Student teams set to begin business plan competition

Among the entrepreneurial skills learned by students at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village recently is the ability to stay up until 3 a.m.

night after night to prepare a business plan.

Nine teams from Sierra Nevada College and a similar number from the University of Nevada, Reno, are among more than 20 statewide chasing $55,000 in cash prizes in a first-ever competition.

The competition, organizers say, is designed to encourage development of entrepreneurial skills to further diversify and deepen Nevada's economy.

The first round of judging will be completed this week in the Donald W.

Reynolds Governor's Cup Business Plan Competition.

That will be followed by a nearly a month of fine-tuning and faculty coaching of the 10 teams that make the semi-final round.

Six finalists will present their business plans to a panel of judges on April 27, and winners will be announced the same day at an awards banquet.

Members of the winning team will split $20,000.

The second-place team will split $10,000, and the third-place team will win $5,000.

Each team's faculty advisor will win $1,000.

While the teams may be motivated by cash, the lessons they're learning can't be quantified, says Peter H.

Hackbert, the chair of the entrepreneurship program at Sierra Nevada College.

"We've been able to nurture their entrepreneurial spirit,"Hackbert says."That spirit rolls out in taking responsibility for your ideas."

A veteran entrepreneur himself,Hackbert says his role as a mentor to the business plan teams brings a refreshing change to the classroom.

"In the past, I had to whip and threaten," he says."Now my role is one of facilitator and coach." Gary Valiere, the UNR faculty member working with the business plan teams, says students were nearing exhaustion as the first round of reviews came to a close.

"It's been very long and exhausting for the students.

It's been very difficult for them,"Valiere says."It's also been highly educational."

Faculty members, too, are tired.

At UNR,Valiere says teachers heard numerous preliminary presentations from teams with the promise to provide detailed feedback about 48 hours later.

The UNR teams include participants from several disciplines in the business school marketing and finance, for instance along with students from fields as far-flung as engineering and journalism.

If nothing else,Valiere says, the effort has provided invaluable experience to students who don't have much background working together in teams let alone multi-disciplinary teams.

After a couple of years of statewide competition, the Governor's Cup during the 2007- 2008 academic year will be widened to include teams from Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Those two states, like Nevada, launched in-state collegiate competitions this year.

The awards in all three states are funded by the Donald W.

Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas.

Reynolds founded a media company with extensive holdings throughout the West.

The nonprofit Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology manages the competition in Nevada.

Alison Estee, managing director of the center, says organizers were heartened at the number of entries.

Along with UNR and Sierra Nevada College, teams entered from Great Basin College, Community College of Southern Nevada and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"We have been really impressed with the commitment of our academic partners," Estee says."The number of entries received is indicative of the importance placed on the continued growth of entrepreneurship throughout Nevada."