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Language School Plan Wins Business Competition

A proposal by two TESOL [Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages] majors and a Latina classmate to establish an English language school in Merida, Mexico, won the $5,000 grand prize in the 2008 BYU-Hawaii Mark and Laura Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship (CIE) business plan competition on March 7. Visiting entrepreneurs who earlier participated in a two-day business conference on campus acted as judges to also award six other cash prizes in the university's annual business plan competition.

Husband-and-wife senior TESOL majors Jeremi and Rebecca Brewer from Auburn, Washington, plan to move to the capital city of Mexico's Yucatán State soon after they graduate at the end of this semester and use the money to help establish Merida English Academy (MEA). Their teammate Leslie Thompson, an international business major from Lima, Peru, predicted success in the potential market of 300,000 residents and a thriving tourism market.

"I've wanted to do this for eight years," said Jeremi, who served a Latter-day Saint mission in Mexico. "MEA will be able to franchise [in other parts of Latin America] within five years," Thompson added.

CIE Entrepreneur-in-Residence Stephen W. Gibson [pictured below] noted the Brewers honed their plan by taking the Business 383 class, Entrepreneurship for Non-business Majors.

The 2008 BYUH CIE business plan competition grand prize winners and presenters are (l-r) Leslie Thompson, Stephen Gibson, Rebecca and Jeremi Brewer, and Bette Gibson...with the $5,000 check.

The other 2008 business plan competition winners are:

  • 1st place, developing nations: Abish Travels by Benson Massey, a sophomore special education major from New Delhi, India; and junior international business majors Ashlin White from Price, Utah, and Mark Chiba from San Jose, California. Their plan, calling for providing transportation services for call center employees in India, won a $4,000 prize.
  • 2nd place, developing nations: Maintenance Monsters by Uranbileg Becar, a senior social work major from Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia, and her husband, Aaron Becar, a senior information systems major from San Bernardino, California. Their proposal to establish a professional public hygiene and restroom supplies company in Mongolia's capital city won a $2,000 prize.
  • 1st place, developed nations: Digital Tours Hawaii LLC by Andrew Fowers, senior accounting major from San Diego; and 2007 international business management graduates Ann Colton, also from San Diego, and Ezra Frantz from Washington. Their plan, which won a $4,000 prize, proposes producing and marketing self-guided audio tour CDs.
  • 2nd place, developed nations: JPiki by sophomore biochemistry major Jordan McEwen from Las Vegas, and 2007 information systems graduate John Dodson from Honolulu, who is currently working in Japan and participated in the presentation via an Internet video link. Their plan, which claimed a $2,000 prize, initially calls for teaching Japanese through a web-based language learning community using Web 2.0 technology.
  • The $1,000 Founders Award: MedNow Biometrics by Paul Scott Milbury, a senior computer science major from Salt Lake City, Utah. Milbury proposed manufacturing medical alert bracelets and similar devices that incorporate data on USB devices.

At the outset of the conference, CIE Director Gregory V. Gibson, J.D. [pictured at upper left], stressed that "learning is the focus. Entrepreneurship is inspiration, innovation and implementation"

He explained because it's difficult to find financing for start-up companies in the $30,000-$60,000 range, "we've put together a mentor venture capital board." He also said the CIE's business plan competitions in Tokyo, Japan, sponsored by The Yamagata Foundation, will extend into the Philippines this year.

"Our purpose is to get the students back home, and raise their vision" Gibson said.

Stephen Gibson (no relation to Gregory Gibson), who helped found the entrepreneurship program at BYU in Provo and later the Academy for Creating Excellence in Cebu, Philippines, said being involved in mentoring the students and others has "truly changed my life."

He invited the visiting entrepreneurs "to help bring entrepreneurship even greater presence at BYU-Hawaii," and to teach the students how to "learn, earn and return."

In the opening general session, entrepreneur Ben Peterson [pictured at right] described how he built and sold his Mingle Match Inc. online dating service for people concerned with values and morality.

"If there is one thing I could encourage you to do, as you start your own businesses, it's to decide right now that you're going to be exactly obedient to all of the covenants that we've made. There's no doubt in my mind that the blessings we've enjoyed in business have been a direct result of our obedience," he told the students. "Money is not a really good measure of the quality of your character... I know you'll be blessed with opportunities if you make the decision to be exact in your obedience."

Other speakers included Kate Maloney, a 2002 BYU graduate, who described how she, her brother and mother have grown Costume Craze into the world's second largest online retailer of costumes; Paul Ahlstrom, a serial entrepreneur and Managing Director of Spring Capital; and BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright, the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration Emeritus and former Senior Associate Dean of the Harvard Business School's MBA program.

Conference sessions included topics such as starting a business in college, using the web for marketing, creating wealth with real estate and staying sane while married to an entrepreneur, among others.

— Grand prize photo by Larrin Wada