Who knew that death, gridlock and power outages were such fantastic fertilizers of entrepreneurial spirit? Of the more than 120 business plans submitted to this year's Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge, dozens focused on some of life's gloomier obstacles.
Hurricanes whipped up dozens of ideas, from whimsical plans for an underwater storm shelter to innovative strategies for dealing with blackouts - including two that made it to the finals.
And all those hours idling along the expressway seem to be paying off. Along with MoVe Better - a finalist that's promoting an alternative form of public transportation - entries included a plan to offer text-message traffic alerts. Death also proved fertile ground for budding entrepreneurs. There were plans for burial at sea, a cost-cutting home cremation kit and an obituary writing service. The latter won a spot among this year's 15 finalists. Sorting through so many darkly promising entries was no easy task. A committee of business editors and reporters - using the contest rules as guidelines - whittled the initial stack down to 15 finalists.
But it was our eight judges who had to do the heavy lifting. Stealing time from their own work, families and vacations, they scored the entries on a 10-point scale based on the clarity of the idea, marketing strategy, management team and financial projections, among other criteria. Judge Michael Docherty, the CEO of Venture2, a firm that specializes in bringing innovative durable goods to market, said the entrepreneurs who put real thought and energy into all those issues - despite having just two pages to do so - received his highest scores.
"We all have our 'Aha!' moments in a shower where we have a great idea, " he said. "The difference between a great idea and a great business is thinking through all the different aspects."
So the next time you have an "aha" moment - in a storm, at a wake or on the highway - we hope you'll think it through, put pen to paper and compete in next year's Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge.
