For all those entrepreneurs who have been procrastinating or paralyzed by doubt, this is a final reminder to enter the fray. The deadline to enter the third annual LaunchPad business plan competition and vie for its $30,000 prize is only two days away.

The competition, sponsored by Gorham Savings Bank, gives Maine entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their business plans before a panel of experienced judges. The ultimate winner, who will be determined after a live pitch event on June 18, 2015, will receive $30,000 to grow their business.

Kate McAleer, who won last year’s event with her chocolate company, Bixby & Co., used the $30,000 to purchase two automated chocolate melting machines that allowed her to triple her production capacity just in time for the national launch of her product. Bixby & Co.’s sales more than doubled in 2014 and her Bixby chocolate bars are now sold in 600 stores throughout the country.

McAleer can’t say enough about how competing in LaunchPad was beneficial to her growth as a business owner.

“The preparation of our proposal required a lot of planning and hard work,” she said. “Even if I had not been the winner, the conclusion was that we needed to add melters to our manufacturing, one way or another. … I strongly recommend interested entrepreneurs to take the plunge and join the competition.”

To enter the competition, visit Launchpad’s website. And for those entrepreneurs who entered in the past, but did not win, there’s no prohibition from competing again.

An independent panel of judges will review all the applications and select a group of semifinalists. From there, the semifinalists will be pared down through a combination of community and panel votes to five finalists. As already mentioned, those finalists will then pitch before a live audience on June 18.

The judges at the final event will be Michelle Neujahr, entrepreneurial center director at Southern Maine Community College; Craig Denekas, CEO of the Libra Foundation; and Melissa Smith, CEO of Wex Inc.

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