Employees of GoSmallBiz.com sign confidentiality agreements restricting their communication or use of information received to the purposes of the Competition. However, all information sent to or generated by students in the University System of Georgia is subject to the State of Georgia ’s Open Records Laws. Therefore, NO Confidential Information should be included in the Description of your Great Idea.

Upon completion of your entry, you will be given opportunity to review your information. Should you decide not to submit the entry for student review, you will have the option to submit your idea to a GoSmallBiz consultant. Under this option you will not be entered in the Contest, but you will receive feedback and a critique from one of our consultants who has executed a confidentiality agreement. All critiques – whether prepared by students or GoSmallBiz – will be forwarded between January 9 and February 16, 2009.

Each entry will respond to 7 specific questions:

1. What is your envisioned product or service?
2. Who will buy it?
3. Why will they buy it?
4. What is the size of the market?
5. What technologies*, if any, underlie your product or service?
6. How are these technologies* unique and/or innovative?
7. How will you develop intellectual property or other protection for your product or service?

 

*The description of your technologies should explain their cost, performance and other advantages vs. existing technologies, but NOT the how’s and why’s of how they achieve these advantages. Disclosing of underlying details could jeopardize your ability to secure international patents.