Preliminary and Semifinal Round presentations will be held during the Youth Business Summit. A schedule will be provided to all participants.

• Preliminary Round: Up to 40 teams will present and the Top 20 teams will advance from Preliminary Round to Semifinal Round.
• Semifinal Round: 20 teams will present and the Top 8 teams will advance from the Semifinal Round to the Championship Round.

Time Limits

Presentations must be at least 8 minutes in length and cannot extend beyond 10 minutes. The Q&A period will be approximately 5-10 minutes. Penalties for presentations that go over the time limit are as follows:

• 10 second grace period before 1st penalty applied
• 11 to 30 seconds over: 1 point
• 31 to 60 seconds over: 2 points
• 61 seconds up to 2 minutes over: 5 points
• More than 2 minutes over: 10 points

Oral Presentation Format

Each team will be directed to a presentation room with judges and a moderator assigned to each presentation room.

• The moderator in each room will manage timing, judge engagement, Q&A, and troubleshoot tech issues
• Judges will rate each of the teams presentations in each session and feedback will be provided through the Competitions Manager following the competition
• VE teachers will be allowed to observe their team, but cannot interact with students once the presentation begins. VE reserves the right to limit observers as needed.

Championship Round presentations will be held April 12, 2024. A schedule will be provided to the Top 8 teams that advanced to this final round of the competition. The results of the competition and the NBPC winners will be announced during the Youth Business Summit.

Time Limits

Presentations must be at least 8 minutes in length and cannot extend beyond 10 minutes. The Q&A period will be approximately 5-10 minutes. Penalties for presentations that go over the time limit are as follows:

• 10 second grace period before 1st penalty applied
• 11 to 30 seconds over: 1 point
• 31 to 60 seconds over: 2 points
• 61 seconds up to 2 minutes over: 5 points
• More than 2 minutes over: 10 points

General

The Executive Summary (1 electronic PDF file) must be uploaded to the VE Competitions Manager by deadline set by the VE region. The firm’s advancement from Round 1 (Local) to Round 2 (Regional) is determined by judges who rate the written submission, oral presentation, and Q&A. Teams that qualify for Round 2 (Regional) will have the ability to revise their Executive Summary and submit to the Competitions Manager based on the deadline set by the Regional Lead.

Format

The Executive Summary cannot exceed 4 pages. This must be presented in an appropriately readable and sized font and be one-and-one-half or double spaced. Font sizes and types may vary but should approximately align to 12pt Times New Roman font. The suggested page margin is 1” and the minimum acceptable margin is 0.5”.  A cover page should not be included.

Financial Reporting

An overview of the company’s financial performance, that may include: break-even highlights, projected sales figures, projected expenses, projected profit or loss, or relevant charts and graphs. 

General

The business plan and accompanying materials (1 electronic PDF file) must be uploaded to the VE Competitions Manager. The written score is determined by judges who read and rate business plans prior to the oral presentation. Teams that qualify for the National Business Plan Competition will submit their written business plan for review to their regional director by February 28, 2025 and to the Competitions Manager by the March 13, 2025 deadline.

Format

Business plans cannot exceed 20 pages; this page limit does not include the cover page, executive summary, table of contents, plus an appendix of up to 8 additional pages of supporting documents. Written plans must be presented in an appropriately readable and sized font and be one-and-one-half or double spaced. Font sizes and types may vary but should approximately align to 12pt Times New Roman font. The suggested page margin is 1” and the minimum acceptable margin is 0.5”.

Financial Reporting

• Actual vs. Projected: For the National Business Plan Competition, numbers should be actual as of 2/28/25 with projections through 4/30/25. When preparing and presenting the financial statements, columns should be labeled as “actual” or “projected.”
• Break-even Analysis: Provide break-even amounts in total dollars and number of sales. Provide details about assumptions you used to perform analysis including the profit margin percentage. (Assume that all costs are fixed except for cost of goods sold.)
• Sales Projection Summary: Create a month-by month summary of projected sales through 4/30/25 that includes online sales, trade show sales, direct sales, out-of-network sales, and other for local/regional/state competitions and actual as of 2/28/25 with projections through 4/30/25 for the national competition.
• Summary Profit & Loss Statement: Provide a projected summary profit and loss report for the fiscal year ending 4/30/25. The summary should include projected Total Revenue, Cost of Goods Sold, Gross Profit, Gross Profit Margin %, Operating Expenses and Net Income for the fiscal year. (Numbers should be based upon research and compilation of data to support the numbers provided in the summary.)
• Balance Sheet: Provide a current “actual” balance sheet dated 2/28/25 for the national competition.
• Financial write-up: A written summary/explanation/interpretation of the financial data.
• Financial statements and charts should include footnotes that explain or provide additional details about the assumptions and/or methods used to determine the numbers.

• Teams may use slide presentations, video or other visual aids. Please note that video clips, in the past, have not always been successful. Teams may use any currently available presentation software, and may devise a system for screen sharing for video conference presentations (e.g., one person shares for all presenters, etc.)
• Presentation room observers may NOT interact with student team members once they enter the presentation room and may NOT assist student participants in any way. Any attempt to communicate, or any form of communication with team members, or judges, will result in a penalty or disqualification.
• No one but the competition staff can communicate with judges inside or outside of the presentation room.
• To prevent distractions, individuals will NOT be allowed to enter or exit a presentation room once a presentation begins.
• Teams are allowed to greet judges upon entering the competition room.
• Teams may NOT distribute items such as gifts, product samples, prototypes, or food/drinks for the judges to keep.
• Teams are NOT permitted to ask judges to give them a one or two minute warning before their time is up.
• Team members must wait until the moderator welcomes them and invites them to start their presentation.
• Questions asked by the judges will be directed to the team.

Local/Regional Competition: Presentations must be at least 8 minutes in length and cannot extend beyond 10 minutes. The Q&A period is approximately 5 minutes.

National Competition: Presentations must be at least 8 minutes in length and cannot extend beyond 10 minutes. The Q&A period will be approximately 5-10 minutes.

For ALL competitions, penalties for presentations that go over the time limit are as follows:

• 10 second grace period before 1st penalty applied
• 11 to 30 seconds over: 1 point
• 31 to 60 seconds over: 2 points
• 61 seconds up to 2 minutes over: 5 points
• More than 2 minutes over: 10 points

At the completion of the team presentation, judges will pose questions to team members. The judges have allotted time to ask questions relating to the oral presentation or written submission. Any member of the team may choose to answer the question and responses should be distributed across the members of the team. Responses should not be dominated by any individual team member. Team members may NOT confer with each other while formulating answers.

Oral business plan presentations will take place in-person at the Youth Business Summit. Refer to the Oral Presentation Competition Tips for presentation tips.

As part of About the Business (for details see Written Scoring Guide), please indicate whether the firm is organized as a B*, C, or S corporation, or LLC. Companies identifying as S corps or LLC’s need to provide:

1. A list of all the shareholders** and;
2. An explanation of how profits and losses will be allocated to each shareholder (i.e., what percentage of profits and losses will be allocated to each shareholder) and an agreement from the shareholders that they are willing to pay the taxes on the profits.

* Companies identifying as B corps must provide results of their B Impact Assessment (http://bimpactassessment.net/).
** List of shareholders should be included in the appendix of the written business plan. There will be a 1-point penalty if the list is not provided.

• Firms may borrow up to 3 months of operating expenses plus one-time startup costs, not to exceed $150,000.
• Firms may recruit up to 4 angel investors for equity investments. New Firms are not allowed more than $200,000 in individual investments per academic year. Existing Firms are not allowed more than $160,000 in individual investments per academic year.
• Depreciation method is standardized: straight-line method over 5 years.
• Business plan financial statements columns labeled “actual” MUST be based on ACTUAL TRANSACTIONS. The team can be disqualified if it is determined at any time DURING or AFTER the competition that the information is not accurately reported.
• VE merchandise firms need to BUY their inventory from the Wholesale Marketplace and, if asked at any time, be able to provide evidence of purchases and payment.
• The VE sales tax rate is based upon the firm’s relative state sales tax rate. Using the previous VE national sales tax rate of 7% will also be an allowable method for this year.
• Federal corporate taxes are only paid if there is a net income. Please check for possible state and local corporate taxes when there is no profit.

For NBPC qualifiers, contracts/agreements with non-virtual entities MUST be included with the business plan submission, approved by the regional director, and show evidence of negotiation (MUST include name, title of the person, email address, and phone number of business contact(s) who signs the agreement. Letters, emails or other documentation can also be included). The total income from negotiated agreements with non-virtual entities cannot exceed 75% of the total yearly salaries, net of cost of goods sold. Further detail and explanation can be found in the VE curriculum.

Notes:

• Trade show sales and sales from non-virtual entities need to be reported on separate lines on the Income Statement.
• Contracts must be made with non-family members.
• Purchase orders do not constitute a contract.

Plagiarism is the act of using the ideas or work of another person or persons as if they were one’s own, without giving proper credit to the source. VE reserves the right to disqualify a firm, at any point during or after the competition, if an aspect of the business plan has been plagiarized or if the written plan or the oral presentation is determined to reflect a plan or presentation from a previous year. ANY COVER, GRAPHIC (except firm logo), OR TEXT COPIED FROM A PREVIOUS BUSINESS PLAN MAY DISQUALIFY THE PLAN FROM THE NATIONAL COMPETITION.

VE reserves the right to conduct an audit of transactions, request documentation on inventory purchases, bank statements or any documentation to support the submitted business plan. The competition also reserves the right not to return submitted business plans.

Fabricated information on the financials, marketing, operations, other VE firms, or any part of the business plan can result in disqualification. Example: XYZ firm has a major celebrity who wears our ties. If there is an agreement with this celebrity, the actual agreement, approved by the state office, must be included with the business plan.

This note is meant to warn teams away from presenting falsehoods about their business, such as claiming to have something that they don’t (an app, a delivery truck, an offshore warehouse, a major endorsement from a celebrity, etc.). A suggestion could be, for example, stating that an app for the business is in development and outlining the anticipated features of the app. While some teams may push the limits of what they claim to have/do, we must leave it in the judges’ hands to vet the practicality and actuality of what is presented. Presenting falsehoods about the business may be subject to disqualification.

Sales reported on an income statement must be actual transactions that are documented (supported) by sales invoices for which payment has been made or is expected. Except for the sale of services, sales must be supported by actual wholesale purchases between firms or the state/regional office and must be reflected in the VE firm’s financials.