Five minutes before finals, Maya’s team was rehearsing in the hallway of a regional DECA conference. Her slides were glitching, financial projections had been revised the night before, and one teammate had lost his voice. Across the hall, another team was taking selfies with trophies from previous years. Maya whispered, “We’re just here to learn.” An hour later, that “just here to learn” team walked out as champions.
Stories like Maya’s aren’t rare in high school business competitions: DECA, FBLA, Junior Achievement, Virtual Enterprise, and others. Winners don’t always start with polished pitches or fancy slides but treat competitions as labs to test ideas and learn how business works.
This ScholarComp guide explores champion perspectives—what they did differently, mistakes made, and advice they wish they’d received earlier. Instead of abstract tips, you’ll hear practical tactics you can use for your next challenge.
When you watch a winning pitch at a business competition, it’s easy to assume the team is just naturally gifted. Champions push back on that idea, discussing months of preparation long before the judges and trophies come into play.
Consider Arjun, a two-time FBLA winner in Entrepreneurship. In his first year, he and his partner prepared a week before regionals. “We had a cool app idea and thought that was enough,” he says. “Our slides looked good, but when judges asked about customer acquisition costs, we froze.” They placed in the middle of the pack. The next year, they started three months earlier.
“We built a calendar,” he explains. “Week 1: research similar products. Week 2: interview potential users. Week 3: draft our business model. By the time we got to slides, we understood the numbers.” Their effort paid off with first place at regionals, then state, and a top ranking at nationals.
What stands out in stories like Arjun’s is how champions prioritize “what’s actually true” over “what looks good.” They validate ideas, test assumptions, and treat their plans as living documents.
Champions rarely begin with perfect ideas; they start with vague concepts and refine them through feedback. Lena, who won a Junior Achievement competition, pitched “a platform that helps students be more productive.” It sounded impressive but unclear.
Her mentor posed a challenge: “Tell me in one sentence what your customer actually does with your product.” This pushed her to define her idea: a physical planner with a digital habit-tracking interface for procrastinating students. Each competition practice turned buzzwords into clear language.
Here’s what champions do during early refinement:
Platforms like ScholarComp help by offering examples, scoring rubrics, and practice prompts from past competitions. Champions say seeing real examples clarifies what “good” looks like.
“We didn’t just practice,” says Noah from a statewide business plan challenge. “We simulated.” His team reserved a classroom weekly for a month, inviting teachers and a local entrepreneur to act as judges. They dimmed the lights, set a timer, and handled interruptions.
In one rehearsal, a “judge” aggressively challenged their revenue projections. Noah’s teammate got flustered, but after reviewing the recording, they refined their Q&A strategy. “I’d already felt that pressure,” he recalls. “So it didn’t knock me off balance.”
Winning teams rehearse in stages:
They aim for flexibility, not perfection; if a projector fails or a judge asks an unexpected question, they can respond confidently.
If you’re starting to prepare, consider these tips:
When Chloe was forming a team for a statewide entrepreneurship challenge, she chose reliable, communicative classmates instead of the school’s top public speaker or finance whiz. “I wanted dependable people for the night before competition,” she reflects. Her team won their division due to effective communication and shared responsibility.
Champions emphasize that team chemistry matters more than individual talent. Judges can tell when a team is cohesive or when one person carries the weight. In business competitions, collaboration is often part of the scoring rubric.
Winning teams clarify roles early. They decide who owns which responsibilities and maintain support among teammates. A typical champion team might define roles like this:
In one Virtual Enterprise competition, a team almost fell apart when the finance lead assumed marketing was finalized and vice versa. A mock judge’s question about their social media budget revealed their disconnection. They regrouped, explained their parts, and updated slides based on discovered gaps. This strengthened their presentation and boosted confidence, leading them to a top-three finish nationally.
Disagreements are inevitable, but champions manage them constructively. During a national DECA competition, Kira’s team had differing views on pricing strategies. Instead of arguing hypotheticals, they quickly surveyed 50 students at the conference. The data led them to a compromise price pointing supported by facts.
Judges later commented that their pricing strategy felt “grounded in reality.” The resolved conflict became an asset rather than a liability.
If you’re forming or improving your team, consider this approach:
Ask judges what distinguishes top teams, and you’ll hear: the best pitches tell a story. It’s about more than slides of data; there’s a human problem, a solution, and a journey.
In our article on how business competitions are scored and judged, we discuss structure's impact on scoring. Champions understand that instead of saying, “Our product is an app,” they introduce a person: “Meet Jordan, a ninth-grader failing classes because assignments slip through the cracks.”
Sofia, a national social entrepreneurship competition top finisher, recalls rewriting their script the night before finals. “Our slides had many stats, but watching another team tell a story clicked. We rewrote our intro to focus on one real story.” This made their solution feel urgent. Judges remembered them because of the personal connection.
While each story is unique, champions often follow a similar structure:
In an FBLA finals round, a team lost points for jumping into features before establishing “why.” Judges noted, “We understood what your app does but didn’t care.” The following year, a new team told a story about a stressed-out small business owner, changing the impact.
Champion slides are clean and purposeful. They use visuals to clarify, not impress. A winning Junior Achievement team simplified a financial slide to show break-even over time, keeping the detailed spreadsheet for Q&A.
“If judges read the slide, they weren’t listening to us,” one member explains. “We made sure visuals reinforced our words.” They also rehearsed “slide agnostic” delivery, describing visuals without slides in one practice. This forced true understanding of content instead of reliance on projections.
To upgrade your pitch from “informative” to “memorable,” consider:
On competition day, champions channel nervous energy through routines. They establish personal strategies on top of logistical schedules discussed in our article What Really Happens at Business Competition Day.
Before her national DECA finals, Jasmine’s team had a ritual: a warm-up pitch, two minutes of silent breathing, and a “worst-case scenario” joke. “We’d say, ‘Imagine we forget our lines and freestyle.’” Laughter helped break the tension.
Routines provide a familiar path for nervous energy. Some champions listen to specific songs or visualize their judges’ table and rehearse their opening sentence repeatedly until it feels automatic.
Things rarely go as planned. A USB may fail or a judge may ask an unexpected question. Champions rely on adaptability, not perfection.
At a statewide competition, a projector died minutes into a presentation. Instead of panicking, the presenter said, “We’ll describe visuals to follow along.” They had rehearsed enough to know each slide from memory, drawing graphs with their hands and maintaining eye contact.
A judge later praised their professionalism, noting it felt like a real boardroom situation. Another team at a different event forgot a critical line about their break-even point; instead of awkwardly inserting it later, they naturally brought it up during Q&A, demonstrating a smooth recovery.
Many judges feel the Q&A is where champions truly stand out, revealing whether a team understands their business or just memorized a script.
Champions prepare for Q&A with lists of “hard questions we hope don’t come up” and practice those. They simulate tough questions like:
During practice, teammates play tough judges to build comfort with answering calmly. Champions recognize it’s acceptable to say, “That’s a great question—here’s how we’ve started thinking about it,” rather than pretending they have all the details.
One team developed a hand signal system; a pen tap indicated if a teammate wanted to answer, preventing awkward overlaps.
On competition day, focus on:
Winning feels amazing. So does just finishing a tough competition. Champions recognize real value comes after the event.
After placing first in a regional pitch contest, Malik’s team conducted a “post-competition debrief.” Each member answered three questions:
They documented everything while the experience was fresh and reached out to a judge for feedback. The judge noted their idea was strong but market size assumptions were “optimistic,” which reshaped their preparation for state-level competition.
Even teams that don’t win can benefit from this approach. Many champions report that a post-competition debrief after a loss helped improve their performance in future competitions.
Champions seek feedback, even when it’s harsh. At a national event, one team received unexpected low scores. Instead of dismissing the judge as “too harsh,” they inquired about specific improvements. The judge wanted evidence of customer desire, like pre-orders or pilot results. The next year, that team returned with a pilot program and attracted interest from a local incubator.
Resources on ScholarComp support this growth by helping students compare scoring criteria, learn from case studies, and explore competitions emphasizing different skills.
Champions often have stories of early failures that didn’t deter them. Some didn’t advance past prelims their first year.
Take Dani, a multiple-time winner across competitions. As a freshman, she joined a team that didn’t advance. “We had no clue how to present,” she recalls. Rather than quitting, she saw it as a baseline.
Over the summer, she explored resources like Khan Academy to strengthen her business understanding. The next year, she led a new team that made it to state, eventually winning the following year.
What changed wasn’t just knowledge; it was her mindset. “I started seeing competitions as data points, not judgments on my abilities.” This mindset is what champions encourage newer competitors to adopt.
To maximize long-term value from competitions:
To turn this wisdom into action, here’s a simple roadmap for the next few weeks, whether preparing for your first or fifth business competition.
Begin with a one-sentence description of your business concept. Test it on three people unfamiliar with it. If they say, “I don’t get it,” rewrite until clear.
Finalize your team, selecting committed partners open to feedback. Hold a meeting to define roles: finance, marketing, operations, and project management. Agree on communication methods now before things get busy.
Focus this week on understanding your market. Survey potential customers, research competitors, and estimate market size. Challenge your assumptions; if you believe “everyone” will want your product, ask who specifically and why.
Begin drafting a rough outline of your pitch structure: problem, solution, proof, business model, and next steps. Focus on substance, not polished slides.
Transform your outline into a full script, ensuring your introduction highlights a specific story. Write in your natural speaking voice, avoiding formal language.
Design visuals that support your narrative: a clear problem slide, simple solution visuals, one or two key data slides, and a roadmap for implementation. Keep text minimal; prioritize clarity over aesthetic.
Hold at least two full practice sessions mimicking competition conditions. Use a timer and invite simulated judges to prepare for tough questions. Record a run-through and watch it, noting areas to improve.
Make adjustments based on feedback: clarify explanations, simplify visuals, and refine your Q&A responses. Create a short pre-pitch routine to keep your team calm and focused on competition day.
By the end of the month, you’ll have not just a pitch but a tested, aligned team ready to adapt—like the champions you’ve learned from.
Every champion’s journey starts the same: a group of students unsure if they’re ready. They make awkward pitches, argue over designs, and fumble Q&A. What separates them isn’t just talent; it’s the choices they make—starting early, valuing feedback, supporting teammates, and seeing each competition as growth opportunity.
As you prepare for your own DECA roleplay, FBLA presentation, or entrepreneurship challenge, remember that the students you see holding trophies were once in your position, unsure if their idea was “good enough.” They became champions not by avoiding mistakes but by learning from them quickly.
Use their insights as a guide, adapt their routines to fit your style, and focus on building understanding over memorized lines. The next winning story judges remember could be yours.
When you’re ready for more, explore competition guides, case studies, and practice prompts on ScholarComp and find your next challenge in business competitions.
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