Undergraduate
Saint Michael's College Enterprise Plan Competition generates
REENI'S COOKIE BAR ("complete hunger satisfaction") wins
Contact Information:
Buff Lindau, Marketing & Communications
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
After months of work, Saint Michael's College business students, singly and in groups, entered 25 business plans in the Enterprise Plan Competition and the chance at a four-figure monetary prize. Of the 25, 17 plans were named semi-finalists, and then five plans made the finals.
Fifteen Saint Michael's professors read the entries and narrowed the plans through all the stages to the final five teams, each of which had 20 minutes to present the plan April 30 to a panel of judges.
Enterprise Plan Competition winners are:
> 1st place: Reeni's Cookie Bar
Created by Irene Bishay of Beverly, Mass., Kerry Hill of Andover, Mass., and Melissa Mitchell of Essex Junction, Vt.
Prize: $5,000
> 2nd place: Vermont Greener Cleaners
Created by Nicholas Bush of Rome, N.Y., and Alison Dionne of Summit, N.J.
Prize: $2,500
> 3rd place: Appella Vita Eco-Salon & Spa
Created by Alison Marsh of Yarmouth Port, Mass., Ashley Ottens of Pepperell, Mass., and Jarah LaRock of Hyde Park, Vt.
Prize $1,000
The judges were, to a person, extraordinarily impressed with the entries. They praised the competitors, urging urged them to stick to their dreams and put the plans into action.
Competition judges were:
> David Bergeron, 1977 graduate of Saint Michael's College, now CFO and owner, with his business partner of The Heritage Automotive Group (Heritage Ford, Heritage Toyota and White River Toyota) in South Burlington.
> Nancy Edwards Cronin, a principal partner of ipCapital Group, an advisory firm for industries in energy and environmental technology, chemical manufacturing, consumer productions, electronics and more. A graduate of Cal Tech and Harvard, Ms. Cronin is a Professional Engineer licensed in Environmental Engineering.
> Susan C.B. Mazza is an economic development specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Montpelier office.
> Carol Piccaro, 1980 graduate of Saint Michael's College, owns and operates U.S. Chemicals, a private worldwide chemical distributor based in New Canaan, Conn.
> Michael Seaver, 1981 graduate of Saint Michael's College, is president and CEO of Chittenden Bank.
Competition sponsors
The Enterprise Plan Competition began in 2000 with the support of Peter Worrell, a 1979 graduate of Saint Michael's and former trustee of the college; and his wife Kareen Kendrick Worrell, a 1977 graduate of Saint Michael's.
The annual competition is designed to challenge Saint Michael's undergraduates to develop and market sustainable business plans to a panel of business leaders, serving as competition judges. Students entering the competition were in the capstone course for the major, titled Business Policy and Strategic Management.
WINNING PLAN
Reeni's Cookie Bar, 62 Church St., Burlington, VT 05401
Although they don't yet have the $110,000 in start-up money they would need to open Reeni's Cookie Bar, the creators of the winning plan wrote the plan as a fact that would create a living business. The creators, Irene Bishay, Kerry Hill and Melissa Mitchell presented a full color, spiral-bound beautiful document, 88 pages of precision analysis and recipes, nutritional content, market analysis, location and facilities, competition, SWOT analysis, costs down to the penny, appendices of floor plan, advertising, price of each ingredient, sales forecast, balance sheet, equipment costs, three-year timeline, and much more.
In the marketing strategy section, the Reeni's plan spelled out a "positioning statement" that captures some of the excitement of their thinking:
"Reeni's Cookie Bar," they stated, "will be ideal for he hungry, locally conscious, Church Street visitor who wants a delicious healthy treat." They wrote further, "Our cookies are a unique dessert that provides complete hunger satisfaction. Even more," they wrote, "customers may have a good personal feeling that they have done something beneficial for their community." They added, "Our delicious cookies are homemade, organic, and provide support to local farms through complete use of their products."
Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, the Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college. Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 371 Colleges and will be included in the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. It is one of 270 colleges and universities nationwide, and one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Saint Michael's is located just outside Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns.
Photos:
Irene Bishay and Kerry Hill
Nicholas Bush
Alison Marsh, Ashley Ottens, and Jarah LaRock
Buff Lindau, Marketing & Communications
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
After months of work, Saint Michael's College business students, singly and in groups, entered 25 business plans in the Enterprise Plan Competition and the chance at a four-figure monetary prize. Of the 25, 17 plans were named semi-finalists, and then five plans made the finals.
Fifteen Saint Michael's professors read the entries and narrowed the plans through all the stages to the final five teams, each of which had 20 minutes to present the plan April 30 to a panel of judges. Enterprise Plan Competition winners are:
> 1st place: Reeni's Cookie Bar
Created by Irene Bishay of Beverly, Mass., Kerry Hill of Andover, Mass., and Melissa Mitchell of Essex Junction, Vt.
Prize: $5,000> 2nd place: Vermont Greener Cleaners
Created by Nicholas Bush of Rome, N.Y., and Alison Dionne of Summit, N.J.
Prize: $2,500
> 3rd place: Appella Vita Eco-Salon & SpaCreated by Alison Marsh of Yarmouth Port, Mass., Ashley Ottens of Pepperell, Mass., and Jarah LaRock of Hyde Park, Vt.
Prize $1,000
The judges were, to a person, extraordinarily impressed with the entries. They praised the competitors, urging urged them to stick to their dreams and put the plans into action.
Competition judges were:
> David Bergeron, 1977 graduate of Saint Michael's College, now CFO and owner, with his business partner of The Heritage Automotive Group (Heritage Ford, Heritage Toyota and White River Toyota) in South Burlington.
> Nancy Edwards Cronin, a principal partner of ipCapital Group, an advisory firm for industries in energy and environmental technology, chemical manufacturing, consumer productions, electronics and more. A graduate of Cal Tech and Harvard, Ms. Cronin is a Professional Engineer licensed in Environmental Engineering.
> Susan C.B. Mazza is an economic development specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Montpelier office.
> Carol Piccaro, 1980 graduate of Saint Michael's College, owns and operates U.S. Chemicals, a private worldwide chemical distributor based in New Canaan, Conn.
> Michael Seaver, 1981 graduate of Saint Michael's College, is president and CEO of Chittenden Bank.
Competition sponsors
The Enterprise Plan Competition began in 2000 with the support of Peter Worrell, a 1979 graduate of Saint Michael's and former trustee of the college; and his wife Kareen Kendrick Worrell, a 1977 graduate of Saint Michael's.
The annual competition is designed to challenge Saint Michael's undergraduates to develop and market sustainable business plans to a panel of business leaders, serving as competition judges. Students entering the competition were in the capstone course for the major, titled Business Policy and Strategic Management.
WINNING PLAN
Reeni's Cookie Bar, 62 Church St., Burlington, VT 05401
Although they don't yet have the $110,000 in start-up money they would need to open Reeni's Cookie Bar, the creators of the winning plan wrote the plan as a fact that would create a living business. The creators, Irene Bishay, Kerry Hill and Melissa Mitchell presented a full color, spiral-bound beautiful document, 88 pages of precision analysis and recipes, nutritional content, market analysis, location and facilities, competition, SWOT analysis, costs down to the penny, appendices of floor plan, advertising, price of each ingredient, sales forecast, balance sheet, equipment costs, three-year timeline, and much more.
In the marketing strategy section, the Reeni's plan spelled out a "positioning statement" that captures some of the excitement of their thinking:
"Reeni's Cookie Bar," they stated, "will be ideal for he hungry, locally conscious, Church Street visitor who wants a delicious healthy treat." They wrote further, "Our cookies are a unique dessert that provides complete hunger satisfaction. Even more," they wrote, "customers may have a good personal feeling that they have done something beneficial for their community." They added, "Our delicious cookies are homemade, organic, and provide support to local farms through complete use of their products."
Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, the Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college. Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 371 Colleges and will be included in the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. It is one of 270 colleges and universities nationwide, and one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Saint Michael's is located just outside Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns.
Photos:
Irene Bishay and Kerry Hill
Nicholas Bush
Alison Marsh, Ashley Ottens, and Jarah LaRock
