Photo venture wins business plan competition

Michael J. Ginzberg (center), dean of the Lerner College of Business and Economics, presents the plaque for first prize to seniors Ryan Bonifacino (left) and Tom Smith, who combined their business knowledge and photography skills to win UD’s first business plan competition.

3:42 p.m., May 3, 2005--Two students who teamed up to combine their business knowledge and photography skills have won top honors in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics’ inaugural business plan competition, with a proposal for a specialty photography studio.

Ryan Bonifacino, BE ’05, and Tom Smith, AS ’05, developed a plan for Yakka Studios, a business specializing in event photography and targeting the college, athletic and corporate markets. Bonifacino is a marketing and management major, while Smith is majoring in art with a concentration in photography.

Early this school year, the two Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers began discussing the idea of opening a studio that would specialize in taking photos at sorority and fraternity events on campus. The idea “snowballed” from there, Smith said, and he and Bonifacino entered the business plan competition and also turned Yakka (an Australian term for “hard work”) Studios into a real venture. They shot their first job in February and since have specialized in middle school and high school athletic events and regional cheerleading competitions, where they take action, team and individual photos for purchase by participants and their parents.

“We plan on continuing the business after graduation,” Bonifacino said. “If we are this successful after the first two months, while full-time students, imagine how well we will do when we put 100 percent into the business.”

Bonifacino will present the business plan again Wednesday, May 4, in the finals of the East Coast Student Entrepreneur Awards program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he will represent Delaware.

Yakka Studios was one of five business proposals that were selected as finalists in UD’s campuswide competition, which is planned to become an annual event. On Friday, April 29, a panel of outside judges heard student presentations on each of the five business plans, asked the presenters questions and then voted on the top plans. Prizes of $2,000, $1,000 and $500 were awarded to the top three business plans.

Second-place winner senior Friciveri Carias and Dean Ginzberg

Barry Williams, of the Delaware Small Business Development Center, which is part of the Lerner College, called the five finalists “the cream of the crop,” noting that they persevered through a long preparation and selection process. He added that the competition was open to UD students in any college or field of study and that no course credit was given for participating.

“These are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs with a passion to turn their business plans into reality,” Williams said.

The business plan competition began in the fall, when 26 individual students or student teams from various UD colleges submitted business concepts. They later had the opportunity to attend workshops designed to guide them in developing full-fledged business plans, which were submitted for judging in March. The finalists chosen at that time were provided with coaching to prepare for their presentation sessions.

Students in the entrepreneurship LIFE (Learning Integrated Freshman Experience) cluster helped Williams and Scott Jones, professor of accounting and management information systems, organize and promote the competition on campus. LIFE clusters are opportunities for freshmen to live and take some courses together, based on a common area of interest, during their first semester at the University.

Second place in the business plan competition was awarded to Friciveri Carias, CHEP ’05, a student in the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management. Carias proposed a boutique resort inn, to be called Club Salinitas, in northern El Salvador.

Third-place honors went to David Egosi, BE ’05, a marketing major, for his College Fashions plan. The business, which he test-marketed at UD during the fall semester, is an online retailer of discount-priced designer clothing.

Third-place winner senior David Egosi and Dean Ginzberg

The others who made presentations during the final round of competition were Yujuan Liu and Vahik Krikorian, both engineering graduate students, and Eric Ziegenfuss, AG ’06. Liu and Krikorian developed a plan based on research by John Rabolt, Karl W. and Renate B–er Professor and chairperson of materials science and engineering, to manufacture and market a device that could detect cataracts at an early stage. Ziegenfuss proposed an upscale restaurant, known as the Mushroom Palace, that would capitalize on the region’s reputation as a top mushroom producer.

Entrepreneurship is a growing area of emphasis in the Lerner College, which has been named one of the nation’s top 100 entrepreneurial colleges and universities by Entrepreneur magazine. Jones has said that, as the U.S. economy continues to change, more and more graduates either will become entrepreneurs themselves at some point during their careers or will work for an emerging business.

“A lifetime career in a large corporation is not that common anymore,” Jones said recently. “There’s going to be a lot of new-business creation in the future, and we need graduates who are prepared for it.”

Judging the final round of presentations in the business plan competition were Mark Gundersen, partner in McCarter & English; Skip Pennella, director of CAI; Dennis Sheehy, partner in Deloitte Consulting; Jeffrey Davison, general partner in Inflection Point Ventures; Ryan German, owner of Caffé Gelato; Matt Scarborough, an entrepreneur; Patrick Foley, managing director of the Delaware Innovation Fund; and Frances Gauthier, of counsel for Stradley Ronon.

Article by Ann Manser
Photos by Duane Perry

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