The Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge is coming to Riley County, lead by NetWork Kansas on March 14 at Pottorf Hall.

Though the challenge is where students 9-12 who live the the Riley County area will compete against one another. By making their  own businesses and show how they would manage them.

This competition gives students a chance to show their creativity and will help them if they pursue a business-related career. Economic Developer Trent Armbrust is partnered with the Riley County Extension Office so that they could put on the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in Riley County.

“[The judges] look at” how does your good or service satisfy a need; how is your good or product better than the competitors that already out there; how you came up with the idea,”” Armbrust said.

The judges look at these specific elements to determine how well a business is created and managed. While creating a well-managed business could win you the competition, it’s not the entire goal of the contest.

“The goal of the contest is to give students an opportunity to be creative and learn how to organize their thoughts around a business,” Armbrust said, “and ultimately it would be great if a business was started out of the Entrepreneurship Challenge.”

The competition is less about winning and more about being a way to teach kids, how to start and manage a business correctly while also adding a competitive aspect to the learning process. Even if a student doesn’t win the competition, they still walk away with knowledge about how to start a business.

“They need to come up with an idea that they have talked with people about it and got feedback on it,” Armbrust said. “Ask, if I build this or make it, is this something that you would buy is it better than what’s already out there, so get feedback on your prototype or service.”

There are ways to see if your product or service would be successful in the elevator pitch part of the competition, which is a two- minute pitch that is a third of your score, in which, you pitch your product or service to the judges. The best way is to ask people who would buy the product or use the service if they think it’s better than what is already out there and how you can improve on it to make it better than competitors.

“If you are taking one of these classes, you may enjoy this challenge,” Armbrust said. “You can take classes such as shop classes, science classes, or robotics, or your general business classes that focus on accounting. Taking one of these classes may also help you in the competition if you decide to take part.”