Shopify Wants to Help You Build a Business

by: Ben Heinemann Shopify, a “complete e-commerce solution” that provides business owners with the tools to sell their products online, has recently launched a competition that should perk up any budding entrepreneur’s ears. The premise of the company’s 2012 Build-A-Business competition is simple yet brilliant: Contestants come up with a product to sell (or, enter an already existing business), open an online store with Shopify, and pick a mentor from a group of industry professionals who essentially act as the judges for the competition. And these mentors aren’t just anybody – they represent some of the smartest brains in the fields of fashion and apparel, electronics and gadgets, design, art and home and everything in between, including Daymond John, founder of fashion brand FUBU, Tim Ferriss, author of the bestseller “The 4 Hour Work Week,” Tina Roth Eisenber, creator of the popular design blog swissmiss, and Eric Ries, author of the bestseller “The Lean Startup.” In an online video promoting the competition, Ferriss explains why he thinks it’s important to give small businesses and entrepreneurs the chance to really take their operation to the next level, calling entrepreneurs “the base of all world change, in a way.” The winner of this year’s competition not only receives the $50,000 investment from their mentor, but that mentor also takes a 5% stake in the company, launching the value of your small business to $1 million out of the gate. The winning business will also be featured in a Fast Company online article and  be given $20,000 in Google AdWords credits to kick start advertising. At a time when e-commerce continues to explode and as consumers have shifted to finding business and products online more than ever before, Shopify is smart to not only open up a competition for entrepreneurs, but to essentially get in on the ground floor of a company or idea that has a great chance of becoming “the next big thing.” We’ll certainly be staying tuned.