Today our Agency Principal Pam Hartley had the privilege of being a preliminary judge at YEScarolina’s Motley Rice Regional Business Plan Competition at the College of Charleston School of Business.

Earlier this afternoon, 43 high school students from the tri-county area presented their business plans to a panel of judges (including Pam) to compete for up to $1,000 in seed money to launch their business.

To advance to this competition, these students have all taken a YEScarolina entrepreneurship class, written a business plan and have presented in front of their classmates and judges. Today, the students competed in three rounds including the preliminary round, semi-finals and the final round where the final three students battle to take home up to $1,000 in seed money to launch their business.

Pam had the opportunity to evaluate six of the students’ business plans ranging from lawn care, make up, clothing, and gourmet chocolates. The students were judged on their presentation skills, business concept, sales and marketing approach, finance plan, market research and customer data. The judges chose two students to go into the next round of the competition.

Hartley said, “It was so refreshing to see these young minds from all over the region developing their business ideas. Some of the concepts were extremely viable and could make it with the right mentorship and direction. We are so lucky to have an organization like YEScarolina providing this level of mentorship and leadership and encouraging entrepreneurship with our young people.”

Congratulations to each student on his/her hard work. Momentum enjoyed participating.

For more information on YEScarolina, visit YEScarolina.com.