Now in its fourth year, the FNB Enablis Business LaunchPad – the country’s largest business plan competition for entrepreneurs – has more than doubled the pool of funding for the winners to R50m in 2008.<\/p>\n
The competition offers an opportunity to "home-grown" entrepreneurs with business ideas, or existing businesses that are struggling to grow, and who find it difficult to raise funding through normal commercial channels.<\/p>\n
Open to anyone with a business idea, or an existing business that wants to expand, the competition is accepting entries up to September 30 in 10 sectors: tourism, construction, manufacturing, personal services, IT, media and marketing\/communication, "green" business, personal services, business\/professional services and transport.<\/p>\n
"Working capital is the lifeblood of a business, yet thousands of entrepreneurs who have good, viable ideas struggle to get their business off the ground because they cannot get funding, or the cost of funding is too high," says LaunchPad 2008 director Martin Feinstein.<\/p>\n
The competition will select 30 winners from 100 finalists, who will be chosen from entrants throughout the country. The finalists will present their business ideas to a panel of judges in Johannesburg made up of experienced entrepreneurs. Winners will also receive laptops, cellphones, software, business training and membership of the Enablis entrepreneur network.<\/p>\n
LaunchPad 2008 is also running a series of 28 practical business planning workshops around the country for entrants, and seats at these events can be booked on the Web site or via the help desk.<\/p>\n
Previous winners’ businesses, ranging from fleet management software to food processing, have received millions of rands funding as a result of the competition. An innovation this year is that all entrants will be able to check their business plan score and the judges’ comments on the Web site after the competition has closed.<\/p>\n
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