I’m posting this in the early morning just before leaving my New York hotel for the Forbes building near Union Square, to judge the final round of the Forbes.com Boost Your Business $100,000 business plan contest. 
This is the fourth year for this annual event and my second as a judge. As I start the day, I have high hopes. Last year at this time we went through an excellent group of five outstanding finalist companies, all of which, as far as I can tell, have done very well since. The winner, ZocDoc, is an online medical doctor appointment scheduler, going strong a year later.
If you’re interested in this contest, its website does an excellent job of inviting you in, to join me and the other judges, and decide on your own. You do get a vote–winners are decided in part by the judges with what happens later today, but then, over the next few weeks, by public vote. You can go to the site, look at the background information, watch the video presentations (including the Q&A sessions with me and the other judges) and decide for yourself.
And the prize is $100,000, including $50,000 in spendable money and another $50,000 worth of advertising.
The companies that enter don’t have to be business students, local to any particular place (although they do have to be based in the U.S.) or working at any particular industry.
If this sounds interesting to you, go look at the site, read the summaries, watch the videos. And enter next year.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
