UNH Magazine - May 2003 - http://unhmagazine.unh.edu/f03/masterplanners.html

Master Planners
by Lois R. Shea '95G
Photo by Dan Williamson.

When Jessica de Pontbriand '03 was a child, she played games of make-believe--as all children do. But her games were perhaps more consistent than most. She always played "restaurant."

When she was older, she worked in restaurants. And when it came time to write a business plan for the 15th annual Paul J. Holloway Jr. Business Plan competition, she drew on her childhood passion.

De Pontbriand envisioned a little cafe named jaja-Belles that would sell Greek pastries, ice cream and coffee. It would be "a place where people can come on a date, or just meet with friends and be happy," she says. The judges were sufficiently impressed by her plan and presentation that they awarded it first place in the lifestyles category and a $4,000 cash prize.

Established by the Holloway family to honor Exeter, N.H., business leader Paul Holloway Jr., the Whittemore School's Holloway Prize competition is among the longest-running of its kind.

A decade ago, Christine Hennessey Henderson '94 won the Holloway prize with her plan for a coffee and ice cream cart outside Dimond Library. The competition, she says, makes students think like entrepreneurs and consider all the business possibilities and practicalities. And, she said, "it shows there is a future in small business."

Christine Henderson '94, top, a Holloway prize winner, founded Durham's Licker Store. Photo by Lisa Nugent.
As a sophomore, she opened The Licker Store, a popular ice cream and coffee shop in Durham, and then expanded it with the award money. Later, she opened a deli in Durham called the Red Onion. She sold both businesses in 2001 to stay home with her two young children for a few years.

Henderson said the competition "really helped me fine-tune the skills that I needed to write a business plan and stay focused--and to write the plan for the next store."

While de Pontbriand does not have immediate plans to open her cafe, she still savors the recognition her plan received. "This was bigger to me than graduation," she says. ~
 

UNH's Whittemore School Celebrates 15th Anniversary of Holloway Business Plan May 2, 2003

DURHAM, N.H.-Outstanding business students at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics will vie for the Paul J. Holloway, Jr. Business Plan prize, Friday afternoon, May 2, at the New England Conference Center in Durham. The event is free and open to the public.

"Competing for the prize provides students with an opportunity to test their ingenuity and business acumen in the real world situation of developing and presenting a business plan," says Steve Bolander, dean of the Whittemore School. "This year, we celebrate the 15th year of the Holloway Competition, one of the longest-running business planning competitions in the country. We invite members of the community to join us in honoring the many successes of the program and all those who have contributed to this achievement."

The annual competition awards prizes to both undergraduate and graduate students, either as teams or individuals, who develop the most realistic plans for starting, acquiring or expanding a business venture in each of two tracks: high growth ventures and lifestyle ventures. The six judges base their decisions on both presentation and the plan itself. The May 2 event features three finalists in each category presenting their business plans for about 15 minutes followed by a brief question and answer period before the panel of judges. This year's cash awards are $4,000
each for the winning undergraduate and graduate business plan. Undergraduate and graduate runner-ups in both categories are given cash awards of $900 each.

The competition, established by Holloway's family, honors the Exeter business leader's entrepreneurial spirit by stimulating and recognizing outstanding business plans. Holloway began his career in the automotive industry and starting in 1967, shaped a multi-franchise dealership emphasizing customer service and satisfaction. Holloway then extended his business skills to the development and management of eldercare facilities.

His strong commitment to public service has led to contributions as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University System of New Hampshire, the board of Berwick Academy, fund-raising programs for Temple University in Pennsylvania and the Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts in addition to involvement with other nonprofit organizations and charitable programs.

Holloway Competition

Graduate Finalists:

Lifestyle:

Mary Cleveland, Top Notch, Hampton, NH 03842
Jeff Rapsis, El Toucan, Bedford, NH 03110
Mike Carmichael, The McRae Group, Newington, NH 03801
Denise Laferte, The McRae Group, Newburyport, MA 01950
Ed Rowe, The McRae Group, Amesbury, MA 01913

High Growth:

Jim Losee, Active Acoustics, Mason, NH 03048
Douglas McClellan, ECR Pollution Control, Windham, NH 03087
Bill Scheer, Movies To Go, Essex Junction, VT 05452


Undergraduate Finalists

Lifestyle:

Jessica de Pontbriand, JajaBell's, Nashua, NH 03063
Jason David Wood, The Apple Seed Inc., Rochester, NH 03839-5619
Lindsey MacAleese, In-Home Care Inc., Walpole,MA 02081

High Growth:

Justin Bruce, The ArseniZ™Advanced Filtration System, North Andover, MA 01845
Sean Gaffney, The Oliverian School, Laconia, NH 03246-2027
Louis M. Levin, Seacoast Premium Finance, LLC Waterford, CT 06385
Justin S. Gamester, Seacoast Premium Finance, LLC Portsmouth, NH 03801

"The plans and presentations seem to get better every year," notes Bill Naumes, associate professor of strategic management and Holloway Competition coordinator for 13 years. "Many of the previous winners have gone on to successfully implement their business ideas. The activity helps to develop an understanding among our students of the complexity of starting and managing a business. These are skills that will help them in any business they enter, whether as an entrepreneur or as a manager for someone else's company."

The Holloway Business Plan Competition begins at 1 p.m. with the undergraduate presentations for Lifestyle and High Growth Ventures, followed by the graduate student entries at 3 p.m. A reception follows at 4:30 p.m. with an awards presentation scheduled for about 5:15 p.m. For more information, contact the dean's office at 862-1983 or check the competition's website at: http://www.unh.edu/management/holloway/holloway.html


 

The Nashua Telegraph - June 25, 2003

   JONATHAN VAN FLEET

Telegraph Staff

NASHUA - Since she was a little girl, Jessica de Pontbriand would pretend she owned her own restaurant.

She used to sit in her basement and serve make-believe ice cream to make-believe guests. On hot summer days, she and her friends would be in front of their houses, trying to sell lemonade to neighbors for pocket change.

At 22, de Pontbriand has not let go of that dream. In fact, her vision of one day owning her own business just received a solid endorsement from the University of New Hampshire.

Her idea for a downtown eatery recently earned first place among undergraduate lifestyle business plans in a contest run by the Whittemore School of Business and Economics.

"People saw my dream on paper and believed in it," de Pontbriand said. "That feels awesome."

The $4,000 that came with the award didn't hurt either, but she said it was the recognition and validation that meant the most.

While her plan is still a dream, it is grounded in some serious consideration and research.

De Pontbriand had to pick a location for this fictional business, decide what hours it would be open and what would be on the menu, and she even had to calculate startup costs and future income estimates.

For example, she determined that her business, called jajaBelle's, would need an average of 44 customers a day to break even. She located it on Factory Street because of the city's downtown Master Plan, which calls for a future museum and other development along the waterfront.

She would serve ice cream, Greek pastries, smoothies and coffee, among other goodies.

Her clientele would include the city's young people. When de Pontbriand was a teenager growing up in the city, she felt there was no place for young people to go on a date.

Her bakery/coffee shop/ice cream parlor would be just the kind of place that a couple of high school or college students could go for some coffee and conversation. It would be equally appropriate for the typical local family to stop by for an ice cream while they were downtown, she explained.

"I want people to have a place where they come in and they're happy," de Pontbriand said from her parents' Nashua home. "It's fun, it's relaxed, it's inviting."

Her cafe would offer a place to study, read, socialize or just people-watch for anyone who likes a nonalcoholic beverage and the smell of baked goods, she said.

Don't start flipping through the phone book anytime soon. This plan is just an idea and the cafe would be at least five years from opening - if it were ever to become a reality, de Pontbriand said.

Now a UNH graduate, she is working as a waitress at a Seacoast restaurant. In the fall, she has plans to head west in search of new sights and adventures.

When she has had her fill of visiting friends and sleeping on sofas, she plans to return to the Granite State and start looking for full-time employment. Whatever that job turns out to be likely won't involve opening jajaBelle's.

Although the business is a goal of hers, it's one she considers worth waiting for. It would be a big time commitment, and she doesn't want to be tied down so early in life, she explained.

Still, when she talks about the fictional business, she describes it as if it already exists, which is one of the reasons her plan was victorious in the 15th annual Paul J. Holloway Jr. Business Plan competition.

"I can envision the opening day," she said. "Getting there, that's the scary part."