Reference no: EM131133161

Read You Be the Consultant: "Battle of the Plans", answer the 3 questions that follow in paragraph format.

Your final submission should be a minimum of 4-6 pages in length using APA format.

You Be the Consultant: "Battle of the Plans":-

The Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures^® Business Plan Com-petition, run by the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center at Texas Christian University, focuses on for-profit enterprises owned by current undergraduate students that specifically impact society in meaningful ways.

Plans must demonstrate a societal or environmental need to be filled, such as contributions to sustainability, innovations in the health and life sciences, innovations in energy, or opportunities for underrepresented groups in business. Business plans submitted for the Values and Ventures competition must be for profit values-centered enterprises. The competition defines a values-centered enterprise as one that assures sustainable pros-perity while also supporting the needs of company owners and shareholders, employees and their families, suppliers, customers„ communities, and the environment.This is not a competition for nonprofit social enterprises.

Values and Ventures is a two-day event. During the first day, teams present in concurrent sessions. The teams are grouped into flights. The first place team in each flight automatically advances to the finals. The second place teams in each flight compete in a "lightning round." The top two teams from the lightening round also make the finals. In the second day of competition, each Teams that do not make the finals compete in an elevator pitch competition.One member from each non-finalist team is invited to participate in a 90-second elevatorpitch on the second day of the competition.

One recent competition fielded teams from 28 universities. The third place team, winner of $5,000, was Sneeze4 from Texas Christian University. The venture sells tissues that support issues directed by the consumer. The second place team, winner of $10,000, was SoundSense from Christopher Newport University. SoundSense offers a home communication system for the hearing impaired. The first place team, winner of $15,000, was Crowdvance from George Washington University, founded by Dylan Fox, a self-taught Web site designer. Fox came up with the idea for Crowdvance while working on his design software and was able to attract a couple of fraternity
brothers to help him launch the company.

Crowdvance supports small community groups, such as a Little League team struggling to pay for its uniforms or a high school debate team that needs money to enter a national competition. Donors to Crowdvance get a menu of exclusive deals, such as discounts on tickets or various products from national companies such as Hulu and Fathead. Crowdvance gets its revenues from its donors buying products through its Web site. Crowdvance charges no fee against the actual donation, which differentiates the com- pany from its competitors, which charge a 3 to 10 percent fee. The small community groups get 100 percent of the donated funds.

After graduation, Fox began working full-time on Crowd- vance.The company raised a seed round of financing.

Crowdvance reports that it increases the percentage of first time donors for the charities it serves by 78 percent and has a 92 percent approval rating from its donors.

1. What benefits do entrepreneurs who compete in business plan competitions such as the one at Texas Christian University gain?

2. Work with a team of your classmates to brainstorm ideas for establishing a business plan competition on your campus. Flow would you locate judges? What criteria would you use to judge the plans? What prizes would you offer the winners, and how would you raise the money to give those prizes? Who would you allow to compete in your competition?

3. Using the ideas you generated in question 2, create a two- page proposal for establishing a business plan competition at your school.