[StBernard] St. Bernard start-up business competition offers $42, 500 cash prize

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard start-up business competition offers $42,500 cash prize
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on January 06, 2015 at 4:45 PM, updated January 06, 2015 at 5:43 PM


A business competition in St. Bernard Parish is offering a $42,500 cash
prize for entrepreneurs interested in starting up a business there. The
Startup St. Bernard challenge is accepting applicants through Jan. 31.

"The parish is a land of opportunity for businesses, especially startups,"
according to the competition's literature. "While just minutes away from
downtown New Orleans, land, labor, and costs of doing business are low --
and the business support network is robust."

The competition is open to any business that would locate its base of
operations to St. Bernard for at least one year.

The nonprofit Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation is organizing
the competition, in partnership with The Idea Village, The Entrepreneur
Center at Nunez Community College, St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce, and
Leadership St. Bernard.

Rita Gue, the Meraux Foundation's president, said it helps showcase the
parish "as an ideal place for businesses."

"We issued a call to smart, motivated entrepreneurs in St. Bernard, across
the state, and around the country," Gue said. "This is a unique way to
approach economic development and a new way to promote the parish."

The winner would receive $42,500 in cash, office space, legal, marketing,
and accounting services, "and virtually everything else a business needs to
help it get off the ground," according to the foundation's announcement.

The foundation said that, in total, the prize package is worth $110,000.

Businesses interested in competing must complete the entry form and submit a
business plan at www.startupstbernard.com.

The top-five contestants will pitch their businesses to a panel of judges on
March 23. That event, free and open to the public, is set to take place at
the Meraux Foundation's Docville Farm at 5124 E. St. Bernard Hwy in Violet.

People can register to attend that event at www.noew.org.

Startup St. Bernard is being held in conjunction with New Orleans
Entrepreneur Week, the annual festival organized by The Idea Village that
celebrates business, innovation and thinking in New Orleans.