The Baylor Entrepreneurship New Venture Business Plan Competition is a single day, dual round business plan competition promoting entrepreneurship and small business development. The competition, underwritten by a generous anonymous gift to Baylor University and the Hankamer School of Business, provides students with expert feedback and, in this inaugural year, the opportunity to win part of $25,000 in prizes to help fund their ventures. In 2013, total funding for the competition increases to $100,000.

Submissions should be for ventures that are early stage, for profit and could be seeking investment capital. Students must have fundamental founding positions within the company or have a combined ownership of at least 25% of the founder's equity in the company.

Teams may be composed of up to four current full-time undergraduate or graduate students. Post-graduate students may also participate but must have graduated within the previous 12 months of the submission deadline for the competition. All team members must be present during the entire competition and at the time of the prize presentations to be eligible for prizes.

Teams that make it to the final round will compete for a grand prize of $15,000. Each presenting team is only eligible for one prize.

Awards for the top 3 prizes will be:
* 1st Place - $15,000
* 2nd Place - $5,000
* 3rd Place - $2,500

The New Venture Business Plan Competition will begin its kick-off in mid-October with a campus-wide information blitz. The multi-phase competition will culminate on April 14th, 2012 with semi-finalist and finalist presentations.

For more information, see the Baylor New Venture Business Plan Competition website. Email questions to newventurecomp@baylor.edu.

Baylor University has long been known for excellent education and high impact research in family business and has for many years been involved in annual conferences such as the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), the Family Firm Institute (FFI), the Academy of Management (AOM), and the Family Enterprise Research Council (FERC) to raise the visibility of family business as an important area of entrepreneurship research. Additionally, Baylor is home to one of the leading journals of entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice - known as a leading source for family business research.

The Institute for Family Business, within the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, has been designated as a Regional Coordinator for the North American Affiliate Board of the Babson College STEP program. The global STEP team launched in 2005 to begin data collection in Europe. Currently, the program operates in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, coordinating a comprehensive research initiative to gain insight into the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) of family owned businesses that have survived and thrived through multiple succession events.

The research program is designed to investigate the phenomenon of corporate entrepreneurship in the context of the family form of business organization. The STEP research profile blends qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, a leading-edge research technique called for by the Academy of Management, to maximize scholarly rigor with practical relevance.

Baylor will be a partner affiliate and will coordinate the efforts of scholars from other universities within our region. Fellow affiliates who will also act as regional coordinators include Northwestern, Oregon State, Syracuse and Thunderbird. "Baylor is proud to be one of only ten institutions to sit on the affiliate board, further acknowledgment of Baylor's increasing recognition within the Academy," said Bill Worthington, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Strategy and Family Business.

To learn more, see Baylor's STEP-affiliation webpage . Email questions to Bill_Worthington@baylor.edu.

Baylor Entrepreneurship has long been a pioneer in the world of entrepreneurship education. Our success is largely due to the resources provided through our many alumni and educational partnerships. We are so grateful for these relationships and invite you to contact us if you are interested in joining us on our collaborative journeys.

Contact us at Entrepreneurship@baylor.edu.