ABOUT

The Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition provides an exciting opportunity for students to reap rewards by developing their ideas. First launched in the 1998 - 1999 academic year by the W. P. Carey Program in Entrepreneurship and Management (now part of the Center for Leadership Education), the competition was open to undergraduate students on the Homewood campus. It has grown significantly since its inception, and continues to expand as more students take an interest in business.

Now heading into its ninth year, the competition aims to be larger than ever before. Open for the first time to full-time students from any of the nine academic divisions of the University, the competition boasts new categories and even more money to be won.

We offer a number of information sessions and assistance throughout the fall semester, and we strongly encourage you to take advantage of all the resources we offer for writing business plans. The final event is held in the spring semester. Please check out our calendar for specific dates.

How it Works

Students may submit business plans either individually or as part of a team. Students may participate in more than one team. Each team then develops and submits a business plan (generally ten to fifteen pages in length) to one of the three categories.

The top twelve plans in each category advance to the semi-finals, held this year on Friday, March 28th. Each team gives a seven minute presentation followed by eight minutes of questions from judges.

The top six plans in each category from the semi-finals then advance to the finals, held this year on Friday, April 11, 2008. Each team gives a refined seven minute presentation followed by eight minutes of questions from judges. All the business plans in each category are then reviewed and scored by a panel of three to five judges. The judges decide how each team does and awards the prizes.