We are constantly told to take the money we spend on clothes, shoes, hair, expensive cars, and put it into investing or starting a business. Black Owned businesses are critical to true equality. You may have a great idea for a novel type of business, but do not have enough of money to get it off the ground. Because finding that seed money is much harder than it seems, we are giving our business minded members the opportunity to win $500 towards startup costs.

Join this challenge for the chance to win $500 for your new business.

Rules:

• Business must be new and not already be established
• Business must not be any type of franchise
• Business must not be a broker or re-seller of products or services from an existing business  
• A business plan is required to qualify:
• We strongly recommend that you copyright your business plan before submitting it for the challenge. Check this link on how to proceed with the copyright process: https://info.legalzoom.com/copyright-business-plan-20015.html
• Business plan must have the following parts fully complete:
• Business Idea - Describe the business concept clearly, fully, and concisely
• Competitive Advantage - Describe how produce or service will differ from competitions
• Team Members - Describe the job and roles of potential key members of the business team
• Target Market - Describe the target market for the product or service (demographic, geographic, etc.)
• Marketing Plan Outline - Describe the promotion and advertising plan
• Operational Plan Outline - Describe the labor and equipment requirements and how the business will run day-to-day operations
• Financial Overview - Describe the estimated project cost and start-up requirements
• Opportunities & Challenges - Outline the opportunities and challenges the business might face
• One submission per member
• Written and oral presentation must be in English
• Good source for Business Plan templates: https://www.lawdepot.com/contracts/business-plan

There will be two evaluation phases:

• Written: We will review all submitted written business plans and select finalists
• Oral: We will schedule calls with finalists to perform an oral evaluation where contestants will have the opportunity to verbally pitch their business idea to our judges

Some of the criteria judges will consider in their evaluation include but are not limited to:

• Clarity, completeness, and persuasiveness of the written business plan and the oral presentation
• The market opportunity presented (is there a clear market need and a way to take advantage of that need)
• The feasibility, uniqueness and quality of the business plan idea (is the product, technology or service feasible and does it provide something novel that gives it a competitive advantage in the market)
• The feasibility and quality of the business model, including the financial projections
• The financial and social return of the business (is it a real opportunity in which members would invest in)
• The capacity and strength of the management team (experience and expertise)
• As part of the oral phase, the quality of the members’ responses to questions from the judges

Follow the steps below to participate:

1. Send a copy of your business plan to Dimitry Saint-Pierre via the message function (Do not post the plan in the comment)
2. Click on "Join this challenge..." button
3. Type "Business plan sent" in the message box
4. Click on the " Respond" button

Good luck!