IF YOU need a few quid you have several options: rob a bank, sell your body, buy a lottery ticket or ask the bank manager for a loan. All except the Lotto are dangerous, scary and humilating. The odds on the Lotto are crummy, so most bright entrepreneurs opt for the next best thing — a business start-up competition.

Ethan Smith, the founder of Datapoint, a company developing a Braille computer screen, has won about £9,000 so far in competitions at University College London, London Business School and University College Santa Barbara, money he will use to launch the business when he graduates this summer. Smith, who is studying for a masters degree in human computer interaction, says: “I’m a student working on the business part-time. Competitions are a good way of establishing a buzz and credibility with potential investors.”

Almost all business start-up competitions take the same format: submission of a business plan, followed by a Dragons’ Den-style pitch, with question-and-answer session with a panel of experts and investors. This process, Smith says, helps you to hone your plan and prepare for future pitches to venture capitalists.

The knowledge and advice gained can often be worth more than the cash. Linley Lewis and Will Hayler, founders of Ticket to Ride, a gap-year surfing tuition company, won the award for being the “most sustainable business targeting consumers” award at the Flying Start programme this year. The pair won five hours’ mentoring with a successful entrepreneur. “You are never too good to learn,” Lewis says. “The mentoring is well worth winning. At the event we also got lots of advice on the business, directions for growth, and ideas on funding opportunities.”

Sumerah Ahmad and her sister Humerah Khan, founders of the radio station Club Asia, won £20,000 cash and £4,000 worth of consulting and accounting software as HSBC’s Start-up Stars last year.

But Ahmad was more enthusiastic about the media coverage. “On the back of the coverage we have had a lot of interest from investors, advertisers are keener to come on board and we have been approached to speak at events, which raises our profile further,” she says. “As a result of (the award) our business is exanding far quicker than we had planned. People come to us and say ‘What would you like?’ and ‘How can we help you?’ Which is amazing.”

But as all losers say: it is not the winning but the taking part that counts. Neil Ainsworth, a founding director of ClickAngel, an online advertising agency, didn’t win anything in the Barclays and Leeds MBA Business Plan competition, but says: “The process helped us become successful. It develops your ability to sell your service or idea quickly. I’d definitely recommend it.”

Everyone’s a winner in the start-up game.

WINNING WAYS

WHAT better way is there to lay your hands on wads of wonga, business brainpower and positive publicity than winning it?

Learn more about how your business idea could be a winner: see the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship’s Flying Start programme at www.ncge.org.uk; UCL and LBS’s entrepreneurs’ challenge at www.londonentrepreneurschallenge.com; and Leeds Business School’s competition at http://lubswww.leeds.ac.uk .

For further information on the start-ups featured: ethan@datapointsb.com, www.ttride.co.uk, www.clubasiaonline.com and www.clickangel.co.uk or www.price-angel.co.uk

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