RESOURCES FOR STUDENT STARTUPS

Business plans

Small Business Plan Guide
http://www.smallbusinessplanguide.com/

BizPlanIt
http://www.bizplanit.com/free.html

Bplans.com - Sample business plans
http://www.bplans.com/

Small Business Resource Center – Illinois Library (University only)
Sample business plans, other planning resources; many by type of business
http://www.library.illinois.edu/orr/get.php?instid=728029

Plans for the nonprofit enterprise
http://www.nul.org/publications/programs/ED/EOI/Social-Investment-Resources.pdf

Making presentations and elevator pitches

An elevator pitch is a concise and well practiced description of a business venture that you would deliver if you found yourself in an elevator with a potential investor, business partner or advisor.  Social entrepreneurs need to be able to make similar presentations to potential funders, partners, volunteers, etc.  The independent artist or the person seeking employment should be able to make a pitch about themselves and their strengths.  In 1-2 minutes, the pitch should describe:

  • Your product or service
  • Your market and its size
  • How you plan to make money
  • Your leadership team
  • Your competition
  • Your competitive advantage
Another format or outline is:
  • SO WHAT?  What’s your idea?  What’s the problem?  Where does your idea fit?
  • WHO CARES?  Who’s your customer?  What is your path-to-market?  Where’s the money?
  • WHY YOU?  What’s your competitive edge?  Who’s on the team?  What’s your story?
Guidelines and examples - elevator pitches and presentations to investors
http://entr200.wiki.zoho.com/Presentation-Skills-for-Entrepreneurs.html
http://entrepreneurship.wfu.edu/newsletter/the-elevator-pitch.html

Book:  Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.  Chip Heath & Dan Heath.  Random House, 2007.

Tips from entrepreneurs – Cornell’s eClips – Search for terms like pitch, presentation to find related video clips
http://eclips.cornell.edu/

Market research

BizToolkit from JJ Hill Library
http://www.jjhill.org/research_online/biztoolkit_membership.cfm

Sample marketing plans
http://www.bplans.com/

Inc magazine’s marketing guide
http://www.inc.com/guides/marketing/24018.html

Illinois Library guides
http://uiuc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=7960&sid=50676
http://uiuc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=7967&sid=50737

Business basics
U.S. Small Business Administration Resource Library
http://www.sba.gov/tools/resourcelibrary/publications/index.html

Business plan competitions
The University of Illinois hosts several business plan competitions each year.  Among these are the V. Dale Cozad New Venture Competition (http://www.tec.illinois.edu/) and the iVentures 10 software competition (http://www.iventures10.com/). 

Regional and national competitions are also open to Illinois students.

Getting in on the university business plan competition circuit
http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessplans/article73208.html

Major business plan competitions
http://www.nature.com/bioent/2009/090701/fig_tab/bioe.2009.7_T1.html

Selected competitions, including social innovation
http://www.ic2.utexas.edu/mstc/student-resources/business-plan-competitions.html

Socially responsible/sustainable business plan competitions
http://communities.seepnetwork.org/edexchange/node/1811

Startup Portals

Resources from the U.S. Small Business Administration
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessplan/index.html

Yahoo! Small Business Resource Directory
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index

Entrepreneur magazine
http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizstartups/index.html

Inc magazine
http://www.inc.com/resources/startup/

Startup Journal – from the Wall Street Journal
http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/

Small Business – from USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/default.htm

Resources for the social entrepreneur
http://www.socialentrepreneurcoach.com/resources.html
http://www.caseatduke.org/leaders/resources.htm