The Hickingbotham School of Business is excited to be hosting its first business plan competition this semester in order to challenge Ouachita students and facilitate their entrepreneurial ideas.
To enter the competition, students should submit a written business plan that includes all the elements of a functioning business. Dean of the School of Business, Bryan McKinney, hopes this competition can provide a chance for students to get their ideas out into the business world.
“I hear students talking all the time about ideas that could easily be turned into a business,” McKinney said. “And I’d love to see them do that.”
Ouachita’s local competition is connected to the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup, a statewide undergraduate and graduate student business competition which began in 2001. The Arkansas Capital Corporation (ACC), one of the main sponsors for the competition, works hard to encourage as much involvement from every college in the state.
“They’ve been wonderful to help support our plan financially and otherwise,” McKinney said. “I’m so thankful to the ACC and to The Bill and Sharon Arnold Family Foundation for their financial support.”
Students of all majors are encouraged to enter the competition.
“Everybody who is enrolled at Ouachita is eligible to enter,” McKinney said. “What will produce a successful business plan is not a particular major; it’s a great idea and hard work. We really hope to see submissions from students of all majors, and collaboration between majors.”
Students will choose a faculty sponsor and submit a written business plan to be judged on 12 specific criteria lined out in the competition brochure.
“We’ll have two judging stages,” McKinney said. “One will be based on the written plans that students submit and then we’ll have five finalists who will make oral presentations to a separate panel of judges. Of those five finalists, we’ll award cash prizes to the first, second and third winners.”
The panel of judges for the oral presentation will consist of people with education and experience in the business world.
“They will be people who are interested in Ouachita, interested in entrepreneurialism and have some skill set in analyzing these things,” McKinney said. “Bankers are a particularly good source of people to draw from because they see these things every day in real life and make determinations based on whether or not it’s a viable business plan or not. We’ve got any number of entrepreneurially minded people who have started their own business and have expertise in creating a business plan and knowing how to sell it to the appropriate parties.”
The faculty sponsors for each team will also receive cash prizes for winning first, second or third place. The winners will move on to the state level competition, and possibly even to the Tri-State Governor’s Cup in Las Vegas.
“My ultimate goal is that hopefully someone will create a viable business plan that will last,” McKinney said. “I’ve heard of several ideas that have been tossed around that I think can work. In general we want to encourage a spirit of entrepreneurialism on campus.”
Students like Nathan Wade, a sophomore business major, are already thinking about entering the competition.
“The business program has given me some motivation to be able to want to start my own business,” Wade said. “I think the competition would be a good opportunity to get some good startup capital for a business I’ve been thinking about for a while.”
Written plans are due Dec. 9. For more information, contact McKinney at mckinney@obu.edu or 870-245-5513.
