The Center for Entrepreneurship is going to be organizing a business competition for the 2011-2012 academic year. The E-Challenge, involving four-member teams, caters to running an online business in today’s business environment.
Students will be given the opportunity to operate a website, market products and run business for either Kabloom.com or Candy.com .
Kabloom.com and Candy.com will provide financial support for the competing teams. There will be a $100 Google AdWords budget given to 12 teams to make sales and enact their marketing strategies. An additional $100 will also be given to any team that passes $2,500, and the final prize is $5,000.
Kabloom and Candy will also take care of the logistical aspects of the project pertaining to deliveries and supplies.
Also involved are on-campus organizations including Student Leadership and Involvement (SLI), Sawyer Ambassadors and Suffolk University Faculty and staff.
The E-challenge, however, is not open only to entrepreneurship majors, but also to all majors in the Sawyer Business School (SBS), College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and the New England School of Arts and Design (NESAD).
“You can have entrepreneurs in any company or organization, so limiting it to the business school will not do it any justice” said Odie Fakhouri, the program coordinator for the Center for Entrepreneurship.
The competing teams will be making presentations to a judging panel consisting of e-commerce practitioners and professionals. There will be two rounds of elimination, narrowing the number of teams down to 12.
The teams’ ability to create a concrete marketing plan highlighting accounting data concepts, communication, and analytical concepts will be ranked.
Innovative thinking is the premium demand of the competition, as teams will be able to use tools like Google AdWords, which provides website and distribution logistics to analyze customers and their performance.
The participants would be scored based on dollar revenues, dollar gross margin and sales to a unique customer.
There would be one point for each dollar revenue, 2.5 points for each gross profit or profit above money given by either Kabloom.com or Candy.com.
The teams will also be monitored by the Center for Entrepreneurship during the entire competition and will be as a resource for the teams during the competition.
The E-Challenge was started by Professor George Moker, director of the center, and Sawyer Business School Professor Suzyn Ornstein. According to Moker, [the competition’s concept] was initially a project for the Entrepreneurship Living Learning Community.
Professor David Hartstein, CEO of Kabloom and a Suffolk University alum,  offered his support and allowed students to use the portal at Kabloom.com.
It’s an easier model if you are trying to get students engaged,” said Moker of the reason for making it an online project as opposed to a traditional bricks and mortar project.
He also emphasized that it would involve a variety of skills like pricing, controls, accounting and finance skills that would be needed to succeed.
“They’ll have latitude to do all aspects of business” said Moker of the freedom and choice that participants will be given throughout the competition.  The timeline began yesterday when applications were made available at the Center for Entrepreneurship.
After applications have been accepted, there will be an orientation on how to use Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Moker also said the goal of the Center for Entrepreneurship is to be a resource to all and that this is built as a resource to all.