Competition Guide - Round 1 2020 - 2021 Youth Entrepreneur Showcase (Y.E.S.) for Arkansas Registration ...
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Competition Guide – Round 1
2020 – 2021 Youth Entrepreneur Showcase
(Y.E.S.) for Arkansas
https://arcapital.com/yesforarkansas
Team Registration Opens October 1
Business Plan Deadline November 19
Table of Contents
Rules........................................................................................... 2
Business Plan Content Requirements ........................................ 2
Team Registration and Submitting Business Plans .................... 7
Judging, Announcment of Finalists, 2021 Expo Day .................. 8
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 1RULES
1. Not every circumstance can be anticipated. Arkansas Capital Corporation reserves the right to
disqualify any team that violates the rules, regulations, or the spirit of the competition. All Y.E.S. for
Arkansas competitors and teachers/sponsors are expected to conduct themselves in an ethical
manner.
2. Y.E.S. for Arkansas is open to any Arkansas student enrolled in grades 5-8 during the 2020-2021
school year. Students can be from public, private, home, or virtual schools; after-school clubs and
organizations; churches; etc.
3. Team members can be from the same grade or from a combination of grades 5-8.
4. Student teams should consist of at least 2 and no more than 6 members.
5. All teams must be sponsored by a 5th-8th grade teacher or, in the case of teams from non-
classroom-based groups, an adult affiliated with that group. Adults that want to sponsor non-
classroom-based teams need to advise Arkansas Capital in advance by emailing or calling Marie
Bruno at mbruno@arcapital.com, 501-374-9247.
6. Teachers/sponsors cannot be a parent or other relative of any team member.
7. Teachers/mentors may have more than one team in the competition.
8. Only one business plan per team can be entered into the competition.
9. Students cannot be on more than one team.
10. The business plans must show that the business idea is a for-profit product or service. Business
ideas must be viable and not theoretical.
11. Ideas submitted in previous Y.E.S. competitions cannot be entered again in 2021.
12. The product or service cannot be fictional in nature.
13. Business plans must represent the original work of the team members.
14. Team registrations, business plan uploads, judging, and scoring for Y.E.S. are processed online
via the YouNoodle competition platform.
BUSINESS PLAN CONTENT REQUIREMENTS
1. Overall:
a. Business plans must be a minimum of 5 pages and no more than 10.
b. The Cover Page and Table of Contents are not counted as part of the page number limits.
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 2c. With the exception of the Cover Page and Table of Contents, all pages must be typed in
12-point Times New Roman or Arial font and pages must be numbered.
d. Paragraphs can be single- or double-spaced.
e. Plans must be converted to PDF before uploading to YouNoodle.
f. The plan file size is limited to 10 MB. Please ensure team business plans convert properly
to PDF and that the file size is 10 MB or less before uploading.
g. The business plan must be compiled and submitted in the following order:
2. Cover Page and Table of Contents (10 points) – Include the:
a. Name of the business
b. Names of all team members
c. Teacher / mentor name and title
d. School name and city
e. A photo, drawing, or graphic of the product or service – this helps the judges visualize the
product or service.
Please ensure teams follow directions here and for the rest of the plan requirements below.
This Cover Page will be the first impression judges have of the team.
Students should embrace the importance of taking pride in their plans by ensuring directions are followed
and there are no grammatical errors, misspellings, formatting issues and other mistakes that could leave a
negative impression with the judges.
These expectations are the same in the “real world” should they ever need funding and customers to
launch a business idea.
Consider asking another person not involved with the team to review the plan for mistakes and for “flow”
before it is submitted.
(For the remainder of the requirements, suggestions and examples noted are based on the “Cone Cookie
Company” {CCC} business plan from the 2013 competition. The CCC team won first place in both the “Best
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 3Marketing Piece” and “Most Innovative” categories for that year and is one of the teams featured in a Y.E.S.
for Arkansas promotional video.)
3. Problem (10 points)
Describe the problem in the marketplace. How did the team collaborate to identify the
problem?
In addition to explaining the problem, teams also need to explain how they collaborated to identify the
problem. For the CCC, the problem identified was the dripping mess created by melting ice cream as
people ate ice cream cones. This was a result of a brainstorming session, where a student told of an idea
he had during a recent vacation. While eating an ice cream cone that had a paper protector around the
cone, he wondered why the protector couldn't be edible.
4. Solution (10 points)
Give the name of the product or service and describe how it will solve the problem in the
marketplace. Be specific. How did the team work together to decide their product or service
is the solution?
CCC initially stated its customers would be "people who don't want their ice cream in a big sticky mess on
their hands." But, for better target marketing, the team realized it had to be more specific. They decided
their first customers instead would be local brick-and-mortar or food truck businesses that sold ice cream
cones, thereby reaching those targeted customers. If the team’s business idea is for a specific customer,
include demographics, such as age, gender, and income.
5. Customers (10 points)
Who will be the customers? What activities did the team members conduct (customer
interviews, surveys, etc.) to arrive at this answer?
CCC initially stated its customers would be "people who don't want their ice cream in a big sticky mess on
their hands." But, for better target marketing, the team realized it had to be more specific. They decided
their first customers instead would be local brick-and-mortar or food truck businesses that sold ice cream
cones, thereby reaching those targeted customers. If the team’s business idea is for a specific customer,
include demographics, such as age, gender, and income.
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 46. Innovation (10 points)
What is innovative about your product or service? Is it new to the marketplace? Explain. If it
is not new to the marketplace, explain how it is better than what exists.
The CCC team conducted a patent search at uspto.gov for "edible ice cream cone protector," and could not
find a product. They also researched other sites on the Internet where the only protectors they found were
plastic (that had to be washed thoroughly after every use), or the paper protectors. So, the answer here
was that the cookie was unique and new to the market because it was edible.
7. Product Details (10 points)
How will the product or service be produced or established? What supplies and/or
equipment will be needed? Will workers need to be hired?
Self-explanatory. As the team thinks through this process, they should also be able to identify the expenses
they will need to put into the Income Statement (requirement #10).
8. How will you market to your customers? (10 points)
What is the cost to the customer of the product or service, and how did the team arrive at
that decision? Where can customers buy the product or service? How will the team promote
the product or service?
During baking experiments, the CCC team decided their cost per cookie would be 5 cents. To recover their
costs and make a profit, they decided the cookies should sell for 50 cents each. They planned to contact
their local ice cream business to be their first place for sales. The team then developed a brochure with
pictures of team members using the cookie with the ice cream cone and a brief history of the company and
the product. There would also be space for the logo and contact information for the local business where
their cookies would be sold. To introduce the product, the team also decided to offer the cookies for free to
customers who bought a single-scoop ice cream cone from the business over their first weekend of sales.
Note: In the years since the CCC team competed, the use of social media for business has grown
exponentially. Consider including social media and the internet as marketing tools.
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 59. Statement of Funds Needed (10 points)
How much money is needed to start the business? What are the sources?
Simply state the amount needed to start the business, for example, “Our team will need $______ in funding
to start our company.” The team may want to first work on the income statement to help them arrive at the
answer. The team then needs to explain where they will get the funding. Is it their own money? Will they
need investments or loans from elsewhere, such as from family members, friends, banks, or other sources?
10. Income Statement (10 points)
Project revenue and expenses for one month into a narrative.
Income Statements show a business’s revenue, expense, and profit over a period of time, usually one year.
For the purposes of the Y.E.S. competition, teams need to project income, expenses, and calculate the
profit for one month. Download an Income Statement worksheet if teams need a tool to help them calculate
these numbers – Fillable PDF Version PDF Version
NOTE: Do not paste a completed worksheet into the business plan. The worksheet is only a tool to
help you compile the projected revenue and expenses figures into a narrative.
For “Sales of Product or Service,” listed as a line item under “Projected Revenue,” multiply the cost of the
product (as stated in requirement #8) by the projected number of products or services to be sold. The
second line item, “Other”, is provided only for convenience in case the team identifies another potential
source of revenue. Do not include personal investments or loans as revenue.
For “Projected Expenses,” there are several line items listed only as examples. Not all need to be used.
“Supplies” and “Worker Pay” are those expenses associated only with the making of the product or service.
Teams need to be sure to include expenses for any other operations discussed in the plan. A common
mistake in previous Y.E.S. competitions relates to marketing. Teams say they will produce brochures or
posters, but forget to list the expenses (paper, etc.) in the Income Statement.
To calculate the Total Profit, subtract the Total Expenses from the Total Revenue.
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 6TEAM REGISTRATION AND SUBMITTING BUSINESS PLANS
To compete in Y.E.S., teachers/mentors need to have an account in YouNoodle. To access the account
setup and team registration steps for 2021, please use this direct link:
https://platform.younoodle.com/client/entry-rounds/yes_for_arkansas_20202021/apply.
If you are a veteran of YouNoodle, you should not have to create a new account. Please go to the above
link and enter your login credentials that you have used before.
If you are new to YouNoodle, please go to the link above and follow the directions to create an account.
Once logged in, click the button titled “Create a New Application” to register a team. Complete the
information as prompted. If you don’t have all the application information yet when you register, that’s OK. If
you get to a field that requires an answer, marked with an asterisk, enter something generic so you can
save the application.
NOTE: The last prompt in the team application is “Ready to Upload? Go!” You will leave this blank
until you’re ready to upload that team’s plan. Until this is done, the database considers your team’s
application incomplete since this is a required field. Don’t worry.
Once completed, click “Save”, then click “Next”. This is a checklist window where you have a chance to
update the application data you’ve entered. Click the “Edit” button on the right under the yellow “Ready to
Submit?” button if you need to edit. Scroll to the bottom and click “Save” once done.
When you’re finished with edits, click “Submit Application” at the bottom of the page.
Once you’ve submitted a team’s application, you will get an email from YouNoodle titled “Application
Process Started for Y.E.S. for Arkansas 2021.” There will be a URL link within that email. Please open it
and bookmark it. You will use this link every time you need to get back into your account to update your
team/s application/s and to upload the business plans.
Teachers/mentors can register more than one team in their accounts. To do so, click on that bookmarked
link, go to “Dashboard” (at the top of the dark grey panel to your left), then “Applicant Panel,” then “Start.”
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 7There will be a button for your first team’s application and the button to create a new application. Follow the
instructions above to create a new application until you’ve finished registering all your teams.
Team applications can be updated anytime up to the business plan submission deadline. Just go to your
bookmarked YouNoodle link, log in, and go to “Applicant Panel.” Find the box for the application that needs
updating. Click on it and look to the middle right of the screen for the “Edit” button. Make your changes as
needed – don’t forget to save them!
YouNoodle can be accessed any time between 12:00 a.m. October 1 and 11:59 p.m. November 22, which
is the deadline to submit applications and business plans.
JUDGING, ANNOUNCEMENT OF FINALISTS, 2021 EXPO DAY
Judging process: Plans will be assigned to judges via YouNoodle beginning Monday, November 23.
Judges will have until December 17 to read and score the plans. The scoring rubric is based on the
business plan requirements and points scale listed above.
Round 2 of the competition begins Thursday, December 17, with the announcement of the “Top 25”
finalists. These will be the teams with the 25 highest scores from Round 1 judging.
The announcement will be posted at https://arcapital.com/yesforarkansas. These finalists will be invited to
compete in the virtual Expo Day, Friday, February 26, 2021.
More details on the 2021 Expo Day will be announced after December 17.
GOOD LUCK!
THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING IN Y.E.S. FOR ARKANSAS!
Arkansas Capital Corporation – Y.E.S. 2021 Rules, Business Plan Requirements, YouNoodle – September 22, 2020 – Page 8You can also read
