San Angelo Business Plan Competition

SAN ANGELO, Texas(ConchoValleyHomepage) — Directors of the Business Plan Competition partnered with Business Brown Bag to talk about this year’s competition on Thursday, July 20.

Potential competitors were invited to bring their lunch and listen to the information about the competition and even ask questions.

“The business plan competition, the SBDC and the City of San Angelo Development Cooperation have partnered up again this year for the San Angelo business plan competition which is a two phase competition,” Dezaray Johnson, director of the Small Business Development Center at Angelo State University, said.

In order for the judging panel to choose a winner, the competitors must complete phase one of the competition. Phase one is where the business owners outline the entirety of their plan. From there, only a select few will move on to phase two of the competition. This phase is where competitors finalize their plans and can even receive help from accounting students here and in Angelo State.

“Utilize them as a member of your team to help you plan, write, research and create financial projections using their accounting expertise,” Johnson said.

The competition has the economy and its businesses at the forefront of their mind. Johnson said that the judging panel has seen all types of businesses come through and be awarded that 1st place prize of $40,000 to be used for the growth of their business.

“I think it’s safe to say that the competition is subjective so it’s, you know, you may have different judges that have different backgrounds and at the end of the day it comes down to the judging panel,” Johnson said.

Some mistakes the directors of the competition tell the participants to avoid are waiting until the last minute to complete their tasks and not utilizing the resources they have available.

“You don’t have to do this by yourself. Contact the ASU Small Business Development Center and they will schedule an appointment with you with an adviser who will be glad to help you through the whole process,” Economic Development Assistant Nora Nevarez said.

Nevarez and Johnson say they will be having a forum on August 3 at the Fuentes restaurant to answer more questions and attract more competitors. The deadline to submit applications is August 21 at 5 p.m.