Chris Inniss doesn’t think he would have been able to put together a good business plan when he was in high school.
Now in charge of small business for TD in Thunder Bay, Inniss was one of five judges for Thunder Bay Ventures’ Enter the Den: High School Business Plan Competition Wednesday afternoon at Hammarskjold High School.
Inniss was impressed with what he heard from the five finalists.
“It’s really cool what some of the kids are doing and will do soon,” he said. “Some ideas I wouldn’t have thought of.”
The students were being judged on a number of criteria including the quality of their overall plan, how realistic the financials were and any challenges they could foresee.
“We were surprised of what we thought of that they had an answer for right away. They’re really hitting the key issues,” said Inniss.
The caliber of applications the annual competition receives had been steadily improving each year, said Johnny DeBakker, chair of Thunder Bay Ventures’ education committee.
“We’re really excited that our past winners have gone on to start their businesses or continue their existing businesses with money they’ve won from this event and are actually doing quite well,” he said.
The purpose of Enter the Den is to raise the awareness of entrepreneurship amongst young people, said DeBakker.
“We’re trying to sort of promote the idea that people don’t need to go out and get a job, you can go out and create a job,” he said. “There are a lot of different avenues available for people to get funding to start these careers.”
“Your creative ideas can turn into cash for the rest of your life,” he added.
The first place winner receives $1,500. Second place gets $1,000 and third place takes home $500.
DeBakker said they can use the money however they like – for their business, for post-secondary education or even to celebrate a job well done.
