BYU Business Plan Competition

On Friday I was a judge for the 1st Round of the BYU Business Plan Competition.  I beleive there were 16 judges comprising local VC’s and Entrepreneurs from the Utah market judging over 40 business plans submitted by student teams.  The finalist will take home over $100,000 in money and prizes.  Talk about a jumpstart to help get your company off of the ground!

While our task was to narrow the list of plans down to 8 semifinalist, (all very good plans and business concepts by the way), I wanted to send a message to the teams that didn’t make it through to the semifinals.  Many of the plans that didn’t move on were actually very good.  Many of the business concepts were very good.  The competition was tough and just because your plan didn’t make it through certainly doesn’t mean you can’t move forward and build a successful company.

As an entepreneur, I recognized many of the business ideas as potential successful small businesses.  Maybe not the type of business that a Venture Capitalist would be interested in funding, but the type of business I would look to start and build any day of the week.  Most small businesses are what we term “lifestyle” businesses.  They support the owners lifestyle with no intention of growning to be a $100 million company.  Those teams that submitted this type of plan but did not make it to the next round, I look forward to you building your successful small business, creating jobs, and seeing you live the lifestyle any entrepreneur would dream of. 

And, if you learned from this year’s experience, build a new plan and enter next year’s competition.  Let me know if you need any help, I’m always available to help students become successful entrepreneurs.