ANN ARBOR – The deadline to apply for the fall 2013 Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest business-plan competition is Oct. 30. GLEQ gives both entrepreneurs with business concepts and businesses with a plan to win cash prizes and perhaps catch the eye of potential investors.

GLEQ participants are eligible to compete in one of four business planning paths:

New Business Idea

Emerging Company

Vision to Action Challenge

As you select the category you will compete in, keep in mind a few things:

The New Business Idea category is typically for those ventures in a very early phase, which may or may not have been officially formed and are likely pre-revenue. The awards for New Business Idea are smaller cash prizes to the founders.

The Emerging Company and SmartZone Award categories, and all the industry-specific awards, are for ventures that are incorporated and the awards are unsecured microloans to the business entity and follow Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund guidelines.

The Vision to Action Challenge category is an excellent path for those entrepreneurs looking to gain clarity on Vision and develop Action plans that will assist in gaining traction, build practices for more stable growth and build partnerships. Recognition awardees receive media coverage and one-on-one assistance from experts.

GLEQ Executive Director Diane Durance said 50 applications have been received so far. She expects another 150 or more to be submitted by the Oct. 30 deadline.

“We’re already working hard to match participants with coaches,”� Durance said. “We used to wait until we got closer to the registration deadline to match coaches, but now we match them as they sign up. It is another good reason to register earlier.”

For the New Business Idea and Emerging Company categories five-page executive summaries are due on Dec. 14. For the Vision to Action Challenge, applicants are expected to identify some challenges, milestones and record their thoughts in a video.

Top prize in Emerging Company is a $5,000 microloan. The New Business Idea winner gets a $2,500 cash prize. Cash prizes for the Vision to Action Challenge have yet to be determined.

All the winners will be announced in late January 2014 at the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship at Burton Manor in Livonia.

For more information, click on GLEQ.Org