March 16, 2009 NH shakes up economy with business contest Play video

(NECN: Lauren Collins, Manchester, NH) - President Obama announced plans today to have bailed-out banks help start up businesses. The president wants banks to reduce lending fees and increase loan guarantees to help what he calls "the heart of the American economy." But, in New Hampshire, one effort already underway will help create at least two new companies.

It's called the New Hampshire Start Up Challenge. 18 teams, each hoping to start their own business, are competing for two $25,000 prizes. More than 100 people applied with their ideas, and semifinalists have been broken into two categories.

Traditional companies and those with a socially conscious mission. Every Saturday, these would-be business owners meet in a class at Southern New Hampshire University in a boot camp of sorts on entrepreneurship.

There they learn from area business leaders how to evaluate their idea, how to build a business plan, and how to identify their market -- essentially how to make their idea a reality regardless of whether they win the money.

There is one very important rule for every challenger: their business has to be and must stay a New Hampshire-based company.