August 1, 2007

High school business plan competition coming to Richmond

This event is part of the Business Opportunities for Self Starters program, which is known as B.O.S.S.

The Purdue College of Technology at Richmond and Indiana University East Center for Entrepreneurship located in Richmond have worked collectively to create the competition, which will be held 9 a.m. at Civic Hall Performing Arts Center located at Richmond High School.

The costs for the training of the students, the instructors and the development of the curriculum was made possible by the Eastern Indiana Regional Workforce Board through the Strategic Skills Initiative Grant provided by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

This is the first year for the competition, which is open to high school juniors and seniors.  Thursday's competition will feature 16 business plans, two from each of the eight counties who placed first and second place in a local competition. Each student must present a business plan to judges, and business professionals will evaluate the students on the viability of their plans.

Awards will be given in two divisions. Students who compete in the first-place division will receive $5,000 for first place, $3,000 for second place and $1,500 for third place. Students competing in the second-place division will receive $1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place and $500 for third place.

Students in the competition are from Blackford, Delaware, Fayette, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Union and Wayne counties.

Merwyn Strate, an assistant professor of organizational leadership and supervision at the College of Technology at Richmond, said the competition teaches students lessons about business that they might not get in the classroom.

"It's easy to identify great ideas for products and services, but what's the next step?" he said. "For the competition, students are charged with creating a plan that lays out the details of how they would market their ideas, and hire and train people, which is what business people in real life must do."

Strate will be one of the judges, along with professionals in business, industry and entrepreneurship.

Strate said students participating in the competition completed a summer entrepreneurship training provided in their local community. Students who successfully completed the training and business plans, including participation in their local competition, received compensation for their achievements.

Tim Scales, director of the IU East Center for Entrepreneurship, said that the B.O.S.S. program has given them the opportunity to work with high school students, instructors and administrators to create an environment where students could develop their ideas into real working business plans.

"Many of the high school students who participated in the B.O.S.S. program had no idea what an entrepreneur was, and after completing this program, those students now have the ability to assist or become an entrepreneur which could help create jobs and impact our local communities," Scales said.

Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu

Sources: Merwyn Strate (765) 973-8328, mstrate@purdue.edu

Tim Scales, Indiana University-East Center for Entrepreneurship, (765) 973-8620, tiscales@indiana.edu

Barbara Street, regional operator, Eastern Indiana Regional Workforce board, (765) 282-6400, ext. 102,   bstreet@asgcorp.org

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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