OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi students plan to take their ideas for entrepreneurship to the next level after winning $5,000 each in the fifth annual Gillespie Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the School of Business Administration.
A panel of eight judges selected Jennifer Harjes, an MBA student from Jackson and manager of product resources for the UM Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, as winner of the Best Business Plan, and Julia Bussade, a doctoral student in education and interim director of Spanish and Portuguese from Brazil, as winner of the Best New Business Concept.
“The Gillespie
Business Challenge is a wonderful event that exposes aspiring entrepreneurs to
the process of organizing and selling their business idea to a panel of
experienced judges,” said Ken Cyree, business school dean. “The
presentations are similar to what these budding business owners would make to a
start-up funding firm or a bank to get their business off the ground, so the
experience is excellent for honing their business plan for the future. The
event showcases the ingenuity or our students, and the finalists gave
impressive presentations about their ideas.”
Harjes entered a plan for
Fantastic Flatware, a customized utensil business that would allow fans of
organizations such as colleges, sports teams and NASCAR to entertain with
flatware bearing their college or team’s stamp. Harjes is working on putting
her plan into action. She said that the feedback from the Gillespie competition
judges was extremely helpful.
“I wanted to bounce
this idea off of people who have a lot of experience in business,” Harjes
said. “The judges gave a lot of really great feedback and offered to
introduce me to people they know in the business. I’m just so excited about the
idea.”
Bussade’s plan,
AlienNation, offers long-term car rentals to international students, researchers
and other visitors who plan to be in Oxford for an extended period of time but
not permanently.
“Most
people lose money when they buy a car for a short period of time, and the fact
that they usually have to sell it right before they return home makes the price
even lower,” Bussade said. “That is where AlienNation Car Rental LLC
sounds like a good solution.”
Bussade put her idea into
motion in 2001, but she plans to expand by investing her prize money.
Twenty-four undergraduate
and graduate students of all majors entered the competition in March by
submitting a two-page executive summary of their plans, and 20 semi-finalists
were then chosen for five-minute presentations in front of the judges. The six
finalists gave in-depth presentations April 17.
Competition judge John
Cassimus, of Maki Fresh Restaurant, said he judged the business plans on
whether or not the ideas were believable and applicable, as well as on the
inclusion of solid financial data. For the Best New Business Concept, he said he
was looking for an idea that could be “put into play next week and make
money.”
Melanie
Dowell, a competition judge from Smith Barney, said she was looking for ideas
that were “realistic, new, achievable, simple and innovative,” which
she found in Harjes’ plan and in Bussade’s idea.
“While there were
several deserving entrants, Jennifer’s plan was not only new, simple and
achievable, but she will have limited competition due to her ownership of the
licenses for each logo she uses,” Dowell said. “Julia’s idea was so
innovative and original that it really captured your attention.”
Along
with Cassimus and Dowell, other judges were Wayne Averett of Renasant Center
for IDEAS Home Page, David Guyton of First National Bank of Oxford, Whitney
Harris of BancorpSouth, Lance Hickman of BancorpSouth, Rita Floyd of Trustmark
Bank and Gerald McLemore of SOUTHbank.
The endowment for the
competition was provided in honor of Edwin C. Gillespie, a 1943 business
administration graduate. His widow, Jean Gillespie, and brother, Joe Gillespie,
a 1950 liberal arts graduate, helped establish the endowment to assist students
in promoting concepts in entrepreneurship.
For more information on
the Gillespie Business Plan Competition, visit http://www.olemissbusiness.com/bizplan/.