You need to RSVP (even if you are getting a free ticket) to Kayla at 397-4002 by Monday, December 7th at noon.  EVEN IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE FOR A FREE TICKET YOU NEED TO RSVP!  Do it now because the seats are going fast!

For those not selected as finalists, please stay engaged in the process.  As announced in an earlier post, we are creating a process for willing contestants to have their plan introduced to investors and other interested parties.  You are encouraged to attend the 30 Nov (7 PM) session on how to pitch your plan to investors.  Finally, you’ll receive two free “tickets” to attend the awards luncheon on December 9^th. 

When we have received all of the business plans back from the judges we’ll make a post to that effect and the entrants can pick them up at the Lalani Center.   I did sit in as the judges made their final deliberations and can pass to you some of the comments the judges made on the plans.  Please feel free to discuss this with me when you pick up your plans.

What we intend to do is to circulate to interested individuals an information sheet with a paragraph on each firm that wants to be introduced to this interested group.  Of course, this information will be public—a fact you want to keep in mind as you decide how much about your idea to reveal.  The paragraph should be no more than 5 lines in length and should end with your name and contact information so these interested individuals can contact you directly.  We can help you write this paragraph if you’d like.  If you’d like to be included in the information sheet mailing you must submit the paragraph by Friday, December 18^th, 2009.  Emailing it to jeff.stambaugh@mwsu.edu is fine.  We’re also considering whether to host a get together one evening in January between contestants and interested individuals. 

There is a lot of media interest in the teams that are competing in IdeaWF.  That means your new venture could get some free publicity.  When you signed the application form you agreed to provide publicly releasable information about your proposal if you were selected as a finalist.  We’re confident that the media will be very interested in the finalists as soon as they are announced.  Finalists that get us their “public paragraph” sooner rather than later will allow them maximum benefit from this media attention.  Even if you aren’t a finalist we think you can generate some media interest in your venture.  Therefore, if “non-finalists” send us their paragraph and clearly state that we can share this information with the media we’ll do so.  

The next step in the competition is the oral presentations for the finalists.  The good news is that putting together a great presentation is easy when you have a great business plan.  We have two training sessions (Nov 17^th at 11:45 AM and Nov 30^th at 7 PM), both in Dillard Room 189 (same room as the previous presentations), on how to pitch your plan.  The task of building a great presentation is to take the information in the business plan and fit into a relatively standard “model” of 10-12 slides.  In the training session we’ll share with you that “template.”  You may surprise yourself at just how well you can present your idea in only a few minutes.  If you want to see some very good examples of presentations, click here (the first 10 minutes are the intro speeches … skip over those) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3luctlC5ZY

Don’t forget the “How to Write a Business Plan” sessions led by our SBDC.  The final two sessions are next Tuesday (October 20^th) at 11:45 AM and next Thursday (October 22^nd) at 7 PM. 

After several late nights of reviewing the executive summaries, they judges have made their decision about what teams are invited to submit full business plans.  Those teams are (and I have abbreviated some of the titles somewhat to protect their idea):

I hope to have all of the executive summaries back from the judges early next week and will place all seven copies in a sealed envelope that you can pick up in the Lalani Center office.  I will post on the web when the summaries are available.   The judges’ comments should be very helpful as our entrepreneurs plan their next steps.  Remember that there are training sessions on how to write a business plan scheduled for 13, 20, and 22 October. 

Here’s how the judges reached their decision.  After individually reviewing the summaries, the judges discussed the summaries as a group.  A team was not invited to submit a full business plan if, after that discussion, a majority (3 or more) of the judges voted “no” on the summary. As I said in a previous post, not being invited to submit a full plan doesn’t mean the entrepreneur should give up.  They should take the feedback from the judges, make changes as needed, and press on!  Furthermore, they are still welcome at the training sessions and the SBDC is always anxious to help them.  Remember, “professional investors” gave companies like Google and eBay a “no.”  Those founders didn’t give up and aren’t we all happy they didn’t! 

In a few days we’ll hear from the judges about the executive summaries.  It’s possible that some entrants won’t be invited to submit a full business plan.  Notice that I said it’s possible—I haven’t talked to any of the judges about the executive summaries so I don’t have any insight on their decisions.  Does that mean that the executive summary was no good?  Absolutely not; the guidelines for the competition are pretty strict as far as growth and target market are concerned.  The executive summary might be the start of a great business, just not one as big as called for in IdeaWF.

Should the entrepreneur give up if they aren’t invited to submit a full business plan?  No!  You are still encouraged to attend the training sessions, work on your plan with the SBDC, and try to get the business started.  Maybe one of the judges’ comments is just what you needed to see an even bigger opportunity.  Those that attended the orientation sessions hopefully recall that the goal is that everyone wins in IdeaWF – some will just win more than others. 

And when you launch that business and it becomes a big success, you and FedEx (and others.) will have something in common – an expert will have “passed” on your idea!