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Business Plan Competition Contestant Requirements

Business Idea

An idea for a new business or for the expansion of an existing business in the Houston area. (You are encouraged to locate your business in Spring Branch).

Applying

Each contestant team must submit a fully completed application with their business idea within this time frame: November 7, 2011 through January 20, 2012. Upon notification of acceptance, each team will be paired with their Newspring adviser and can begin working at once.

Participant Expectations

Contestant team commits to attend all Business Plan Competition Training Sessions (4 or 5 sessions to be announced in January). One team member must attend all training sessions; this is mandatory, and all team members are strongly encouraged to attend as well.

One member of each team must completed BUSG 2309 or BUSG 2009. Exceptions will be considered in certain cases. See last section of application to request/apply for an exception.

Participant commits to:

  1. Meet with advisors on a scheduled basis (4 hours per month). If you cannot attend a scheduled meeting, you must let your advisors know in advance to reschedule. This is good business practice! Participants will meet with advisors at HCC Spring Branch or at a business location convenient to the advisor. Advisors will not be asked to travel out of the area;
  2. Provide an accurate email address and telephone number;
  3. Check email and phone messages on a daily basis;
  4. Meet suggested interim benchmark dates
  5. Maintain good academic standing.

Your advisors will review your progress and guide you, but they will NOT write portions of your plan nor do any part of your research. You should allocate sufficient time during the period from January 20 through April 5 to meet interim benchnmark dates which will be given to you at the first training session. The interim benchmark dates are designed to progress you toward completion of your written plan due on April 5, 2012.

Failure to meet these requirements can result in disqualification from the competition. By applying to the Business Plan competition, every applicant agrees to meet the conditions of the contestant requirements.