Revolving Closet Tops Global Category in 2012 Business Plan Competition

Cecilia Yiu receives the first-place award in the global category at the 2012 BYU Business Plan Competition. PROVO, Utah – May 17, 2012 – Can a girl have too many clothes? Cecilia Yiu thinks so and won first place in the global category sponsored by the Whitmore Global Management Center at the 2012 Brigham Young University Business Plan Competition with a consignment store model.

Yiu's company, Revolving Closet, placed first at the annual competition, which rewards students who create promising new business ventures, by besting 31 other entries and winning a $5,000 prize.

"The global competition rewards good business plans that result in the penetration of foreign markets and helps students negotiate the cultural, administrative and economic challenges of doing business abroad," says Erv Black, Whitmore Center/CIBER faculty director. "This year's winner was excellent with a well-thought-out plan and an understanding of the target market."

According to Yiu, young women in Hong Kong go shopping two or three times a week and buy more than 10 items a month. This need for being fashion forward and socially accepted causes two problems: strapped funds and an overflowing closet.

"My friends in Hong Kong complain about not being able to wear their clothes in front of the same group twice and not having enough money to buy new clothes," says Yiu, a second-year MBA student. "Fashionistas in Hong Kong easily buy more than 100 pieces of clothing in a year, but their closets can only fit about 150 items."

Revolving Closet is designed to take the consignment model into cities like Hong Kong to help young women keep up on the latest trends affordably. The company buys scarcely worn clothes in exchange for credits that the young women then use to purchase other clothes from the store.

"Shoppers will have an incentive to spend their credits on still-in-style clothing and do it more frequently," Yiu says.

Yiu has partnered with her friend May Lin who gained business experience when she engineered a successful startup beauty spa chain in Hong Kong at age 17. Together Yiu and Lin have begun working with retail professionals in Hong Kong to get the inside scoop on the clothing industry, and they have big plans for the company.

"I want to make this a global operation and expand to the United States where shoppers can enjoy fast fashion for cheap," Yiu says.

The global category of the BPC is sponsored by the Whitmore Global Management Center/CIBER and encourages students to pursue business ventures throughout the world. Business plans are judged by Marriott School professors and an international business professional and also compete in the general BPC.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school's mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.