Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest

Tomorrow, 09 March 2007, is the 'business plan boot camp' for the plans which made it into Phase 2 of the 2007 Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest.

The BizPlan Contest attracted 279 submissions of 250 word business idea abstracts by the 31 January 2007 deadline. Of that total, fifty made it through the first round of judging. Those fifty business ideas will now be transformed from a short abstract to a longer, more detailed picture of the proposed business. The eight evaluation criteria for Phase 2 are: Company overview; Product or Service description; Customer Definition: Their problem - your solution; Market description, research and size; Competition; Management team; Capital requested; and Financials. The deadline for submission of Phase 2 information is 5 p.m., 28 March 2007.

Although I submitted two business idea abstracts to the contest, only one made it into Phase 2. That is unquestionably a Good Thing (tm) because with about eight other projects going on right now during my waking hours, it would be challenging to complete two high-quality submissions for Phase 2.

I'm delighted to be advancing to this next round in the contest. The immediate payback is a higher probability of launching the business idea which will be further developed in Phase 2. An equally important benefit is meeting other motivated entrepreneurs and innovators as well as the business plan support services 'experts' who will be advising the Phase 2 participants. The connections made and lessons learned during the next three weeks will be invaluable in upcoming years as more business ideas are hatched and implemented. The experience will also help Abba Makolin Waldron & Associates, LLC (AMW) as we work with our clients to help them advance and grow their businesses.

My mind is already working on next year's business plan contest at the same time as it's thinking about priority issues related to this year's submission. The goal for AMW for next year will be to submit four high quality abstracts to the contest.

Then maybe I'll find out what it's like to work on more than one Phase 2 submission at a time!

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