Exciting grant competition upcoming on Idea Cafe

As you are probably aware, we just closed the application phase for our sixth cash grant for small businesses. The Idea Cafe team will now start the winner selection process, and the new blog will be a helpful tool in that demanding task.

We would like to make the selection process more transparent and interesting to Idea Cafe regulars. That is why we will let finalists use the Idea Cafe blog as a forum on which to defend their business idea and persuade site visitors that they are the most deserving of the cash award, and the free publicity that comes with it. Finalists will be able to get useful feedback from their peer community. They will be able to increase visibility for their business. And readers will be able to learn how ideas for small business develop and come to fruition from the people who are in the thick of it.

The inspiration for such an approach to selecting the grant winner came to us from the oh-so-popular reality TV shows. Yes, there will be a fun online competition of sorts, where the public will bear witness to an online battle of viewpoints and business approaches.

If you have applied for the Innovation and Originality Grant, and have been selected as a finalist, you will be contacted by our staff and offered the opportunity to reply to a challenging question. Your demonstrated originality and business acumen will influence the voting results, which will ultimately determine the winner.

The little social bookmarking buttons below this (and every other) post will allow you to bookmark and popularize content. The free-for-all comment system welcomes you to discuss the topics that are of interest to you. Idea Cafe's most precious asset is its community of thousands of small business owners. If you are one, too, we are sure that contact with this diverse but ultimately unique community will be rewarding.

But this is not all: the blog will also feature regular columns by small business experts. We at Idea Cafe will be doing our best to serve a diverse and interesting fare of business insights. Check back regularly, because we will update often.

Comments

Great idea!

Great idea!

As one of the applicants, I

As one of the applicants, I am constantly looking for new ideas, that will increase sales. A recent conversation with my neighbor gave me an idea for adding to sales. We've made an agreement where he will train me in repairing used washers and dryers, and I will give him a commission from each sale. I will obtain the equipment by doing free haul-offs of unwanted equipment. This eliminates the need for the funds for training, and euipment.
I will also begin attending auctions, and resell the items on the net. Robert

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