By Kim McDarison

Whitewater city officials, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater staff and students, will soon be offering a contest through which “budding entrepreneurs” can win money to put towards a business plan.

While plans for the contest are still in the “conceptual stage,” a first step was to secure a “prize fund,” Whitewater Community Development (CDA) Director Calli Berg said.

Members of the CDA approved a prize fund of $160,000 during their meeting held last Thursday, she said.

Berg was hired as the city’s CDA director late last year.

An earlier story about Berg is here: https://whitewaterwise.com/berg-hired-as-citys-economic-development-director/.

Berg said plans to create the contest predate her arrival as CDA director.

The concept calls for area entrepreneurs who have a business idea or plan to come forward to compete for some portion of the available money.

Both the city and the university are involved in developing the process through which the contest will progress, Berg stated, adding that the city was charged with building a prize fund, naming the contest, and developing a plan through which it could match business concepts with available locations within the city.

The city has named the contest “Whitewater Windup,” Berg said.

On the UW-Whitewater side, she said, students and staff will help organize, set up, and market the contest. They also will be involved with judging business plans at various stages of the process, and creating and facilitating a series of mandatory workshops designed to help selected entrepreneurs grow their plans.

Workshops will help prepare applicants for contest eligibility, Berg said, adding: “We are still ironing out all the details.”

Thus far, the process calls for individuals to visit a link provided by the city through which they can sign up to be on a distribution list. As information becomes available, it will be disseminated through the link.

The objective of the contest is to find business plans that are viable, aid the entrepreneur in honing the plan through a series of workshops, and then match them with resources to aid in their success and a location somewhere within the city limits.

The goal is to find and foster businesses that will operate successfully in the city of Whitewater, Berg said. 

Locations, both private and public, may be found anywhere within the city, Berg stated, adding that some focus is anticipated to be placed on the city’s downtown area.

The contest is potentially a driver to help fill vacant storefronts, while bringing more traffic and visibility to the city’s downtown, Berg said.

The objective is to use the prize fund by investing in businesses throughout the city and increasing the value of the city’s building stock, she added. 

“We feel the prize fund is enough money to create meaningful business improvements,” she noted, adding that the money can be made available in “a flexible way” to allow its use to be “customized” to a business’s and building’s needs.

According to Berg, a successful business operating out of an improved building will not only revitalize the downtown, but it will bring more value by creating a higher tax base.

She said she believed $160,000 in a prize fund would bring “significant progress” to invest in redevelopment of the city’s existing infrastructure, public and private.

Describing potential prize distributions, she said: “It isn’t meant to cover the whole business plan, but it could cover rent for a year or, if it’s a restaurant concept, it could purchase a ventilation range, which are super expensive. It is not meant to cover 100% of the cost to start up a business.” 

While the full process through which contestants will compete is among details under development, she said, plans call for each competing entrepreneur to submit a two-minute video.

“The video should show us your business plan and convince us that it’s a winner,” Berg said.

Included within the developing contest process, she said, are plans to create a policy and process for distribution of the prize fund.

Also under development is a registration process and a contest timeline.

Although plans are still forming, Berg said city officials released information about the contest Tuesday because they wanted to give interested entrepreneurs an opportunity to place themselves on the distribution list and develop their business plans.

“This is a soft rollout to raise awareness that this is coming,” Berg said. 

Those who sign up through the city’s link for further contest information can expect to undergo a screening process, which will employ a variety of stages. While that process is still developing, and could be subject to change, Berg said she envisioned such mechanisms as crowd sourcing, UW-Whitewater students within subject-appropriate classes, and other panels of judges to be enlisted to help determine which competing entrepreneurs will be invited to attend the mandatory workshops.

The screening process begins with the two-minute videos, with each screening source offering a weighted evaluation, she said. 

She described the video as “part of the application,” further noting that the application form and process also are under development.

“The UW-Whitewater class will assist with the prejudging of the videos provided and they will offer an economic analysis post event,” Berg said. 

According to Berg, those who emerge after completing the workshops will enter into a “pitch contest.” A location for the contest has not yet been determined, but plans call for the event to be made available to the public both through in-person and online options. The contestants will pitch to a panel of judges who will select the business plans that will become eligible for prize fund money.

“We don’t have all the details yet. This is all conceptual, and subject to change,” she said.

Also on tap is an app to allow for community voting, she noted.

A goal of the process, Berg said, is to allow the city to use the prize fund in “as flexible a way as possible.”

As the process develops, she noted, the city is considering such variables as the number of contest entrants, and the number of viable plans received, and what kinds of resources might best facilitate those plans. 

Said Berg: “We don’t know how many contestants we will have, so if 50 contestants come forward with 10 great ideas, then we might divide the money between them, or we might have a first-place winner on down. 

“With this first one, we want to be as thoughtful and as well-prepared as possible. We want to pick the businesses that are most likely to succeed with an influx of support from the prize fund … The scope of what we can do is not available yet … There will be a process, and it will be a reimbursement or a contract.” 

Selected winners will work with members of city staff to “decide what that agreement will look like, and what we get in return,” Berg said, adding: “We need to make sure they are financially able to be successful. We need to do that due diligence piece.” 

Berg noted that the city and the university are working to create a solid contest foundation, with an eye towards future events.

“If this goes well, we hope this will be an annual event,” she said.

Berg said plans call for contest organizers to be able to announce winners in 2024.

“Hopefully, we will spend all the prize money on as many winners as we can,” she added.

A link to the city’s contest information distribution list is here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdELK5V3gNW2Ckm9WDC-5S0Q-zxEeGqt4oiHdlNDlPSfU_JGg/viewform.