Win $5,000 to Start Your Own Business
Sept. 16, 2005 — -- Do you have a great business idea but don't have the money to get it off the ground?
"Good Morning America" and ACCION USA are here to help.
Tell us your great idea for a small business venture, and you could win a $5,000 grant to make your dream a reality.
Please read the contest rules below before entering.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.
Entry: The Good Morning America You Inc. Search (the "Promotion") begins 12:01 am ET on or about September 16, 2005 and ends 11:59 pm ET on October 16, 2005. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.'s computer is the official clock for this Promotion.
To enter: 1) Navigate the Internet and visit www.GMA.ABCNEWS.com. Once on the Good Morning America home page, click on "The Good Morning America You Inc." icon. On the text box portion of the entry form, input an essay. In 300 words or less, tell us about your business idea. What type of business would you like to open and why do you think it will be successful? In addition, tell us what you have done to get started on the process. Include with your essay, your name, address, day and evening telephone numbers and email address. This information will not be counted as part of the 300 word limit for the essay.
Then, deliver your electronic entry by clicking the send button on the e-mail form, or send us via U.S. Postal Service an essay of 300 words or less, double spaced. Your entry should include your valid email address, if available, and should be mailed to The Good Morning America You Inc. Search, Ansonia Station P.O. Box 231706, New York, New York 10023-0008.
Each entry must be accompanied by at least one photo of the entrant. Mailed entries must be accompanied by a photograph 8"x10" or smaller; electronically submitted entries must be accompanied by a digital photo attached to the electronic entry. Photo submissions may not be the work of a professional photographer, or the copyrighted or otherwise protected work of a third party. Limit one entry per person/e-mail address for the Promotion. Multiple entries will result in the disqualification of all of your entries. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and ACCION USA (the "Sponsors") will not be responsible for late, lost, incomplete, illegible, damaged, garbled, technically corrupt, postage-due or misdirected entries.
All electronic entries must be received by 11:59 pm ET on October 14, 2005 and all mailed entries must be received by October 14, 2005. All entries, including essays and photos become the property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. The Sponsor cannot provide technical support and accepts no responsibility for insuring the receipt of your electronically submitted entry (including photo). If you experience any difficulties trying to submit your entry via our on-line entry method, we recommend that you send your entry materials via U.S. mail to the above address.
It is the sole responsibility of the entrant to notify American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. in writing if the entrant changes her e-mail address or mailing address. (To do so, write to: The Good Morning America You Inc. Search, Change of Address, Ansonia Station P.O. Box 231706, New York, New York 10023-0008.) Notification must be received by October 14, 2005. By entering this Promotion, participants agree to these Official Rules and the decisions of judges and Sponsors, which are binding and final in all matters relating to this Promotion.
Eligibility: Promotion is open only to women who are legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C. who are 25 years of age or older. Void outside of the United States and where prohibited. Any individuals (including but not limited to employees, consultants, independent contractors, and interns) who have, within six months prior to the start date of the Promotion and thereafter, performed services for American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., ACCION USA or any organization responsible for sponsoring, fulfilling, administering, advertising or promoting the Promotion or supplying prizes, and/or their respective parent, subsidiary, affiliated and successor companies, and immediate family and household members of such individuals, are not eligible to enter or win. "Immediate family members" shall mean parents, step-parents, children, step-children, siblings, step-siblings, or spouses, regardless of where they live. "Household members" shall mean people who share the same residence at least three months a year, whether related or not.
By entering, participants agree to indemnify, defend, release, discharge and hold harmless American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., ACCION USA, their respective parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliated companies, advertising and promotional agencies and prize suppliers and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives from any and all claims, liability, including but not limited to negligence and damages of any kind to persons and property, including but not limited to death or personal injury arising out of a participant's participation in the Promotion and/or acceptance or use or misuse of prize, and any claims based on rights of privacy, rights of publicity, false light, defamation, copyright and/or trademark infringement. By entering this Promotion all finalists grant permission to the Sponsors to use their respective names, photographs, essays, likenesses, images, voices, prize information and/or biographical information (city and state only) for Good Morning America programming, publication, publicity and promotional purposes without compensation, review or approval unless prohibited by law. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.
Additional Entry Limitations: Entrants must be submitting ideas for new businesses. The business can not have existed previously at any time. Entries that contain any content determined by Sponsors in their sole discretion as indecent, inappropriate, morally objectionable or otherwise unfit for publication or broadcast will be immediately disqualified. Essays must fit entirely within text box portion of online entry form; use of any other means of submitting essay (e.g., e-mail messages or file attachments) is prohibited and essays submitted by such means will NOT be accepted. Entries of more than 300 words will be disqualified. Entries not satisfying these Official Rules in any respect will be disqualified. In submitting an essay, entrant understands and agrees that the essay is a "submission" as defined in the Terms of Use of www.ABCNEWS.com; and, as such, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and ACCION USA, together with their authorized licensees own any and all rights to the essay and entrant has no proprietary interest therein. (For ABCNEWS.com's Terms of Use, direct your Internet browser to http://disney.go.com/corporate/legal/terms.html). Entrant further agrees to sign all documents required by American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., ACCION USA upon their request.
Judging: The official judging panel will consist of representatives selected at the sole discretion of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and ACCION USA. The judging panel will select ten finalists. The ten finalists will be announced on or about November 1, 2005. The ten finalists will be asked to fill out a business plan template designed by ACCION USA. At that time, selected applicants may be required to submit additional information, such as credit reports, to assist in sponsor/judges due diligence research. The completed business plan template must be submitted by November 14, 2005. The potential winners will be notified by e-mail and/or mail. Potential winners will be required to sign and return within 7 business days of receipt an Affidavit of Eligibility, Release and Indemnification, a Publicity Release where allowed by law, as well as other documents that Sponsor may require. If any potential winner does not reply to such notification within 2 business days, an e-mail notification is undeliverable after up to 3 attempts and/or the Affidavit of Eligibility, Release and Indemnification, a Publicity Release and/or any other required documents are not returned by potential winner to Sponsors within specified time period, such potential winner may be disqualified and an alternate potential winner selected (i.e., the entry ranked immediately below the disqualified entry in the judging), this process may continue until two grand prize winning finalists are selected. The two grand prize winners will be announced on or about November 28, 2005.
GMA Profiles, & Grand Prize Voting: The winners must be available to appear, at producers' discretion, on live broadcasts of Good Morning America. As part of the grand prize, the winners will also be required to participate in future Good Morning America broadcasts and may be asked to tape additional segments in their hometown pertaining to their new businesses. Winners may be asked to include customers, family members, business partners and friends in tapings as they relate to the topics.
Grand Prize: The two grand prize winners will each receive $5,000 grants from ACCION USA to start their own businesses. In addition they will receive professional business coaching on and off air from various Good Morning America and ACCION USA associates. Federal, state and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the winner, who will receive an IRS Form 1099 reflecting the final actual value of any prize valued at $600 or more. You should consult a tax professional for a full explanation of any potential tax implications. Winners are not entitled to exchange or transfer prize or to obtain any other substitution, but Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may substitute prizes of equal or greater value due to prize unavailability or for any reason.
Restrictions:
For Broadcast Components: The winners agree to make themselves available to participate in the broadcast profiles and live appearances on ABC-TV. All arrangements are subject to change, availability and Sponsors' approval, including but not limited to the production schedule of Good Morning America. The winners must agree to follow any and all instructions of producers during taping of the Profiles and live appearances, as determined in their sole discretion and not engage in conduct that violates the broadcast standards of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., as determined by American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., in its sole discretion. The content, location and duration of the Profiles and live appearances will be determined by American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., Good Morning America at their sole discretion. Winners will be advised of location of the Profiles and live appearances as part of winner notification materials. Sponsors, in their sole discretion, will determine whether winner receives roundtrip coach air transportation from major commercial airport near winner's residence to Profile and live appearance locations and/or ground transportation to Profile and live appearance location. Winners agree to travel at times and on itinerary as determined by Sponsor in their sole discretion. The Winners agree (1) that ABC may (but is not obligated to) broadcast or re-broadcast, in whole or in part, in any format or medium (including the world wide web), the taped Profiles, the live broadcast of Good Morning America including the taped Profiles and/or footage of or information about the winner, without notification or compensation; (2) to sign any and all appearance releases and other documents which may be required by Sponsors in conjunction with acceptance of the prize. Nothing herein in any way obligates Sponsors to include the taped Profiles (in whole or in part) in any broadcast of Good Morning America (or any other program).
General: All expenses not specifically provided for herein are the winner's sole responsibility. Some additional restrictions may apply. By entering, Entrant grants American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., ACCION USA the right to use their name, voice, likeness, essay, entry, biographical information, story and/or performance in connection with Good Morning America, or other production, as well as in publications, as such may be broadcast, distributed, published or exhibited in any and all media now known or hereafter devised, throughout the world, in perpetuity, and in any and all advertising and publicizing thereof.
Additional Conditions of Participation: If for any reason the Promotion is not capable of running as planned, including but not limited to infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failure or other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Promotion, Sponsor reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify and/or suspend the Promotion and to determine the winners by having the judges evaluate all eligible entries received prior to the action taken, or as otherwise deemed fair and equitable by Sponsor; and to disqualify any individuals who tamper with the entry process, violate these official rules or act in a disruptive or abusive manner. No responsibility is assumed for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of entries; errors, defects or omissions in the advertisement or offering of this Promotion; or any problems or technical malfunctions of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail or electronic entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to participant's or any other person's computer related to, or resulting from, participation in or downloading any materials from this Promotion.
Participants further agree not to knowingly damage or cause interruption of the Promotion and/or prevent others from using the Promotion. Submission of an entry is acknowledgement of and agreement to be bound by all terms and conditions of this Promotion. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT TO DAMAGE ANY ONLINE SERVICE OR WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE PROMOTION VIOLATES CRIMINAL OR CIVIL LAWS. IF SUCH AN ATTEMPT IS MADE, SPONSOR MAY DISQUALIFY ANY PARTICIPANT MAKING SUCH ATTEMPT AND SEEK DAMAGES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.
American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and ACCION USA (individually or collectively) reserve the right to terminate, modify or suspend this contest due to any of the following reasons: act of God; unavoidable accident; epidemic; fire; blackout; act of public enemy; war, riot or civil commotion; enactment, rule, order or act of government or governmental instrumentality or tribunal; strike, lockout or other labor dispute; inclement weather; the recapture of any time period scheduled for the live telecast of a program for an event of national importance or emergency; failure of technical facilities; failure of essential production, or technical personnel to appear or be available for production or broadcast; or other cause of a similar or different nature. By entering, Entrant agrees that should this contest be terminated for any reason Entrant irrevocably waives any right to seek and/or obtain rescission and/or equitable and/or injunctive relief.
Sponsors: American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 77 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023; ACCION USA, 56 Roland Street, Suite 300, Boston, MA 02129.
Names of Finalists and Winner: For the names of the winners, available after 12/30/05, mail a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: The Good Morning America YOU INC Search Winners, Ansonia Station P.O. Box TBA New York, New York 10023-0008. Requests received after 1/30/06 will not be honored.