Student business plan winners

by John Inglis

The Frontenac CFDC has just chosen winners in its business plan competition. Two parallel competitions were open to all high school students, one for Sharbot Lake and North Addington , the other for Sydenham. Entries were judged by Lance Gibson, CFDC staff person, and John Inglis, board member.

The winner for the two northern schools was Marc Tooley of North Addington with a plan for "Marketing Logs and Lumber". Second place went to a team from Sharbot Lake of Kara Irwin, Duncan McGregor, Jon Stencell and Kelly Weatherby with their plan for a food concession "The Dog House”.

At Sydenham High School , first place went to Cydney Taylor for her baking school plan, "The Cookie Rookie". We had a difficult time choosing among the 11 remaining entries for a clear second place, but eventually decided on Brooke Bowes' "Cottage Clean-Out".

First place winners get a Dell notebook computer, while second place receives an iPod Nano. The Board and staff at the Frontenac CFDC are very pleased with the number of entries received from the three schools this year; a total of 19, compared to just 2 last year, which was our first year.

The business plan competition is just one segment of Frontenac CFDC's Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative.  One of our organizations central mandates is to try to retain young people in the rural and village areas.  We've chosen to address this issue by encouraging students to consider starting their own businesses, while at the same time getting all the training and education possible.  Overall, the Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative consists of:

(a) a local business-person guest speaker brought to each school

(b) an in-school business planning seminar (with pizza on us)

(c) the business plan competition

(d) a mentoring plan  for any student who starts a business and wants some help

We'd like to thank all students who submitted entries. There was a lot of imagination in the business ideas.  Many of the plans which didn't get a prize will likely lead to future work for their authors.