New York SBDC Research Network

The College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering at the University at Albany, UAlbany's School of Business, the Lally School of Management & Technology at Rensselaer, and Syracuse University will host the third annual New York State Business Plan Competition on April 26, 2012. The New York State Business Plan Competition is a venture creation and innovation competition that was established in 2009 to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship throughout New York State's colleges and universities. The competition encourages students to fully engage in their research and allows them to gain valuable experience through presenting their business plan to potential investors and industry executives. The top applications will be selected by an external panel of judges to present in the final round of the competition and compete for over $100,000 in cash prizes. Since 2010, over 35 student teams from 13 New York State colleges have presented at the competition. At the end of

One of our NYS SBDC advisors has a new client who paid wasted $24,000 (no, we didn't misplace a zero!) for a TOTALLY USELESS business plan! Yet another reason to come to your nearest SBDC first.

Many people come to the SBDC for assistance with creating a business plan. This is always a necessity when applying for financing at a bank or credit union. When someone is going to agree to give you money, they darn well want to know what the plan is for, how it will be spent, and how it will be paid back. But it is also a good idea to create a plan or the rest of the pack - the lone wolves who just want to get the business started, the folks who are self-financing or who have loads of experience in the field in which they are creating their start-up, or the individuals who have small-beans goals. Why is this the case? Your plan can also be used internally by yourself as a living document as a way to understand your thought processes over time. This allows you to make adjustments to your life - err, that's a diary or journal and I mean business - but you see the similarity in the purpose of this type of writing, right? Of course, if you ever wanted to bring in a partner or

The Library of Congress Business Reference Services has Frequently Asked Business Questions dealing with these topics: 1. Can you tell me if my old stock certificate has any value? 2. What is the cost of living today compared with X years ago? 3. How can I get a sample business plan? 4. How can I get information on foreign exchange rates? 5. Where can I find the history of a company? 6. Where can I find standard industry ratios so I can compare the performance of company X to others in the industry? 7. What are NAICS and SIC codes? 8. Where can I find information on starting a small business? I'm particularly interested in government loans and grants. 9. I am planning to start a new company and want to be sure the name I choose will be unique and protected nationwide.

That's the question posed in the Wall Street Journal last week. The article by Kelly K. Spors, subtitled "Studies Find Often Time Wasted Gathering Data With No Link to Success", appeared in the January 9 edition, on page B-9. The abstract reads: Amar Bhide, a Columbia University entrepreneurship professor, found that 41% of Inc. magazine's 1989 list of the 500 fastest-growing private firms didn't have business plans and 26% had only rudimentary plans. A follow-up by the magazine in 2002 found the numbers without a plan have remained pretty much the same. Many business concepts are "transitional in nature," meaning there are competitive advantages to starting the business quickly and by the time you write a full business plan "the opportunity will be gone." Scott Shane, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, says most studies that discount business-planning are flawed because they don't correct for business failure rates, only accou