Mr. Kenneth Reid, a distinguished alumnus of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business and a partner with Rosenberg Institutional Equity Management, established an endowment in honor of his father, Mr. Moses Lee Reid. The endowment supports an award of $5,000 for a business concept and plan that shows potential for a growing business. The intent is to recognize viable ventures designed by students at Georgia State University.

The requirements to compete for the Moses Lee Reid Award are:

1) Submit a written plan describing the business concept, its innovativeness, why it is viable, and its growth potential. It must include a description of the following elements (not necessarily in the order shown) within 25 pages, plus exhibits:
a) The opportunity and the problem your proposed business will solve.
b) The target market, including its size and growth potential.
c) Your product or service and the resources needed to produce it.
d) Your marketing plans and how sales are made to customers.
e) Your strategy for dealing with competitors.
f) Potential financial returns with supporting financial projections
g) The qualifications you (and your team) have for building the planned business plus additional people or skills needed.
h) How and when the idea will come to market, which may be shown in a series of milestones to be achieved over time.
i) How the $5,000 award, if received, will be used to make progress on your plans.

2) The plan may be for a start-up venture, a new product, or market development in an existing business that is less than 3 years old. Proposals for the buy-out or expansion of an existing company more than 3 years old, tax-shelter opportunities, real estate syndications, franchises, and consulting projects or analyses are not eligible. The business should not have generated more than $50,000 in revenues nor have risen outside equity capital before March 2008.

Business plans must represent the original work of each contestant. It may not contain any fabricated information. Presenters may bring samples of their product, but may not bring giveaways for the judges.

3) Individuals or groups may enter the competition. At least one person (and preferably more) who has actively participated in the design and writing of the plan must be a graduate or undergraduate student currently enrolled in or recently graduated from Georgia State University. A recent graduate is an individual who graduated in December 2007 or later.

4) All principals involved must be clearly identified in the submission by name, their role in the development of the concept and plan, recent educational, organizational and technological experience, postal address, telephone, and e-mail address. The primary contact person, their e-mail address, and telephone number must be clearly identified on the front title page.

5) Submissions and the concepts they contain are recognized as confidential and will not be disclosed outside the committee of judges without the entrant's permission.

6) One electronic copy of the entry must be submitted to ghenley@gsu.edu, and 3 bound hard copies of the entry must be brought to the Department of Managerial Sciences Receptionist on the 10th floor of the Robinson College of Business or received by postal service by 5pm May 8, 2008 addressed to:

7) Questions or correspondence may be directed to Dr. Greg Henley (Telephone: 404-413-7542; E-mail: ghenley@gsu.edu). Also, please see www.robinson.gsu.edu/rec.

All submissions are entered into both the Herman J. Russell International Venture Award competition and the Moses Lee Reid Entrepreneurship Award competition. Judges will decide which submissions qualify for each award. In addition to the above requirements, entries will be evaluated on their degree of internationality, innovativeness, viability, growth potential, and clarity of the submission. Judges will select a small number of plans as finalists, and finalists will be asked to make 15-minute oral presentations of their plans on June 12, 2008 to a group of entrepreneurs or investors who will serve as judges. The presentation will be followed by questions from the judges. The award winner will be chosen by those judges. The winner will be announced to the academic and business communities. If the judges believe no entrant describes a sufficiently high quality concept and plan, no award will be made. All entrants receive feedback on the quality of their plans.