With the deadline approaching -- 11:59 p.m. April 5 -- I have been fielding a lot of questions about the 16th Annual Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge. This morning's question: Why should I enter if there no cash prize?
I wrote a column about this, which you can read here. And I will give you two additional reasons: If you already have done a business plan, pitch deck or executive summary for investors, for another contest or perhaps as your own roadmap, it is super easy to repackage and submit it to the Challenge, which will be seen by our judges, and perhaps be a winner in your hometown media. No. 2. If you haven't done this yet for your business or business idea, don't you need to get moving? The Challenge process will get you started, and we have had plenty of winners with first-time plans.
In short, being a finalist or winner will give you exposure and validation you are on to something.
But perhaps you should hear it from one of last year's big winners. While Pia is talking mostly about the FIU Track of the contest, open to students and alumni of that university, there are also tracks for the Community -- open to all -- and there is a High School Track for grades 8-12. Find the rules on MiamiHerald.com/challenge and email your entries (maximum of 3 pages plus one additional page for a chart or photos if needed) by end of day Saturday to challenge@miamiherald.com (for the community track); fiuchallenge@miamiherald.com or highschoolchallenge@miamiherald.com. Good luck!