Succeeding in Your Business: A look at some business plans from tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

Twice a year, I have the honor of being a judge at the Connecticut Business Plan Competition, where students from business schools and undergraduate business programs throughout Connecticut compete for cash prizes and mentoring from leading business experts, in a format very similar to the popular “Shark Tank” television show.

The event has grown wildly popular over the years, and even though the final judging took place via Zoom meeting due to COVID-19 restrictions, eight student teams participated in this year’s competition. Here are some ideas the students came up with, along with my judge’s notes describing their strengths and weaknesses.

Concept No. 1: A restaurant offering only plant-based entrees.

Strengths: More and more people are adopting plant-based diets either for health or lifestyle reasons and are demanding a broader range of plant-based options than most traditional restaurants offer.

Weaknesses: Just about every restaurant — including McDonald’s, with its McPlant line of plant-based meat products — is climbing on board the plant-based bandwagon. As long as the COVID pandemic continues, a lifestyle restaurant centered on plant-based cooking will be out of the question. Could such a restaurant survive on takeout and home delivery alone?

Concept No. 2: An apparel business specializing in biodegradable clothing.

Strengths: The fashion industry is increasingly concerned about sustainability and the impact its fabrics have on the environment.

Weaknesses: People care about sustainability, but they care about many more things when they buy clothing, such as fit, fashion and style. A better approach would be to launch a sustainability consulting business for fashion designers, perhaps combined with an import business to source the biodegradable fabrics for its customers.

Concept No. 3: A smartphone app that takes your handwritten notes on a tablet, transcribes them into readable English and makes them look attractive by presenting them in a colorful font with appropriate graphics.

Strengths: There’s no question that penmanship is a dying art. Still, many people (not all of them baby-boom geezers) haven’t learned keyboard skills and have to jot down notes by hand — notes they often can’t read themselves. A viable transcription app would find a huge market.

Weaknesses: Anyone who’s ever experienced the autocorrect feature on a smartphone knows how far this technology has to go. It will be a long time before transcription products become error-free, and when they do, the large smartphone providers (think Apple and Samsung) will lead the way. Also, I’m not convinced that making your notes look pretty is a competitive advantage unless the user is planning to post the notes on social media.

Concept No. 4: A smartphone app that not only records your virtual meetings but also transcribes the meeting content into a text document for people who cannot attend the meeting.

Strengths: The COVID pandemic has been a boon for virtual meeting platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Often, there are too many meetings going on at the same time for people to attend them all. A TiVo-type recorder for video meetings one cannot attend live could find a huge market.

Weaknesses: The product would have to operate on all available virtual meeting platforms and may violate exclusive agreements these platforms have with third-party providers. Also, a mere “transcription” product that turns audio content into text (similar to what a court stenographer does) may not be useful to an individual who needs to scroll through countless pages of text to find the information that’s important to him or her. A “digesting” product that reviews transcribed text and highlights important information would be killer, but I don’t think artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where such a product is viable.

Concept No. 5: A disposable plastic pick with a patented design that effectively removes irritating pieces of mucus (aka “boogers”) from one’s nasal cavities.

Strengths: It is widely considered a social faux pas to pick one’s nose in public. There are also health issues in doing so and using toothpicks or nose-hair trimmers to do the job may be dangerous.

Weaknesses: Whether made of plastic, cardboard or wood, any device you stick up your nose is likely to be socially unacceptable. I’m not convinced that a plastic pick is more effective, discreet or pleasant to use than using your fingers (even if the pick is scented). Also, since the product is disposable after a single use, there’s a significant risk of damage to the environment caused by used picks that are not biodegradable (even if their contents are).

A Common Thread: Many business plans I’ve seen lately — and not just in student competitions — spend too much time discussing the social and environmental benefits the business will foster and not enough on how the business will generate revenue and turn a profit. While it is important for all companies — including entrepreneurial ones — to take their social responsibilities seriously, a business plan is not a mission statement and must contain a clear and convincing strategy for making money.

Even nonprofits must make a profit before they can fulfill their charitable missions. That’s a lesson many young entrepreneurs — and their teachers — need to spend more time on.

Cliff Ennico (crennico@gmail.com) is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television series “Money Hunt.”

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