ANN ARBOR ? Participants in the Great Lakes Entrepreneur?s Quest contest won?t have to write such an in-depth business plan during the spring cycle. GLEQ?s emerging company track will only require a five-15 page business plan, rather than 20.
GLEQ Executive Director Art DeMonte said shorter business plans mean more business plans can be read by the judges, feed back the contest organizers received from case studies done of similar contests in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
?The trend is becoming for a more concise business plan where a lot of ideas are embryonic,?? DeMonte said. ?To ask them to do five-year forecasts is not realistic. So we?ve changed the requirement to five to 12 pages.?
What?s in that document has changed as well. Participants will be given clear instructions to state their assumptions on the market and the technology. Participants will be asked to state milestones and near term objectives for their companies. DeMonte said the new requirements are much more practical and release contestants of a lot of extra work that may not be value added.
DeMonte said business plan competitions are evolving. Five years ago when GLEQ began, it didn?t have any competition. Now there?s Automation Alley in Southeast Michigan, Southwest Michigan First in Kalamazoo. There?s the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Centers, which last year added the T for technology to its name. GLEQ is evolving too because contest backers didn?t want GLEQ to become irrelevant, DeMonte said.
Another change is there are two deadlines in the contest, rather than one. Spring cycle contestants must register with GLEQ by April 15 and get their business plans in by May 15. During the four weeks in between, contestants also will be required to attend coaching sessions, and work closely with an assigned coach.
?Coaching is a critical part of what we do,?? he said. ?If they don?t engage with a coach, they can not continue. They will be better off and more successful if they work with a coach.?
To learn more, click on GLEQ.Org
