MACOMB, Ill. — Macomb Mayor Michael Inman recently announced the City of Macomb Small Business Competition is set to kick off in February.

The City of Macomb has partnered with the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Western Illinois University to be a catalyst for new businesses for Macomb from concept to realization.

The Small Business Competition will assist potential small business owners seeking to open new businesses. Future business owners will attend a series of classes and workshops to better learn how to run a small business, which will include writing a comprehensive business plan. Entrepreneurs will create their individualized pitches for their prospective businesses. Both the business plans and the business pitches will be judged by a panel of local successful business owners and community leaders.

Previously known as the Downtown Business Retail Competition, the City of Macomb has set out to enhance the opportunities for entrepreneurs and the ability for economic growth in Macomb by altering the parameters of the competition for 2024. This includes broadening the competition’s boundaries to include service and industrial-based business ideas as well as the expansion of an existing business. Entrepreneurs will have the freedom to open their businesses anywhere within the city. This will not limit their options to the downtown area.

To increase the number of opportunities for growth, the City of Macomb will award prize packages for first, second and third-place business ideas.

In a press release, Inman said, “We are looking forward to the 2024 version of the Small Business Competition. We had at least two new businesses successfully launch from our 2018 competition, and we look to have even greater success this coming year.”

An informational presentation about the competition will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Spoon River Outreach Center, 2500 E. Jackson. Workshops will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 13, also at the Spoon River Outreach Center.