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News Release from: Microsoft
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 March 2007
Innovative small business award finals
Microsoft concludes the Ultimate Challenge contest by announcing the four finalists
Microsoft has announced the four finalists in the Ultimate Challenge contest, the nationwide search for the best small-business idea in America The Ultimate Challenge kicked off in New York City last fall and nearly 5,000 entrepreneurs from across the country entered with a wide array of innovative ideas
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 1 Nov 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Microsoft created this campaign and contest to show its commitment to helping small businesses and demonstrate its belief that everyone has a great business idea inside waiting to happen; all that's needed are the right tools.
"We were so inspired by the great number, quality and variety of ideas we came across in our travels across the US," said Rajat Taneja, general manager of Small Business Applications and Services at Microsoft.
"We hope that everyone who was a part of the Ultimate Challenge or who is interested in small business learned that there are tools out there to support their spirit of entrepreneurism".
"Microsoft is committed to building software and services solutions that enable small businesses to run their entire operation with simplicity and ease of use".
America will have the chance to vote for its favourite finalist from March 5 - 10 (inclusive).
Following the vote, contest judges Carolyn Kepcher, CEO of Carolyn and Co and formerly of "The Apprentice"; Liz Lange, fashion icon and maternity wear designer; and Chris Capossela, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Business Division Product Management Group, will appear on network television to select the winner.
The four finalists include spoken-word poets from New Jersey looking to open a themed restaurant and teaching facility; a woman from Florida with a make-your-own-wallpaper idea; a woman from Illinois with an idea for the ultimate clothing rental service for fashionable, trendsetting young women; and a woman from Maryland who wants to create an organic beauty bar that offers a fresh menu of made-to-order natural beauty products and treatments.
"It was a thrill to be in the field, to speak with entrepreneurs about their ideas and to see how the Ultimate Challenge inspired them," Capossela said.
"We hope that all our applicants and all small-business owners will see how Microsoft Office Accounting software can best prepare them for success".
The winner - the business with the most innovative business idea - will receive $100,000 in business startup money, a Manhattan-area storefront for one year rent-free, and infrastructure and software to help run the business.
Submissions were judged and scored on the following criteria: marketing approach, financial and logistic feasibility, originality, and public interest.
The nationwide search for the best small business began when Microsoft deployed the Ultimate Challenge Van on an RV tour that began in New York City's Times Square on Nov 28, 2006, and made stops in Las Vegas, Denver and Chicago.
The van became a destination where contestants submitted their applications and met Microsoft representatives and successful local business leaders to help finalise their Ultimate Challenge submission.
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