FALL 2014 Hundreds in attendance at 3rd Annual Governor’s Conference on Small Business As the ink dries on this edition of The operate their $5 billion battery factory particular, we’d like to thank the follow- Business Advocate, we are taking stock of within our borders. ing sponsors for their financial support the 3rd annual Governor’s Conference on which allowed us to offer attendee tick- Dr. Kenneth Witcher, Dean of Aero- Small Business which took place Septem- ets at a great value: nautics at Embry-Riddle University ber 19th at the Rio Pavilion Ballroom in Worldwide and former team member Bank of Nevada Las Vegas. of the Air Force Thunderbird Squad- Bank of America CDFI Clearinghouse It has been a busy summer in our offices ron, gave an overview of what makes Century Link (plus raffle items!) as we work to implement events and ac- Nevada such a draw for developing DETR tivities to assist entrepreneurs and small industries like UAV. He also highlight- Las Vegas Metro Chamber of businesses throughout the state. ed the opportunities for entrepreneurs Commerce and small businesses to become a part NV Energy By all indication, we are declaring the of the developing industry. Nevada Governor’s Office of conference a success! More than three Economic Development years ago, the idea for a statewide small Students from Rancho High School Nevada Microenterprise Initiative business conference was born. Our De- Academy of Aviation performed a partment has had the honor and privilege demonstration of their UAV aircraft to Thank you as well to all of the panelists, to work closely with the Governor to pre- demonstrate the technology that moderators, marketing partners, in-kind sent this comprehensive event in both earned them a national title in the Real donors, UAV companies that displayed or northern and southern Nevada in alter- World Design Challenge. demonstrated drones and our exhibitors. nating years. Governor Sandoval addressed the au- We also want to thank the Las Vegas This year’s event in Southern Nevada fea- dience of more than 700 and declared Metro Chamber of Commerce for their tured more than 100 exhibitors at the that with Nevada’s continued econom- event planning expertise and registration Business Resource Expo, six interactive ic recovery and comeback, our State’s assistance. and informative panel discussions and an best days are ahead. He also empha- And finally, thank you to those that inspiring luncheon program featuring spe- sized the importance of an educated attended the conference! We’re so glad cial guest speakers and keynote address workforce to meet the needs of these you joined us. A post-event survey was by Governor Brian Sandoval. new industries as well as existing busi- emailed earlier this week. If you didn’t nesses and indicated that during the During the lunch program, Governor’s receive an official survey, we’d still love next legislative session, finding new Office of Economic Development Director to hear from you. Drop us a line to tell solutions to education funding would Steve Hill spoke to the State’s efforts to us what you liked, or how we could im- be a priority. bring some big economic wins to the prove. state, including Nevada’s selection as an The conference would not have been And for our friends in Northern Nevada, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) test site possible without the generous support we are looking forward to brining this and the decision by Tesla to build and of our sponsors and supporters. In event back to you in 2015! P2 / Access to Capital: P4/ The Affordable Care P6/ Resource Partner P10/ Happening This Quarter: Statewide calen- Business plan competitions Act: What you need to Spotlight: SCORE Las help fuel today’s entrepre- Vegas dar of small business know now neurs events ACCESS TO CAPITAL CORNER: Pitching for Dollars Business plan competitions have become wildly popular in recent years and competing could help fund your capital- starved venture. Awards range from bragging rights to thou- sands in cash or equity shares. In addition to cash, winners can benefit from in-kind services like marketing, legal assis- tance, mentoring, and office space. It is an excellent oppor- tunity to gain experience in ideation from initial concept pitch through business plan creation and hopefully, imple- mentation of that plan. Dominic Anthony Marrocco Southern Nevada Business Plan competition. Business plan competition has its humble beginnings in the early eighties. Two MBA students from the University of Tex- Preparing for a competition can take months of planning. as wanted an activity in their business school to equal that of The team benefitted from practice presentations filmed by the distinguished Moot Court competition in the university’s UNLVTV. According to Dr. Hardin, “The presentation greatly law school program. In 1984, “Moot Corp” (now called Ven- improved during the process. The key takeaway is that pre- ture Labs Investment Competition) held their first competi- paring for a competition requires a great deal of work and tion for Texas MBA students only. By 1989, it had become a cooperation by the team members.” national event with MBA teams from the likes of Harvard, Skyworks was awarded the grand prize in the competition Carnegie Mellon and Purdue vying for the win. The competi- and took home over $85,000 in cash and prizes. The team tion went international in 1990 and the field has been grow- went on to win $10,000 and first place in the 2014 Innova- ing ever since. tion Challenge hosted by the North American Professionals Many competitions are open to only students of the hosting & Entrepreneurs Council (NAPEC), beating out teams from college but contests for students from any accredited univer- MIT and Carnegie Mellon. sity are growing. Non-students may be able to participate as According to Zeng, the key to their success was finding co- part of the team as long as at least one teammate is a current hesive partners to create what Zeng called ‘active conversa- student. The number of non-student contests open to tion across multiple disciplines.’ “It’s how the real world and startups and established businesses are increasing as well. real industry work. Our team did great in that aspect.” With With more than 400 competitions per year, there is some- a chuckle she added, “Team work makes dream work!” thing for just about every field such as social, energy, tech- nology and health. WINNING ISN’T EVERYTHING Although winning the top prize is great, it is not the only rea- TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK son to enter these contests. Just like participants that do not Last fall, Greg Friesmuth, Jinger Zeng and classmates at UNLV get funding on the popular television show Shark Tank, being a worked closely with MBA students in Dr. Andrew Hardin’s finalist in high-profile competitions can throw a spotlight on “New Venture Creation” class at UNLV’s Center for Entrepre- your business through media attention about the contest, neurship where they developed a business plan for opening the doors for other funding opportunities. Friesmuth’s engineering capstone project and Skyworks Aeri- Judges for these competitions are often investors, CEOs and al Systems was born. Skyworks is a hardware company that successful entrepreneurs that can offer invaluable advice and designs, manufactures and sells unmanned aerial systems feedback on your plan. Some audience members may be look- (UAS). ing for the next big idea to invest in as well. The connections After honing their business plan and brining other key mem- made during these events can be just as vital to your success bers on the team, the Skyworks group entered into the 2014 as receiving funds. (Continued) Business plan and idea pitching competitions may not be for everyone. It takes many steps to turn your idea into a great business. Like a roadmap that is not drawn right, you may eventually get where you want to go but you might end up making a few wrong turns along the way. WHERE TO FIND COMPETITIONS www.Istart.org - iStart began as studentbusiness.com by three Harvard University students. It was bought by Ewing Mari- on Kauffman Foundation in 2009 and currently has more than 400 competitions in its database. http://studentcompetitions.com – Student competitions started in 2010 by four competitive college students as a com- petition listing service. The company has added other products and services to include global talent database manage- ment. http://www.bizplancompetitions.com – A searchable database of entrepreneurship contests, elevator pitch events, and business plan competitions. NAME CATEGORY GRAND TOTAL WEBSITE PRIZE PRIZES New Space Business Plan New independent ventures $20,000 $30,000 http://newspacebpc.com/lightning-pitch- “Lightning Pitch” in seed, start-up or early 2014 growth stages in space re- lated fields Clean Tech Open Start-ups (initial funding $20,000 cash $200,000 http://www2.cleantechopen.org/overview caps) in clean technology & services for national winner Dominic Anthony Marrocco Any type of industry doing $80,000 cash http://snbpc.com Southern Nevada Business business in Clark, Nye or and in-kind Plan Competition Lincoln Counties. prizes North American Get in the U.S., Canada or Mexico $10,000 $16,000 www.kauffman.org/gitr Ring – Startup Pitch startup not more than 5 national website : www.gitr.nl Competition years old. Donald W. Reynolds Governors Nevada Graduate or Under- $20,000 $35,000 http://nvgovernorscup.org/ Cup - Nevada graduate The Lieutenant Governor’s Cup Nevada Graduate or Under- $10,000 http://nvgovernorscup.org/the-lieutenant- graduate in clean, renewa- governors-cup ble or efficient energy tech- nology and services Donald W.