$67,500 is at stake in the The University of Miami Herbert Business Schools’ annual Business Plan Competition. For 24 years, this experience has been a chance for students to gain real advice and mentorship, and pitch their business idea to a panel of experienced judges.
Dr. Susan Amat, an associate professor of professional practice in the Department of Management at the Herbert Business School, has been running the business plan competition with two of her colleagues for the past five years. She also participated in the competition while she was at UM completing her MBA. They host two competitions a year, beginning in the fall with the elevator pitch competition and then the business plan competition in the spring.
“Every Wednesday, we have a workshop for the next six weeks, starting on Wednesday [March 18], where we help entrepreneurs, especially those who aren’t in the business school, understand different parts of the business plan,” Amat said.
Any student can participate in the competition, whether they are a business student or not. Some students have already developed a company and others have just started their business.
Students have access to mentors, pitchlabs and workshops. Applications are due on April 3 and are evaluated, then about 20 to 30 students will progress to the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, entrepreneurs will present and answer questions to a panel of judges, with six to eight groups progressing to the final round. The final round is scheduled to be held in the Storer auditorium where family, friends, faculty and students can come to cheer.
Amat highlights the importance of the competition as a great opportunity, even if you don’t win prize money. Overall, it is a great experience that builds your company and skills.
“We’ve had so many companies not win the top prize, but get 100 downloads during the competition, find investors, and find customers,” Dr. Amat said. “Because you put yourself out there and you’re making a sales pitch for finding great people to get involved, invest in you, buy your product, etc.”
Kyle Levy was one of these students who participated in the business competition. In his first year at UM, he first came up with his business idea, Unihop. Levy was first inspired when he noticed how uncoordinated the UPS store was on campus.
“We offered an alternative solution, where people could send packages to us, and then they could schedule a time, and we would hand deliver it to them at any of the buildings. And people loved it, especially at the start of each semester,” Levy said.
Unihop has since evolved to be a successful company that provides faster and more efficient deliveries, and works with many businesses that rely on local deliveries.
In terms of being successful in the competition, Dr. Amat said that the most important step to developing your company is to really hone in on what the consumer problem is, and then work from there.
“The reality is entrepreneurship is about solving a customer problem for profit. And so I would say that the key to doing well in life, in entrepreneurship, but definitely for our competition, is focusing on who’s your customer and what problem are you solving from them,” Dr. Amat said.
While starting up his business, Levy said that he participated in the competition partially because he had a good relationship with Dr. Amat who encouraged him to take part, but also because he wanted to take advantage of the great resources that the business school provides.
“I had known about the competition before coming to UM, and I knew that was the big thing to do in the business school,” Levy said.
Dr. Amat emphasized the importance of utilizing all the resources available while you are still in college. The Miami Herbert business schools ranking has gone up throughout the years with the entrepreneurship program ranked No.16 nationally.
“There are many, many tools and competitions like this that are merit-based that if you’re putting the time in and you can show that you are ready to lead something to the next level, there’s support there for you,” Dr. Amat said.“So I think that that’s a really incredibly lucky evolution of the school.”
Throughout the process, Levy said that he developed many crucial skills for developing his now successful company. He says that personal resiliency was one of the main skills that he got out of the experience. Levy says that when managing a business there are never any easy days, and being in the competition taught him to be resilient and put in the most effort he can.
Dr. Amat said that, throughout the years she has been a part of the competition, it has evolved and improved. When Levy was doing this competition it didn’t include the multitude of resources that are available to students now, such as the pitch labs and workshops. However Dr. Amat says that when she returned to the program 5 years ago she had bigger plans for the business plan competition.
“When I came back, I had a very focused goal of making sure we prepared students with an international mindset and with the best practices of high-growth entrepreneurs,” Dr. Amat states. “Every year we’ve ended up getting stronger and stronger student teams and existing businesses competing.”