Hi All

I am interested in setting up a small Entreprenuer competition, i have some details i have thought might make this competition interesting to some members here but am really looking for others imput as well.

The Idea - A competition between members from around the world to find people who have the entreprenuer spirit. A number of members from all over the world enter to compete for the best new business. Using a set budget and a number of different performance indicators, enterants need to take an idea and see where they can take it in the time period set out.

The Goal - Determined by performance indicators - eg Most profit, Most revenue, Most items sold, most customers etc etc. Most inovative.

Ideas
- Competition run for 1 - 3 months.
- Small Budget $500-$2000 or so to allow a larger range of people to join in
- Could be either everyone attempts the same idea or a small group of 3 - 4 ideas are selected by all participants as the possible ideas for participants to choose from.
- Any other ideas anyone.

Problems
- No real prize could be offered as even though most people can be trusted there would be people looking to enter that would offer false information that cannot easily be verified to attempt to win the prize.
- Anyone else have any ideas about downfalls to this type of competition.

Some type of recognition may be able to be available through partner sites and such.

If anyone would be interested in such a competion or has any ideas i would be interested to hear them.

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Joel Brown - Orion Networks
Techie-Central - Forums | SEOPTIMISA
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I will be in on this if I can find the time

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The intention sounds good for a competition, but again, the problem is setting up the incentive. From what I see on this thread (don't get me wrong, you might have gotten plenty of private messages), but there don't seem to be a lot of suggestions to your proposed idea. Perhaps you could gather up some sponsors for this event and actually come up with a prize (not only for the grand prize winner, but perhaps the top 10). After that, you could perhaps list the top 20 or 50 "honorable mentions." You could actually take this idea a little further and actually post articles that helps build content for this website of success and failure stories from the contestants. I even got a better idea, as to holding a actual ceremonial banquet of all the participants so to also give them an award (trophy or certificate). The cost of the banquet could be subsidized by sponsors of the event and also a minimal charge to attend (maybe anywhere from $25-$100). I am giving a lot of free ideas out here. Also, you could maybe team up with a magazine to promote this business competition (in America, there is Entrepreneur magazine and Inc., for example) and I believe they would love to sponsor this because it builds a story for their magazine that may attract more readers.

Also, maybe you could set up a panel of people to actively investigate and track the success of the participants. Of course, these will be people assigned to specific parts of a region. Since you have people worldwide as a member of this bulletin message board, you might have to find a broad base of people to cover the event.

Another thought, charge the participants to compete, since you want to limit this to only serious people. Don't charge them too much, just a small fee (perhaps $100--that sounds reasonable).

One last thing--anything is possible if you set your mind to it. There is always a way to finance something if the rewards outweighs the cost.

I hope this advice helps and if this really gets going, I would love to be an active participant in setting up this event and being a person responsible for overseeing it in the United States. Also, if there is a banquet as I suggested, I would love to be invited.

Great to see your Reply TaikenOneFive. Unfortunatly this idea has kind of slipped away for the main reason there wasnt much interest. Also my original idea was just to doa small number of people such as 5 or 10 from the forum from different areas around the world and see how the same business concept worked though different people setting it up in different areas.

I hadnt really thought about it as a large scale profitable event, really until another member PM me and we had a bit of a talk. But it has really escaped my mind since then, as i have a lot of other things happening at the moment.

__________________
Joel Brown - Orion Networks
Techie-Central - Forums | SEOPTIMISA
Books | PHP

I strongly believe that you shouldn't give up on this concept. It's not that the interest isn't there. As the old saying goes, "if you build it, they will come." I am certain that there are potential contestants that wish to participate, but am just waiting for it to happen. Most people either don't have the time or effort to contribute to proposing ideas.

Perhaps you could private message me and I will discuss this idea with you further, as I have great plans that I wish to share with you that could actually create this into a form of business.

Contact me and I welcome all other messages from anyone else that might be interested.

Ok i will send PM, i can talk about this but cannot gaurentee i can take it furthur currently. As it possibly being such a big project it would need at least a number of people dedicated working on making it happen and keep it going.

__________________
Joel Brown - Orion Networks
Techie-Central - Forums | SEOPTIMISA
Books | PHP

Idea sounds great to me. You could take it one step further and make it for High School students and make a non-profit org. out of it and have a scholarship or something as a reward from schools in that state or something. There are a lot of potential good ideas that can stem from that. I like it.

Happy Halloween everyone!

"Phoonerorlater" makes another good point. The concept could be stretched further to inspire young entrepreneurs and create a interest for kids to develop themselves as future businesspeople--something that is not necessarily learnt in school. A scholarship sounds great.

There is a lot of potential for this business competition plan and I would really appreciate it if other members of this forum would actually take some time to help develop this idea.

How does one make money running a not for profit org? I don't really understand them but I see this as something that my gf and I could start together for kids. Have different age ranges and stuff.

In a non-profit organization, you make money by determining your own salary (for instance).

Phoonerorlater, if you don't mind me asking, what do you hope from gaining on this message board? I was just interested to see if you have something going on, business-wise. Private message me and I could perhaps form a dialogue with you directly.