Why are Business Plan Competitions Getting so Popular?

A simple search on the net yields to almost 60 000 pages for the keywords "social entrepreneurship" and "business plan competition". At the international level, the University of Washington promotes the concept through the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition, to encourage sustainable business ideas in the fields of healthcare, education, social services and so on.

In India, we know two competitions are simultaneously running: the Genesis Social Entrepreneurship Competition organized by the IIT Madras, and the Srijan Microfinance Business Plan Competition, targeting start ups as well as established microfinance institutions willing to scale up, and offering extensive mentoring to the top ten winners.

So why are Business Plan Competitions important to the social entrepreneurship sector?

At the sector level, business plan competitions allow the emergence of innovations and the promotion of the underlying concepts that they convey, such as sustainable development in the case of social entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion in the case of microfinance. The most obvious reason to participate is that most competitions offer cash prizes as well as mentoring and business plan development support to the winning propositions.
Having access to mentoring is of utmost importance for young entrepreneurs. It allows them to build on former experiences and learn from the mistakes and good moves of those that went through the hassles of building a business before them.

Besides, competitions final events are always great occasions for start up entrepreneurs to network and meet strong figures in their fields, and potential investors that could fuel their initiatives. However, it remains in the entrepreneurs' hands to make the most out of these occasions, as besides a well designed business plan, interpersonal skills and the ability to make the most out of each encounter are the keys to make it from the entrepreneurial idea to the real business.