tailieunhanh - IDEA COMPETITION BUSINESS PLAN GUIDE 2012‐2013 

William Mulligan, environmental affairs manager at Chevron Corporation, reflects the view of many in the business community who believe that the environment is now a major issue - one which presents both challenges and opportunities. ‘Over the last decade, we have seen many polls confirming the importance of the environment to Americans,’ he says. ‘Only an irresponsible company would dismiss this trend as a passing fad or fail to recognize the need to integrate environmental considerations into every aspect of its business. Environmental excellence has to become part of strategic thinking. It is in our best economic interests to do. | IDEA COMPETITION BUSINESS PLAN GUIDE 2012-2013 Welcome to the IDEA Competition IDEA which stands for Ingenuity Drives Entrepreneur Acceleration is a project of Ingenuity Frontier a collaboration of partners joined by a common purpose to grow the economy of Northwest Minnesota by outfitting the next generation of homegrown innovators for success in the global marketplace. IDEA is managed by several partners 360 Manufacturing and Applied Engineering Center of Excellence Agricultural Utilization Research Institute Bemidji State University Enterprise Minnesota Headwaters Regional Development Commission Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Northland Community and Technical College Northwest Minnesota Foundation Northwest Regional Small Business Development Center Northwest Regional Development Commission and University of Minnesota Crookston. Your success is our success. This plan is a guide that we have developed through years of experience in assisting individuals such as you in bringing promising ideas to market. Launching a new business is complicated but we hope that this guide will help you to organize your ideas in such a way that your application will get the attention of the IDEA judges and ultimately help you to successfully launch your idea. Launching a new product service or idea is a challenging process. Statistically less than 1 of all new products or services developed go on to become a commercial success. The question you need to answer is how will I beat the odds and stand among those who succeed in introducing a new product or service Although there are many reasons that businesses fail there is one thing that successful innovations share a comprehensive plan for execution of the idea. Don t underestimate the importance of due diligence Doing your homework will pay off in more ways than one. Although you want to write a competitive IDEA Business Plan more importantly you need to determine for yourself if your idea is really going