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Competitions

Be Your Own Boss Bowl: Temple's 12th Annual Business Plan Competition

Grand prize winner will receive a prize package worth over $55,000 including cash, Microsoft
software, professional services, lunch with an entrepreneur, celebratory dinner and more!

Key Dates:

Info Sessions: All three sessions at 503d Alter Hall from 4:30 - 6:00 pm.
Monday, November 2, 2009, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 and Tuesday, January 26, 2010.
No RSVP required! Food and beverage will be served!

Business Plans Due By: Monday, March 29, 2010 (Plans must be submitted by no later than 5 pm. No exceptions will be made!) - Submittal info below.

Finalists Notification: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 FINALISTS POSTED ON IEI HOME PAGE: www.fox.temple.edu/iei. All 10 finalists must confirm by email to iei@temple.edu immediately and check their email regularly for additional instructions and timelines.

Finalists Presentation Scrub Session: Monday, April 19, 2010 (one-hour slots are scheduled first come, first served) You must "scrub" to present at the finals.

Presentation & Awards Reception: Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 2:00pm

The Be Your Own Boss Bowl (BYOBB), Temple's 12th annual business plan competition, is open to all students, faculty, staff, and alumni from all 17 schools and colleges within Temple University. We encourage all entrepreneurially minded members of the Temple community to participate in this exciting and rewarding competition, and use their winnings to be your own boss! Past winners have gone on to launch successful businesses including Pit Bull Development, Sand Shack, Rebecca Davis Dance Company, Elements and Alloys, Stuzo and more.

In awarding the grand prize in the BYOBB, judges will look for the most strategic, well thought out and comprehensive business plan. The strength of the idea or business concept itself is less important. Both "life style" businesses and true entrepreneurial ventures are acceptable in the competition.

ALL SUBMITTED PLANS WILL REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL!

Rules and Regs: Participants are encouraged to work in teams (up to four members), but may also enter by themselves. Participants will compete in one of two competition tracks: Undergraduate or Graduate Student/Faculty/Staff/Alumni. Any team with a member or members who are not undergraduate students will automatically be grouped into the graduate student/faculty/staff/alumni category.

Teams may include members without ties to Temple, but the founder/CEO/main shareholder must be affiliated with Temple University.

Plans may address either the creation of a new or an already existing business in the Philadelphia region (with the exception of alumni whose businesses may be located outside the area), but cannot constitute a proposed company expansion.  For-profit, non-profit and social entrepreneurship businesses are all eligible.

To enter the Be Your Own Boss Bowl competition, use the downloadable template below. Your completed plan must be no longer than 15 pages in single-spaced 12 pt font (excluding the title page, table of contents and two-page max executive summary). You may, however, include up to 5 pages of appendices.  It should include all sections outlined in the template below and describe

  • The market problem/opportunity
  • Your product or service and how it will meet this opportunity
  • Why your product/service better than competing products or services, and why customers will want to buy it (value proposition
  • The size of your target market
  • The competition
  • How your firm will generate revenues and profits
  • Three-year pro-forma financial statements
  • And more.

Each team or individual who declares their intent to compete by January 15, 2010 will receive a senior executive mentor courtesy of the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group and a copy of a Frank Fiore’s book titled Write a Business Plan...In No Time. We have formulated a condensed version of a typical business plan template (click here) and included page references to the aforementioned book for use as a guide. We urge teams to follow our proposed timeline in order to stay on target with the competition deadline (click here)

Participants are encouraged to attend the IEI's Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 Business Plan Workshops. Each workshop will detail a different facet of writing a business plan and will provide additional insight into the overall process. To view the complete workshop schedule, click here.

Each team's plan will be evaluated by no less than four to five preliminary judges, providing the plan is complete, comprehensive and the proposed business is viable. The weighted scoring sheet by which your plan will be assessed can be viewed by clicking here.

There is one Info Session left and we encourage anyone who may be interested in participating to attend to receive additional details: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 @ 4:30 – 6 pm (503d Alter Hall). To view flyer for info session, click here.

We have created a suggested timeline which will help guide you to complete your business plan by the deadline, which can be viewed by clicking here.

Submittal Information: Business Plans must be submitted electronically, preferably in Microsoft Word (.doc format preferred over .docx). Hard copy plans will not be accepted by drop-off as preliminary judging is being done via email.

Please include on the title page the name of the business, one or two line description of the business and full names of team members, their proposed titles for the business plus name of their college/school, major, year of study and Temple affiliation, if applicable, phone number and email address for each member on your team. To view a sample title page, click here.

PLEASE USE SPELL CHECK, PROPER GRAMMAR AND COMPLETE SENTENCES. Do not use slang phrases or words, curse words or overly casual English. This is a business document, and judges respond poorly to anything less.

Send your business plan to the following: David Periquito at dperiquito@temple.edu with a copy to iei@temple.edu by March 29, 2010, no later than 5:00pm.

We encourage all participants to have their plans reviewed by their senior executive mentors, a professor, professional colleague or the IEI (by appointment only) prior to submittal. The IEI is not staffed to review dozens of plans several days prior to submittal: please plan accordingly!