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Guidelines
YDC E-Challenge 2008: What is it?
For the ninth year in a row, YDC is organizing an annual business plan competition with the purpose of developing the next generation of entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. YDC E-Challenge 2008 participants form teams, produce business ideas, develop them into detailed business plans, put business plans to the test.
Who is eligible?
Full-time students in Hong Kong universities and Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) at any level and from all disciplines are eligible to enter YDC E-Challenge 2008. The size of a team is 2 to 7 members and the maximum number of entries submitted by a team is two. Team members can come from different universities / institutes in Hong Kong. Our experience is that teams of 3-7 people work best.
Each team member can join up to 3 teams. However, he / she can only participate in one team, if both of the teams are selected to the final round. Please make sure all of your team members know about this before you decide to join other teams. YDC will not bare any responsibility on this.
One team should have a team leader who will manage the team information, register business ideas and handle the competition submissions. Team leader will also be the point-of-contact to YDC. Please note that each individual can be the team leader for one team only. In addition, each team MUST find a faculty adviser to provide input and guidance in the preparation of its submission.
Ventures that have received prior outside investment from venture capital firms, private investors, or industry or government sources are NOT allowed to compete.
The YDC E-Challenge 2008 organizer reserves the right to disqualify any entry that, in its sole judgment, violates the YDC E-Challenge 2008 rules or the spirit of the competition.
The Competition Process
YDC E-Challenge 2008 will take place in three phases:
Phase I - Preliminary Round
Each entrant team must complete the Online Pre-registration by 12:00 noon, Monday, 25 February 2008 declaring their intent to participate in YDC E-Challenge 2008. No late submissions will be accepted.
Each team must submit up to two Business Plan Executive Summary, limited to 3 A4-size pages by 12:00 noon, Tuesday, 25 March 2008. All submissions must be sent via the Online Submission System. Facsimiles, e-mail postage of submissions will NOT be accepted. Up to 50 teams will go forward to the Semi-final. The result will be announced by Tuesday, 8 April 2008 via email.
Workshops about "business idea development" and "secrets of business writing technique" will be held on Saturday, 8 March 2008 and 15 March 2008 respectively. The details will be announced by email after the pre-registration period.
Phase II - Semi-final Round
Each semi-finalist team has to submit up to 5-page A4-size Investment Proposition Teaser and a DVD of 5-min Presentation by 5:00pm Wednesday, 23 April 2008. The 3 hard copies of the Investment Proposition Teaser and the 3 copies DVD should be sent to YDC's office (Address: 1/F., 15 Wang Chiu Road, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 2331-8831) in person or by post. Facsimiles and e-mail submissions will NOT be accepted. YDC accepts no responsibility for late submissions due to postal delay. Ten plans will then be selected for the final round. The result will be announced by Monday, 5 May 2008 via email.
Workshop about "How to have an effective 5-minute presentation" will be held on Saturday, 5 April 2008. The details will be announced in due course.
Phase III - Final Round
Each finalist team will go through the Mentorship Program in conjunction with the Hong Kong Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO) in the final round. Seasoned entrepreneurs from their members are recruited to act as mentors to the finalist teams and to advise them on their specific business ideas. YDC will arrange the first mentorship meeting for the finalist teams to meet their mentor. Finalist teams are required to present their business ideas and the blueprint of the business plan to the mentors during the meeting. The workshop about "How to make a convincing presentation" will be held on Saturday, 31 May 2008. All details will be announced in due course.
Each finalist team must submit ten hard copies of the Full Business Plan in English, limited to 30 A4-size pages including text, graphics and appendices, by 5:00 pm, Thursday, 5 June 2008 to YDC's office (Address: 1/F., 15 Wang Chiu Road, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 2331-8831). The submission can be made in person or by mail, but YDC accepts no responsibility for late submissions due to postal delay. Facsimiles and e-mail submissions will NOT be accepted.
Finalist teams will present their proposed venture to a panel of judges on Saturday, 14 June 2008. The judges will evaluate and challenge the plans. The presentation is not a substitute for a well-written plan, but an opportunity to defend the proposal and convince the judges that the team can achieve its business goals. The champion and runner-ups of the YDC E-Challenge 2008 will be announced during a press conference tentatively scheduled on Friday, 20 June 2008.
Please remark that all the online submissions must be in English and virus-free. YDC reserves the right to claim the teams for any loss due to the system infection by their submission. In addition, YDC accepts no responsibility for late or missing submissions due to the system failure. To avoid Internet traffic jam resulting the submission failure near the due date, we highly recommend each team to submit their works as soon as possible. No late submissions will be considered. The submission file format can only be either MS Word (doc) or Adobe Acrobat (pdf). File size is limited to 1 MB for each Executive Summary. Once you submit the files, no modification can be made. All E-Challenge Team Members are welcomed to join any workshops we will provide. For enquiries, please email echallenge@ydc.org.hk or call at 2331 8831
What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a comprehensive, self-contained document that:
- Presents in detail the business opportunity for a new venture
- Presents the product or service that the venture is to offer to realize this opportunity
- Identifies the resources needed
- Exposes the risks and rewards expected
- Introduces the founding team and proposes the organizational building process
Potential audiences for a business plan include future investors, employees, partners, advisors, customers, suppliers, regulatory bodies and other individuals who may not be technologically savvy or familiar with the subject of the business plan. The quality of the write-up is a significant success factor.
Every business plan begins with an executive summary -- a short compelling presentation of the key ideas of the plan. The executive summary should not be confused with an introduction, as it can function as a stand-alone document.
To help you focus while writing an executive summary (as well as the business plan), listed below are the key areas that should be addressed:
- Opportunity Statement:
How would you describe the business to a potential investor or team member if you only had a short elevator ride to share together? What is the nature of the opportunity, and why is here an opportunity now? What is the proposed solution?
- Product or Service Concept:
Develop a brief concept statement for the product or service that can be shown to potential customers. How will the product be used? What are some unique features?
- Market Opportunity and Strategy:
What existing problem will you solve with your service or product offering? What is the current size and expected growth of your target market? What are the economics of the market? What does it take to win this market? How will these sales happen? Who will your first customers be? What level of profits do you expect?
- Competitive Advantage:
Who are your competitors? What special knowledge or technology do you possess and how will you protect it? What are the barriers to entry?
- Teams:
Who are you and why can you do this? Include a paragraph summary of each team member's background applicable to the proposed venture. If the full team has not been assembled, include a brief description of the background and skills of team members that you desire to recruit. You may submit a maximum of three pages describing your business idea. Keep in mind that the readers appreciate brevity and clarity.
The Investment Proposition Teaser is typically a summary of the Business Plan that is circulated to potential investors to attract their attention. It develops the concept that has been proposed in the shorter Executive Summary, but is not a full business plan that may stretch to 30 pages or more, together with appendices and full financial forecasts. The Teaser will reflect the concept worked up into a full execution plan. In order to complete the Teaser, it is suggested that you prepare the first draft of the Business Plan and consider the business model applicable to the product or business you are proposing including: marketing and sales (agency? own sales force?), delivery of the product or service, production (outsourced? own production?), proof of concept, initial financial projections and financial requirements, human resource requirements. Remember, it is the Teaser that will attract the attention of the investor resulting in the request for sight of a comprehensive Business Plan. So it needs catch the attention of the reader and be well presented.
What should be included in the 5-min Presentation?
A video of 5-min Presentation is the supplement of the Investment Proposition Teaser. Representatives of the team can briefly describe the business idea and "sell" to the judge in front of the camera. The presentation content and format is subjected to team decision. The presentation should not be more than 5 minutes. The team should submit the video in DVD format.
How will we evaluate the entries?
Members of the venture community, including successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other professionals will evaluate and judge the executive summaries and business plans. All decisions of the judging panel are final.
Judges will be asked to evaluate the plans based partially upon the likelihood of the plans to become the basis of an actual viable business, and the potential financial returns the business can provide, and partially on the basis of the oral and written presentation. This consideration will, in turn, include such factors as creativity and innovation embodied in the basic opportunity definition and business concept, a well thought out strategy, technological innovation, reasonable financial analysis, and the team's ability to execute the plan.
The following twenty questions provide some general evaluation criteria that are likely to be used by the judges. Corporate managers, private investors and venture capitalists also use these criteria when evaluating business opportunities.
- Is the business opportunity as presented both highly attractive and clearly realistic?
- Is the business defensible from competitors?
- What is the business model (i.e. how are they going to make money?)
- What comparisons to past success stories indicate that this venture will succeed?
- What is the amount of up-front capital investment required?
- Do the market and financial projections demonstrate that the team understands its business?
- How long will it take from the current stage of development to bring this product/service to market?
- Can this venture achieve a leadership position in its market?
- Has the team gone out to the market already to test its ideas (i.e. met its customers, made first sales)?
- Who will be the first customers?
- Is the team of sufficient breadth, balance and quality to make their ideas happen?
- Will the ego of the founders get in the way of success?
- Is the team focused on its target market?
- What is the expected time and amount of pay-off to investors?
- Is the reader familiar with and interested in the given market space?
- Is the plan clear and well written?
- Does the team have the necessary communications skills to present a compelling story?
- Are the team members dedicated to the venture and their roles in the group?
- Does the team have a clear plan for spending the investment it receives?
- Why is this business going to be around and a real world winner in 5 years?
YDC E-Challenge entries must be the original work of the declared entrants. The organizer of YDC E-Challenge 2008 shall not be held responsible for any intellectual property violation by competition entrants.
Submitted business plans will be evaluated by a number of well-respected judges. While the judges agree to treat submissions as confidential information, due to the nature of their profession they do NOT sign any confidentiality agreements with YDC or any of the competition entrants. All members of the YDC E-Challenge 2008 organizing committee pledge not to disclose or use any of the business plans or sensitive information outside of YDC E-Challenge 2008.
Organizations sponsoring YDC E-Challenge 2008 and judges for YDC E-Challenge 2008 shall make no claim to any of the property or rights based on their involvement with YDC E-Challenge 2008.
While every effort will be made to preserve the confidentiality of each submission, it is suggested that highly sensitive materials, such as patent-able technical drawings or formulae, be excluded from the entry. The responsibility for the protection of intellectual property ultimately lies upon the competition entrants.
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