A landscaping layout tool based on global positioning system technology, a vending machine that develops and prints photos and a furniture and interior design store targeted at college students are among the eight business ideas that may qualify to compete for $5,000 on May 2.
Â鶹ÒùÔº who created these plans and others will participate in the Spring 2001 Undergraduate Business Plan Competition at the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Business.
The competition will be at 6 p.m. in the College of Business, room 224, Regent Drive on the Boulder campus. A reception will follow in the front hall of the College of Business.
The competition offers students the opportunity to present a comprehensive business plan with an innovative concept for a product or service. The competition requires students to research all aspects of starting a business, from marketing to manufacturing and operations. It is the culminating event of a College of Business course called Business Plan Preparation.
"Finalists must present their plan in a convincing and compelling way, as if the judges were actual investors," said Frank Moyes, instructor of the course. "The competition is as close to a real-world environment as you can get."
Moyes will select four of the eight plans to participate in the competition. The final four business plans will be judged by representatives from companies or organizations including the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, Ereo, Spectra Logic, The Stiles Group and Transition Points.
First prize is $3,000 followed by $1,250 and $750 for second and third places, respectively. Prize money was donated by the Ray and Dottie Joyce Business Plan Endowment. The Joyces are both alumni of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
"We hope that students will develop knowledge that will help them after they graduate and go into some form of entrepreneurship," said Ray Joyce, president of Joyce Investment Co.
The competition is hosted by the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, a joint program of the colleges of business and engineering at CU-Boulder. The center supports entrepreneurship studies at the graduate and undergraduate levels as part of a living laboratory in the dynamic business environment of Colorado's Front Range.
For more information, call Frank Moyes at (303) 492-2062.