SEEDCORN COMPETITION:INTERTRADEIRELAND'S Seedcorn business competition is offering a record prize fund of €360,000 but there is a lot more to the initiative than just cash prizes. Not only do entrants have a chance of winning a top prize of €100,000 they also get valuable assistance in preparing business plans as well as feedback from acknowledged experts on their business plans.

"The economic environment has never been more difficult for young businesses. Seedcorn can help by offering a fantastic cash incentive, as well as invaluable support and advice from some of Ireland's top investment experts," says InterTradeIreland chief executive Liam Nellis. "I would urge any young company to have a go because by just entering Seedcorn they can put themselves in a better position to attract investment, gain valuable industry contacts and get their name known."

The track record of previous winners has been outstanding. Companies on the island of Ireland have already raised around €95.4m of additional equity investment over the past six years as a result of their participation in the Seedcorn competition, according to InterTradeIreland research.

Mcor Technologies from Ardee has gone from strength to strength since winning €100,000 and the best Emerging International Company title last year. The firm, run by Conor, Fintan and Deirdre MacCormack, develops and manufactures 3D printers - their Mcor Matrix yields physical 3D objects from digital data and they are the only 3D printer manufacturer of this technology in Europe.

"Since winning the competition, we have had great success with the launch of our Matrix machine across the Irish and UK markets," says Conor MacCormack. "Business conditions right now are tough for everyone, but we have proved that the market is always receptive to the right product at the right price. However, in order to roll out the product further in 2009, we have been in dialogue with several possible partners who are interested in entering this space, and Seedcorn has really helped us get attention from the people we want to reach. Entering the competition was a fantastic investment for us, not least in terms of profile."

This year, the two top categories - Best High Growth Company and Best Emerging Company - stand to win €100,000 each. There are also four regional prizes of €25,000 each and one Best Spinout prize of €10,000. High growth firms must be less than five years in business, have a new equity requirement in excess of €500,000 and have projected sales of more than €8 million over the next three to five years. Emerging companies must be in business for less than three years and have a new equity requirement of more than €100,000.

According to Seedcorn programme manager Grainne Lennon: "We are experiencing the most difficult economic conditions in 70 years, so it has never been more important for struggling young businesses to take advantage of the sort of benefits Seedcorn has to offer . . . We want to see as many fledgling firms as possible coming forward to use the competition to help develop their business ideas, improve their business plan and learn how to present concepts to panels of investors."

Entries are being accepted now for the competition and interested firms can find details of how to enter on seedcorncompetition.com. "Entrants have to submit business plans by September 25 next," Lennon explains. "The entries are then sorted into six regions and shortlists of three are drawn up for each region. Each regional winner gets a cash prize of €25,000."

"Each business plan is checked twice by our panel of experts and every company that enters gets detailed feedback on how to improve the plan and their business," says Lennon. "We have just started a series of workshop events around the country to help companies prepare business plans. Also, entrants can download our licensed Business Cube business plan preparation methodology from the website."

The regional finalists get to make a 15-minute pitch to a panel of judges and then have to answer some tough questions about their business. "People have compared this to Dragon's Den but it is far more serious than that," Lennon points out. "It's not about entertainment, it's about helping emerging and high-growth businesses become more investor ready. We have real venture capitalists and business angels on the panel and they put the finalists through their paces."

Winners are selected in each category in each of the four regions and all eight are then given an investment pitch masterclass before going forward to make their presentation again to a separate panel of judges at the final in Dublin on November 26th. The panel will then select the overall all-island winner in each category.

For details on Seedcorn competition workshops see seedcorncompetition.com