Cottage Grove Business Challenge

We held the 2024 Business Challenge Kickoff Event in November of 2023 at Coast Fork Brewing, with just over 60 people in attendance. Registration for the challenge was open until the end of December and resulted in 22 businesses and entrepreneurs signed up to participate.

The Business Plan Classes started in January 2024 (one week later than expected due to the ice storm). Classes ran from January through March 13. South Lane Wheels donated their conference room for the classes. The classes were taught by Roger Wong with the Small Business Development Center. Included with the classes, all participants received 6 months of free access to Liveplan. In the weeks between classes, there was also mentoring with the Small Business Development Center – Lane Community College. There were 18 businesses in the Classes at the beginning and 12 completed the series.

In addition to a monthly RAIN meetup, we offered a Pitch prep class with Melissa Prestinario. This took place at the Chamber on May 1st.

On April 3rd we had a Business plan Challenge social at El Tapatio with about 30 people in attendance.

The deadline to submit business plans was April 17th. At the time of the deadline, we had 9 businesses that turned in a business plan.

Our Judges were Julie Johns, Dominic LeMay, and Richardo Flore. They had until April 30 to go over the plans. They met once ahead of the Pitch event to discuss the plans.