About the Competition

The Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship is pleased to open Marquette University's 6th annual business plan competition. The goal of the competition is to provide a learning environment in which entrepreneurs hone their business ideas and receive high quality business planning assistance.

Undergraduate and Graduate students, Faculty, Staff and Alumni from all colleges are invited to submit new business proposals and compete for prizes.

Eligibility

At least one member of each team must be a Marquette University student, faculty/staff member, or alumnus, in order to be eligible for the competition. Should the team be designated a finalist, the Marquette team member must participate in the oral presentation,. 

Early Stage Venture Eligibility: The Business Plan Competition is a means to support early stage ventures. Therefore, ventures that have already received external equity funding in excess of one million dollars are ineligible. Teams that have received this level of external funding may still be able to compete if the plan submitted focuses on a clearly defined new line of business for the venture that has not yet passed the seed funding stage. Similarly, existing businesses are not eligible to compete, unless the scope of the entry covers expansion into a significantly different industry or customer base, or a major geographic expansion (such franchising or expanding a local business on a national scale). Please contact the Kohler Center to discuss your eligibility if your business idea is an expansion of an existing business.

Competition Sequence

• Competition Teams are invited to submit registration
• Teams will be informed by email if their business plan has been accepted into the competition
• Teams will matched with an entrepreneurial advisor
• Teams will participate in three business plan development workshops and one oral presentation workshop
• Teams will submit draft of the business plan after each workshop and a final plan will be submitted upon conclusion of the workshops.
• Judges will review the submitted final business plans and determine a group of semi-finalists
• The semi-finalist teams will present a 10 minute oral presentation to a panel of judges
• Judges will review plans and presentations and determine the finalists
• The finalist’s teams will present their business plan in a brief (3 to 5 minutes) oral presentation at the Business Plan Competition Banquet.

Competition Judging

A panel of judges will evaluate the plans submitted.  Judges are individuals who have founded companies themselves or have extensive experience in company formation.  Evaluation criteria include the business idea and business plan as well as the oral presentation.

Competition Benefits

Competition teams can expect to:

• Learn the content, scope and structure of a business plan

• Attend workshops to assist with the development and presentation of the plan

• Receive feed back from accomplished entrepreneurs and experts

• Network  with  fellow entrepreneurs from the Marquette community

• Compete for prizes
  

2006-07 Business Plan Competition

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