing the plans.

Many people have great ideas, but are scared of parts “B” and “C”– our goal is to make those steps easier and simpler.

Why is this a good resume line?

It’s a competition, so you outperformed others Spotting opportunities suggests leadership and

creativity Good presentations suggest good

communications skills Business Plans are “big picture”, they

demonstrate how you can see the entire picture

Eligibility:Plan parameters

Work must be original. – Plans checked for plagiarism.

Start-ups acceptable up to one year old. Non-Profits are acceptable, but judged the same as others. Plans cannot violate Marianist values.

– E.g. no payday loans, etc. Plans must be legal

– (e.g. no DVD pirates). Plans cannot have a liquor license. Anyone may enter up to two plans, but can only be a finalist once. Students can’t be serving a university suspension during the

competition

Support for entrants

Free individual instruction with the BPC Director

On-line coaching sessions Optional rehearsals for elevator pitch Coaching sessions for all finalist teams Business mentor assigned to each finalist team Access to market research, planning tools, etc.

What if you don’t have an idea yet?

We’ll help you generate many good ideas

We’ll help facilitate partnerships with people who do have ideas.

We can help you succeed