Awards Gala

The Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge Committee is excited to announce the winner of the $15,000 cash prize plus over $5,000 in in-kind services for 2007.

The winner is:

Titan Contract Welding – Kerry Weiland, Wardlow, AB

This year the runner up for the grand prize was Wendy Devent owner of Paws on the Run Pet Services Ltd, a local company that has just recently opened its doors. As Jacquie Penner, Dean of Business at Medicine Hat College and judge for the Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge said, “the contestants’ plans must go through an intense screening and judging process to make it to the Awards Gala. Even though both plans did not receive the grand prize, just getting this far is a testament to the quality of their business plans.”

The top two finalists presented to a crowd of more than 50 at the Awards Gala in Lethbridge this weekend including the sponsors, screeners, mentors, judges and local business people who made the Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge a success.

Chris Lindeman, Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge Coordinator said, “it was great to see such a wide variety of plans come in this year from such a wide area. We expanded this year and got registrations and business plan entries from every new area. It was exciting to see a contestant win from outside of the Lethbridge and Medicine Hat which are the major economic centres in the area that the Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge encompasses. It just proves that the Challenge is reaching the smaller areas and diversifying Alberta’s rural economy.”

The winner received $15,000 in cash to be used within their business as well as services from Meyers Norris Penny LLP and KICK Creative Group. – which will assist them to promote their goods and services. Congratulations again to Titan Contract Welding and Paws on the Run all look forward to seeing their businesses develop and grow!

Seminars Are Over

Hello,
On behalf of all the program partners, sponsors, and those affiliated with the Chinook Entrepreneur Challenge, I would like to thank Craig Milner for the great job he did over the past two months. I would also like to thank all the participants of the CEC for their continued support and for their business plans.

The screening round will officially start at the end of this week. I wish everyone who submitted a plan the best of luck.

Seminars Winding Down

This is the final week of seminars. I hope they have proven useful to everyone who attended. As promised by Craig last week there is a teamwork article and example of an offer letter posted on the website. Also, here is the link to the Human Resources site he was talking about... http://employment.alberta.ca/cps/rde/xchg/hre/hs.xsl/4339.html. I have looked at it and it is quite thorough.

We have this weeks seminar then the business plans are due on August 10th. Good luck finishing your plans. I hope it all goes off without a hitch. See you on Thursday.

Financial Help

Hello Everyone
As promised there is a website that will help you gauge your business by comparing your financial statements to those of the industry norms all across Canada.

It is called Performance Plus. In their own words:

"Performance Plus is an on-line performance benchmarking tool. It provides detailed financial and employment data on more than 600 business sectors across Canada, including more than 30 performance benchmarks to help small businesses determine how they measure up against their competitors.

This tool uses the Small Business Profiles (SBP) created from a sample of Revenue Canada tax returns for both incorporated and unincorporated businesses operating in Canada.

Performance Plus gives instant access to benchmark financial data that can help small businesses construct a business plan. This tool also helps new and established firms find out where they stand as compared to a relevant industry average. Performance Plus assists small businesses in making the best operational decisions - quickly, simply and effectively."

The website is http://SME.IC.GC.CA. It is an interactive website to tailor to your business/industry. To use it first click on build your own profile, then use the 2004 data because it is the most recent. Then select the area, business type, and expense data units (I recommend $ instead of %). In the next screen you will need to choose and industry. Then simply keep narrowing it down until you have only on left to choose and click create report.

This is an amazingly powerful tool and great to compare your business to the industry for projections.

Seminar Material

We are under way with finance material. Last night we learned the different avenues to raise capital from a senior partner in the top 10 accounting firm MNP. Next week we will address the different financial statements that need to be included in your plan.

Keep in mind that we have a very small amount of time and a very large amount of material to cover. Therefore, a lot of the material will be surface level material. If you wish to delve deeper into some particular subject matter, ask questions during the seminars. I am supremely confident in our instructors, guest lecturers, and other resources at hand to answer your questions. I also can guarantee, that if you have a question, at least one other person has that question as well. Also, it gives the instructors something else to work from other than there slides, and perhaps the real world examples that come out of questions may be very useful to you.

On another note, this blog is designed to be a discussion board. It is dynamic so if you would like to post a comment or question here click "comment" on the bottom of the blog and I will respond as quickly as possible. If you have tried this in the past and failed, I have changed the settings to allow anyone to comment on the blog. So if you have a pressing question or hate speaking in the midst of a group, post a comment on here, and I will respond either by email or the blog itself.

Have a safe long weekend.

The Foundation of Success

The author of the best selling book series Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert Kyiosaki, said, "Education is the foundation of success. Just as scholastic skills are vitally important, so are financial skills and communication skills."

In his books Kyiosaki had two fathers. His own father, a very prominent government worker in Hawaii, well respected and with a big income. However, he never was truly "rich". This dad was awarded for spending money and hiring people. He also had a very close friend who's dad was a smart investor and wise business man. He was truly "rich". He was awarded to cutting costs and maximizing profits. Growing up with both allowed him the unique experience of being able to choose between both lifestyles. He chose his rich dad's lifestyle, he doesn't have a traditional job, but is one of the most successful men in Hawaii. Granted, he started buying land and starting business during Hawaii's tourism boom, but still. The gist of his books is invest in something that will get you where you want to go and invest wisely.

Since reading his books I have realized, almost to late, that if a penny saved is a penny earned...a penny wisely invested is a dollar earned. (I even came up with that saying myself)

You are all investing in your business. This entire Blog Post was building up to this. Invest wisely. If you're financial statements don't work, perhaps you have to revise before going ahead with your idea. Even if you have the best idea in the world, make sure it is feasible. Owning a business is only good if it can support you (and your family). I'm not saying give up, just rework/rethink the details. This is where the mentors come in and if they say this may not work, ask why, don't get mad at their opinions.

Finance Templates

If you remember, I said I was going to post some financial templates on the website. I was in the process of drawing some up when I was directed to a website that had everything we will need and more. It is http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html. This website has every financial template that will be included in your plan with explanations and answers to FAQ's. It is more in depth than I was going to go and all around a better format. I encourage you to take a look at them, even if you are not planning on using them, they may still remind you of a hidden cost or a cost you may not have thought of.

I will see you all Thursday for the 4th seminar.