Business Plan Competition

The annual BYU Business Plan Competition gives students the opportunity to create a business plan or start a business over the course of the school year.

The event kick-off will be Oct. 10. The competition will consist of several events and workshops throughout the year, with final deadlines in February.

Students are encouraged to get involved and get started early, said John Rasmussen, the leader of the student team organizing the event.

The theme for this year's contest is Begin Your Adventure.

The competition is open for all students.

"Many teams come from outside the business school and do well," Rasmussen said. Some recent winners were from history and engineering majors, among many others.

The competition of several events will include smaller competitions and workshops to help students develop their business plans, and ventures for the final competition in March, he said.

There are many categories that students can get involved in, depending on their interests and ideas. There are separate competitions for plans, ventures, stay-at-home businesses, social entrepreneurship and global categories.

The Business Plan competition at BYU is a great opportunity for students, said Nile Hatch, a professor at BYU. More than 60 new ventures were created on campus last year.

"We get attention from all over the country," he said.

Students who participated in last year's competition went on to compete at the University of Texas-Austin, "the super bowl of Business Plan competitions," Hatch said. Winners at BYU get an automatic invitation.

The competition is a great way to help students who have an idea get started, said John Richards, a professor at BYU.

"It provides a central focal point for good ideas and good teams to put their time and attention into a packaged business plan that will help further the interests of all involved," he said in an e-mail.

The competition offers many advantages, said Gary Williams, a business professor at BYU. Workshops help students create teams and improve plans.

"The average investor is going to see 1,000 plans. There is a lot of finesse that goes into creating [written] plans," Williams said. Some investors will decide if they are interested in a business in as little as three pages

The business workshops will help students create plans, start businesses and learn to pitch their ideas to investors.

"We're helping share vision and providing opportunity," Williams said. The professors put structure in place and the students do the rest.
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