San Angelo Business Plan Competition 2017 to Award $25K to Top Winner

SAN ANGELO, TX – ASU’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), ASU’s College of Business, The Business Factory, and the City of San Angelo Development Corporation (COSADC) held a joint press conference yesterday morning to announce the 2017 San Angelo Business Plan Competition. The purpose of the Business Plan Competition is to cultivate original business concepts that will lead to the development of new ventures, or expand existing businesses within San Angelo.

The Business Plan Competition is open to entrepreneurs looking to launch local start-up businesses, as well as to existing business owners wishing to expand their business. The Business Plan Competition was first held in 2004. The competition was held annually until 2009. It remained dormant from 2009 to 2016.  A competition was held in 2016, and the winners were announced earlier this year. The next Business Plan Competition, to be held in the early months of 2017, will have brand new partnerships. Dave Erickson, Director of the Small Business Development Center, Nora Regino-Nevarez, Executive Office Coordinator for the City of San Angelo’s Economic Development, and Vincent Mangano, Instructor in the Department of Accounting, Economics, and Finance at ASU, are the three main coordinators for this competition.

The 2017 San Angelo Business Plan Competition is – as already mentioned – open to new and existing businesses. This is, however, a change from 2016's competition where only new businesses were eligible to compete. The 2017 Business Plan Competition will be conducted in three phases.

In the first phase, interested entrepreneurs and business owners will submit an entry form and their original business overview. These forms will be due on February 6, 2017 at 5 p.m. CST. The competition coordinators will then review the entries. If selected, contestants will move on to Phase II, where participants will have to submit a draft of a business plan. A Judging Panel, consisting of a pool of successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, financial professionals, and other economic development supporters in San Angelo, will subsequently select a group of finalists who will continue on to Phase III. The finalists will submit and present their final business plan to the Judging Panel.

The competition coordinators are pleased to announce that there will be even bigger cash prizes awarded to the top three 2017 finalists than in previous years. The first place winner will receive  $25,000, the second place winner will win $20,000 and the third place winner will win $15,000. COSADC will provide the monies for these cash prizes. Tommy Hiebert, President of COSADC, said that the “development corporation is always excited to be able to participate when we are talking about creating jobs or helping out local businesses grow and expand.”

Hiebert is also excited to join forces with the Business Factory and ASU’s College of Business and the Small Business Development Center to “foster a healthy business environment.”  

Winners will not only receive cash prizes, but will also have an opportunity to win in-kind prizes. In-kind prizes may consist of accounting assistance, advertising and marketing opportunities, chamber memberships, legal services, radio advertising, office supplies, office space, and website design assistance offered by various local business here in the Concho Valley. San Angelo LIVE! is happy to be one of the providers for advertising opportunities.

In addition, the winners (or any contestant) may also be eligible to apply for the Business Factory Business Incubator Program. Nora Regino-Nevarez says the Incubator Program is there to “provide a productive work environment for companies to operate and to grow their business.”

One-on-one assistance in preparing a Business Overview and Business Plan will also be provided to contestants during the competition. This assistance will be available through ASU’s SBDC. Student teams from ASU’s College of Business will also assist the SBDC certified business advisors when working on the competitors’ Business Overview and Business Plan. These students are enrolled in a special topics class, entitled “Small Business Competition,” offered by Vincent Mangano. The class focuses on teaching students small business and entrepreneurial management. These students “have an interest in entrepreneurship,” and Mangano believes that working with the contestants is “a great program for [these students] to dip their toes in the water of business.”

Dr. Clifton T. Jones, Dean of the College of Business at ASU, echoed Mangano’s thoughts saying, “This is a great opportunity for the College of Business to have an impact on the local business community.” Dr. Jones said he is happy to have this “opportunity to stimulate and increase entrepreneurship and increase jobs and small businesses in the San Angelo Community.”

Winners of previous San Angelo Business Plan Competitions were present as well at yesterday's press conference, attesting to the help and guidance the competition coordinators and partners had given them when they were competing. Shawn Bearden, founder of Concho Valley Tactical Supply, and winner of 2016 competition said that the Business Plan Competition “spring-boarded us off into the market place.” Mike Poulter, winner of the 2003 competition, has seen his business grow significantly since winning 13 years ago. Poulter encouraged all contestant to “use the resources that ASU and COSA have provided,” especially because they are “provided at such a low cost.”

Ryan Odom, founder of OdomRD with his significant other, Tabitha Odom, said that their involvement and win “really helped [them] get instilled into the community … and for that, [they] are really grateful.”

For more information and an in-depth overview of the eligibility requirements, the competitions process, judging process, and a calendar of events, please visit the competition’s website at www.angelo.edu/business-plan-competition/, or stop by the Business Resource Center at 69 N. Chadbourne Street. The SBDC will also provide free workshops on various components required to develop a business plan. These workshops and other workshop schedules and seminar registration information can be found at www.sbdc.angelo.edu.