182 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EXERCISES
- Draft an outline of your (or your team’s) business plan.
a. What information do you already possess? Write it in draft form.
b. What information is still required? Prepare a plan to obtain this information. - Prepare as much of the executive summary of your business plan as you can. Be concise but
informative. Follow the model given in the chapter. - Critique a business plan. Examples can be found in the case section of this book, the appen-
dix to this chapter, or may be provided by your instructor.
a. How well does the business plan address the key issues?
b. What changes and improvements would you make to the plan?
c. How well done is the presentation and writing? How has this influenced your impres-
sion?
d. Would you be interested in investing in this business? Why or why not?
Taking Plans to the Next Level
Sometimes the best thing you can do with
your business plan is submit it to a business
plan competition. Business plan competitions
provide entrepreneurs with a check point in
plan development and input into an imprecise
and iterative process.
A business plan competition helped trans-
form Steve Manning’s idea into an actual ven-
ture. When he was an undergraduate major-
ing in Parks and Recreation Administration,
Manning interned at a national park where he
observed that kudzu vines were destroying
many of the indigenous plants. The chemicals
or fires traditionally used in vegetation man-
agement harmed the surrounding vegetation,
and Manning thought there had to be a better
way. He wondered whether insects could be
used.
When he became a MBA student at the
University of Oregon, Manning wrote a plan
outlining a business that would be a pioneer
in a new environmental industry, low-impact
plant control. He placed second in the univer-
sity’s New Venture Championship. Using his
$4,000 prize plus an additional $250,000
raised from investors he met during the com-
petition, he hired botanists to work out thelogistics of eco-friendly plant control.
After graduation in 1997 Manning and
botanist Lee Patrick started a company called
Invasive Plant Control, Inc. (www.invasive-
plantcontrol.com), now recognized as one of
the leaders in the Integrated Pest
Management approach to vegetation man-
agement. Their customers include
Shenandoah National Park, Oak Ridge
National Laboratories, Paris Island U.S.
Marine Corps base, North Carolina State
Parks, and the city of Pittsburgh.
Manning obviously believes in the value of
business plan competitions, because he
returned to the University of Oregon in 2006
to provide funding in his company’s name for
the Original Innovation Award at the New
Venture Championship.
Not everyone who enters a business plan
competition makes the jump to new venture
creation quite so easily, but many walk away
with something more valuable than prize
money. Bobby Price, working with his MBA
student wife and his dentist father, won the
1999 Wake Forest Babcock Elevator
Competition (team members have to pitch
their idea to judges during a two-minuteDISCUSSION CASE