Two non-business majors at West Virginia University on Saturday (April 24) won $10,000 plus $1,500 in legal assistance and $6,000 toward office space for a year.

Katherine L. Grisso and Ben Harrell, winners of the WVU Entrepreneurship Center’s business plan competition, plan to produce unique fashion purses that will be offered for sale in major retail department stores and/or small boutiques.

Five student teams competed in the second annual business plan competition. The four runner-up teams each received $2,000.

The winning team, K. Lianna Accessory Design, was led by Grisso, a junior textile, apparel and merchandising student in the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences with a minor in business administration. Her partner, Harrell, is a junior advertising major in the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism. Both students are from Morgantown.

I heard about this competition through the grapevine,Grisso said.I had never written a business plan before. We stayed up a lot of late nights, but it was worth every minute.

Seven judges heard the presentations and selected the winner. Their expertise ranged from president of a management-consulting firm to a successful WVU alumnus and entrepreneur to the president of the Morgantown Area Chamber of Commerce.

During the fall semester, 18 student teams submitted overviews of potential business ideas, from which a panel of judges selected the five finalist teams. During the spring semester, the student teams attended workshops at the college to sharpen their business plans for the final presentations.

The Entrepreneurship Center is under the leadership of Director Russell Sobel, associate professor of economics. The business plan competition is part of three main areas of focus for the center: curriculum and educational programs, academic and applied research, and outreach and service programs.