Not everyone can win a business plan competition. There will always be winners and losers along with the winners; the business plan competition losers are learning along the way.

Losing a business plan does have benefits! Numerous participants have said they learned a lot from the competition and would do it again or implement what they learned in other aspects of their lives.

Table of Contents

• 10 Things You Can Learn From Losing a Business Plan Competition
  • 1 – You Learn All About Finances
  • 2 – You Gain A Strong Vision
  • 3 – You Learn Losing Is Only the Beginning
  • 4 – You Learn About Business
  • 5 – You Learn The Importance Of Fully Developing A Plan
  • 6 – You Learn What It Means To Be Professional
  • 7- You Learn How To Pitch Your Ideas
  • 8- You Learn How to Lose Gracefully
  • 9. You Learn To Not Allow Your Vision To Die
  • 10. You Learn That Loser Can Also Be Successful
• Related Content
  • What Is Moral Leadership?
  • What is the BYU Management Society?

The Business Plan Competition is an opportunity for BYU Hawaii students to present ideas and original ideas that they have had for future businesses that might improve communities, create revenue, or even for the younger sort, start their own business of any kind like a cake-baking business.

While there are only three winners in each of the four categories of the business plan competition, that means there are lots of losers. However, just because the majority of contestants lose does not mean that the business plan competition only benefits the winners.

10 Things You Can Learn From Losing a Business Plan Competition

The business plan competition continues to benefit losers by providing them with learning experiences. I personally interviewed four BYU Hawaii students with each of their own unique business plans experiences and lessons that they have learned and I would like to share those with you.

1 – You Learn All About Finances

Honestly, everyone deals with financial issues in some way. In the business plan competition, a lot of people struggle with the financial aspects of future businesses. As such it is much easier for an already established business looking for extra funding to win the business plan competition due to the fact that they have more specific numbers.

When asked about the business plan competition and what she had learned from it Catie is doing at BYU Hawaii said that the main thing she left for losing was to keep working on her ideas and developing them. If she had a more developed business plan, then she wouldn’t be better prepared for the later rounds. She got to the top ten!

2 – You Gain A Strong Vision

Another student from BYU Hawaii, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, “I think businesses, whether it is big or small have to have a strong vision and they need to believe in that vision no matter what.”

Essentially, he learned that to succeed, a business needs a strong why and a goal for the company to pursue that would attract clients. Also, without the vision, there’s no point in the company.

3 – You Learn Losing Is Only the Beginning

One of the more interesting trends that I noticed was that all the students interviewed used phrases such as “When I compete again…” or “In the future, I will…” when they were talking about their experiences.

All of them agreed, that losing the competition taught them a lot about what they wanted to do and just how passionate they were about their ideas or future business opportunities. In short, being turned away has pointed them in a new and more exciting direction.

4 – You Learn About Business

For Addie, a freshman at BYU Hawaii, the competition was like learning a new language. For her, the competition was about “learning what investors want to hear and how they hear it.“

Essentially going into business and business competitions, there is a different style and way a presentation, and first-timers don’t always understand it which is why overwhelmingly all of the candidates I interviewed were willing to participate in the competition again because they felt more comfortable with the business lingo jargon language.

5 – You Learn The Importance Of Fully Developing A Plan

Another student, Catie, who is in her junior year at BYU – H, has competed twice! She says, “The main thing I learned from losing was just to keep working on my ideas and developing them.”

She feels like her ideas would’ve gone further if there had been more planning. As with anything in life, planning is essential for success.

6 – You Learn What It Means To Be Professional

Addie, like the previous BYU-Hawaii student, mentioned also had difficulties with professionalism. As part of the competition, they are to make a commercial/presentation for their business plan.

Unfortunately, Addie felt like this lack of professionalism might be one of the reasons why she didn’t make it as far as the competition as she had originally hoped she does plan on competing in the competition again with the same idea but hopefully more developed.

7- You Learn How To Pitch Your Ideas

For Addie, had a lot of really good ideas but she didn’t have the time or the resources to really sell it the way that she wanted to and essentially ended up taking the video and shooting a commercial using slides on her own computer.

In business events, it is essential to match the professionalism of the event when presenting. Addie is currently working on her ability to present to groups of people and she’s surprised by how exciting it is! Practicing presentation goes a very long way.

8- You Learn How to Lose Gracefully

In life, there will always be winners and losers. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose. Understanding the loss does not reflect on your self-worth is a major part of losing gracefully.

Instead of focusing on missed opportunities, focus on what you gained by being part of the experience. What have you learned? What will you do with that new knowledge?

9. You Learn To Not Allow Your Vision To Die

All those interviewed were really proud of their ideas. They were happy with the outcome because it gives them an opportunity to learn and develop their ideas. The point is that none of them are letting their ideas stop at rejection.

Remember that this is only the beginning and your ideas can already grow and expand.

10. You Learn That Loser Can Also Be Successful

Losing a business plan competition does not need to define you. In fact, if you use it as a learning experience it can change and affect your life for good. It may just be that one thing that helps you ultimately get on the road to success.

The BYU Management Society is about helping individuals continue to grow and learn. We are a society that is open to all that share our vision of “Growing Moral and Ethical Leadership around the world.” If you are interested to find out more you can contact us, by clicking here.

Related Content

What Is Moral Leadership?

Moral leadership is a leader who leads others with moral and ethical choices in mind. It is a leader who can gently persuade others to do the right thing. A moral leader is a very different kind of leader as a moral leader is not afraid to make the difficult right choices because that choice is the right thing to do.

You can discover more by reading What Is Moral Leadership? by clicking here.

What is the BYU Management Society?

The BYU Management Society is a business, professional network, and career development program whose main focus is to help grow moral and ethical leadership around the world. It also helps support the local communities in the areas the BYU Management is organized and operating. The organization is open to all.

You can discover more by reading What is the BYU Management Society by clicking here.