PowerUP! to the People 

In 2003, the PowerUP! Business Plan Competition launched to support and grow Brooklyn's entrepreneurial spirit and small businesses. Since then, PowerUP! has nurtured 9,000+ individuals with 1,200+ business plans and awarded more than $500,000 to Brooklyn entrepreneurs. Some of our most notable success stories are the Bogota Latin Bistro, Greenlight Bookstore and Island Pops. Although the pandemic brought many challenges to Brooklyn neighborhoods, and to our city as a whole, PowerUP! continues to be an exciting presence and program supporting local business startups. 

Whether you’re considering entering the competition for the first time, or just want to brush up your business skills, we’ve got an exciting collection of books and online resources that can help you set yourself up for success! 

How to Write a Business Plan, a NOLO guide, is an excellent resource for knowing which elements are crucial to putting together an engaging, complete and organized business plan. Whether it’s your first business or your fourth, there’s always something you can learn and put into practice. Our online resource, Gale Business: Plan Builder, is a great way to take what you’ve learned from this book and craft your plan, with supplemental tips and suggestions from Gale experts to rely on. Storytelling is a key element of business planning and promotion—a memorable, effective story about what you’re doing and why it matters can help you reach your potential audience of customers and investors. The Tell-Tale Entrepreneur: A Guide to Storytelling in Business offers insights on how to craft the stories you want to tell.  

In 2021, 72% of our participants were women and 25% were immigrants. Entrepreneurship is challenging whatever your background, but women and people of the global majority often face additional hurdles, including being unfairly categorized as outsiders. Underdog Entrepreneurs helps historically underrepresented entrepreneurs to acquire key skills with actionable advice to achieve and sustain success. Author Horatio Morgan distills insights and evidence from multiple fields and explores the stories of entrepreneurs including Indra Nooyi, Jack Ma, Hilary Devey and Mike Lazaridis. To learn more about Black entrepreneurs, explore the case studies in Successful Black Entrepreneurs: Hidden Histories, Inspirational Stories, and Extraordinary Business Achievements or check out Take a Lesson: Today's Black Achievers on How They Made It & What They Learned Along the Way. (PS: Thriving As A Minority-Owned Business In Corporate America is currently on-order and should be making its way to a shelf near you soon!) 

Women entrepreneurs may face unique challenges in the business world, but thankfully there are great organizations out there, including one of our partners, WE NYC. We also have some helpful titles that focus in on the barriers women entrepreneurs face and tactics for addressing them, including Yes, You Can Do This!, The Fearless Woman's Guide to Starting a Business, and Launch Your Inner Entrepreneur: 10 Mindset Shifts for Women to Take Action, Unleash Creativity, and Achieve Financial Success.  

If you’d like to find out what PowerUP! is all about, join one of our upcoming virtual orientations on April 21st, 28th, and 30th. You'll learn about the application process and what participants can expect if accepted. We invite you to visit the Business & Career Center in person to explore our books, magazines, and online resources and we hope you'll PowerUp! your entrepreneurial spirit with these great reads and resources!