This week saw a series of kick-off meetings for the third annual Student Business Plan Competition. The competition encourages students from all fields of study to design a feasible business plan with the idea of starting their own business. The competition is open to any team of at least two members with at least one student attending USM or Southern Maine Community College. Teams have until Jan. 30 to register on the competition’s website.
“This is the first entrepreneurial contest for students ever launched in the state of Maine,” said Valarie Lamont, the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. The Center for Entrepreneurship is part of USM’s School of Business, and as the director of the center, Lamont is also the host of the competition. Discussing why the competition was instituted, Lamont said, “Maine is a small business state, but there is not a lot of entrepreneurial action…. There is a lot of talent among students, and this [competition] helps in understanding the entrepreneurial process, which is very important.”
Richard Bilodeau, the program director for the competition, offered this advice to the teams at the Jan. 22 meeting in the Woodbury Campus Center: “Use this experience to learn as much as you can about the small business process, but also to take advantage of the resources we can introduce you to.” He explained that the prize, which includes $10,000 in cash and $15,000 in consulting services, is raised by the competition’s planning board. “All the money comes from the local community… [the consulting services] traditionally have come from full business firms that have experience working with small businesses.”
Any original ideas are encouraged, and in the first two years of the competition, the variety was wide, offering anything from a “brew your own beer” company to an invention that will adapt normal cars to run off half the gas and half the electricity. The winning team from the first year went to Reiko and Matt Laney’s Superna Environmental Sensors, which is currently working with universities on the design of a more mobile flourometer, which will allow scientists to map the health of plankton populations in larger areas of water. Year two saw the birth of The Clothes Line, Jessica Brearly and Jessica Nolette’s idea to make clothing care easier, especially for those living in limited space. Their first invention is the pop-up ironing board, which stores conveniently under a bed or couch and pops up with the push of a button.
Students can register for the competition or contact Lamont and Bilodeau through the competition’s website: http://www.usm.maine.edu/sb/new_sb/competition.html
Melissa St. Germain can be contacted at [email protected]