Top 5 Business Competitions

For high school students with a practical passion in business and finance, it can be difficult to gain experience and develop skills in a learning environment before taking the daunting leap into a startup, an internship, or even an actual job. Classroom settings rarely offer you this chance either, often sticking to conceptual learning, and even hands-on assignments lack a certain real-world application that working for an actual business would offer. Where, then, can students interested in business go to polish their skills and feel what it’s like to present project ideas or run financial simulations? The solution: business competitions. In these competitive environments, students gain invaluable hands-on experience, test their business mettle against other young entrepreneurial minds, and make their passion for business all the more evident to college admissions boards. Below are five of many highly-qualified business competitions students will want to check out:

1. The Diamond Challenge is a global high school entrepreneurship competition that challenges young students to innovate and unleash their new business ideas. The Diamond Challenge aims to be an opportunity for students to develop their entrepreneurship skills with action and purpose, beyond simple business management principles. Participants compete in teams (under an adult advisor) and submit a concept narrative and pitch deck to be judged. Through multiple rounds in the competition, teams can receive resources like expert feedback, network connections, and an $8000 maximum cash prize.

   The 2021 deadline for registration and submission is January 8th, 11:59pm EST.

2. The FCCLA Virtual Business Challenge is a virtual competition for high school students that runs teams through a series of financial simulations, encouraging critical thinking, communication, and preparatory career skills. An excellent online option, the FCCLA Virtual Business Challenge challenges teams to compete and vie for qualification in three rounds, with the last being on the national level. Teams can regularly check how their scores and ranks fare against other competitors through the website’s automatic updates, and winners receive recognition and a cash prize.

   The first round of the Challenge starts every October, with the second and third rounds starting the following February and March, respectively.

3. The Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge is a national project-driven competition geared towards innovation and entrepreneurship. We recommended this previously as a STEM competition, but the creative business skills required for this challenge are equally as crucial! Intended for students from ages 13 to 18, the Conrad Challenge encourages students, under the mentorship of teachers and other experts in the relevant industries, to critically think and solve global issues. The Conrad Challenge advertises itself as a “master class” that will give students “skills needed to thrive in the 21st century workforce”, and entrepreneuring winners are awarded with patent and business support, as well as financial awards.

   Registration for the Conrad Challenge opens annually in August; the student guide can be found here.

4. The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s (NFTE) World Series of Innovation (WSI) is an entrepreneurship competition for students between the ages of 13 to 24 to pitch solutions to real-world problems, whether as a trio, a duo, or a solo act. The NFTE’S WSI challenges competitors with a list of real-world issues—this year’s challenges include COVID recovery and hunger—and students must submit a solution to be judged, within each challenge, for qualification for the next round. Cash prizes range from $300 to $1800.

   Fall 2020 submissions must be sent in by December 14th.

5. The GENIUS Olympiad (Business) is one of the many categories of the GENIUS Olympiad global competition, e.g. Science, Art, and Writing, meant for students from grades 8 to 12. The Business category includes an entrepreneurship challenge and a social responsibility challenge, both of which require participants to submit a thorough business plan and to pitch an investment proposal to judges, simulating a bid for funding. Submissions are judged across a wide range of qualities, including but not limited to marketability, profitability, creativity, and impact. Finalists receive invitations to the GENIUS Olympiad event, where various honors, monetary awards, and scholarships are up for grabs.

   Participants can submit applications for the 2021 competition from January 15th to March 1st. (There is a registration fee of $50 per project.)

These competitions are the perfect place for students to grow in their passion for business and learn the beginnings of entrepreneurship and business proposals firsthand. With experts providing feedback and peers challenging you at every step of the way, business competitions leave students with a wealth of experience that will serve them well not only in the eyes of college admissions, but also in their career beyond schooling.