Down by the River...

Wouldn’t we all like to see more people creating and growing local businesses, thus creating more jobs, investing more money in our community, and increasing the health and diversity of our Grand Valley economy? And don’t we all know that it takes hard work, smarts, and some luck to start a successful business? Well, it takes even more of the same to grow a successful business. And there is no magic “easy” button to push and make the process simple. The vast majority of businesses fail in their first five years, and it is rarely out of a lack of effort.

Still, there are steps to take, things to consider, and practical lessons to learn that can benefit the development of entrepreneurial companies, helping them to survive and grow during the vulnerable start-up period. The sole purpose of certain organizations is to guide businesses through this process; these are business incubators. They offer specific support services and resources tailored to help companies avoid common pitfalls, learn important skills, and achieve a necessary level of preparation so that their smart ideas, hard work, and a little good luck turn into great businesses. And we’re lucky to have a great one right here in our community.

Business incubators turn an 80 percent failure rate for new businesses into an 80 percent success rate. Every venture will have its own path, but in general there are critical steps. If they’re missed, disaster can follow. It’s important to have a strategic plan for how you want to grow the business (a business plan). It’s essential to have a solid understanding of the market in which you plan to operate and a good grasp in how cash flows. New ventures need funding to get up and running and a way to keep costs down and overhead low. It is in these areas that business incubators focus their support.

Incubation as an industry has existed since 1959, and today there are an estimated 7,000 incubators worldwide. Incubators come in many different styles, shapes, and sizes. They can focus on specific industries from the arts to software development to manufacturing. Here in Colorado there is a clean-tech incubator, a homeland security incubator, a bioscience incubator, and two space incubators (focused on a new frontier of commercializing space technology). There are rural program, urban programs, accelerators, and boot camps. Some incubators are impressive state-of-the-art facilities like the LEED Gold building just completed for the Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative in Fort Collins. Others, like the one here in Grand Junction, utilize existing community assets (like older buildings) with a less glamorous appearance but that offer a practical, flexible space. Here in the Grand Valley, the Business Incubator Center is “mixed-use,” meaning that it serves all businesses and industries from manufacturing to construction to food production to web development. The Incubator Center is an award-winning, enduring example of one of the best sustainable programs in the country. And it is all happening down by the river, behind the Orchard Mesa Cemetery, in a former Department of Energy compound.

Creating business success takes a lot more than just an offer of low-cost space and a few classes. The heart of a true business-incubation program is the services it provides to its clients: networking with other entrepreneurs and with business leaders; help with business, strategic, and marketing plans; access to capital; and development of the skills needed to make a business successful. At the Incubator Center you can sit down, one on one, with smart people who will help you to draft budgets, projections, and a marketing plan. From funding through the Business Loan Fund to hourly rentals in the commercial kitchen, there are a lot of ways that the Incubator can be of assistance.

The Business Incubator Center is focused on results that have a positive influence on economic growth in the region. Over the past 23 years, it has supported the launch of more than 240 companies, thus creating nearly 10,000 jobs and generating more than $150 million in revenue. The Grand Valley community takes pride in its independence and ability to create its own prosperity. In these times of economic uncertainty, it’s critical to seize the opportunities at hand and grow our own businesses. This is exactly what is going on at the Business Incubator Center.

To learn more or to set up an appointment to review your business goals, go to www.gjincubator.org.

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Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - November 2010


For more information on business incubation, visit:
National Business Incubation Association at www.nbia.org and 
Colorado Business Incubation Association at www.coloradobusinessincubation.org.

The Making of a Great Website

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - October 2010

www.gjep.org

Breaking news! The Grand Junction Economic Partnership was recognized in September as the International Economic Development Council’s 2010 Website of the Year, in the general purpose website category for a community of population 25,000-150,000. It is a tremendous honor, of course, and if you’ve visited www.gjep.org, this award will come as no surprise. The site quickly and powerfully conveys a sense of the high quality of life and vibrant business community that make this Grand Valley a wonderful place to live — and to grow a business.

If I had my own personal FAQS, near the top would be: What goes into a great website? It’s almost impossible for a business to operate effectively without a website — and yet so many feel that theirs has not lived up to expectations. Because GJEP’s website is successful enough to win an international award, I sat down with Kelly Marlin to find out what went into creating it. She’s GJEP’s business development manager. The process that Kelly laid out makes an excellent road map for any business looking to create or redesign their website.

Before the 2009-2010 revamp, the GJEP website had suffered the fate that so many sites fall victim to: It had become dull and dry and so loaded with information that the main point of the site had been lost. There were interesting articles, loads of demographic data, and community statistics, but the site’s most important job is to represent the Grand Valley as a fabulous community. It wasn’t doing that.

Kelly started her mission with several weeks of research on other websites and other communities to see who was doing what and what looked good. She started with basic Google searches for similar organizations and then refined the search to similar communities (i.e., the competition) and other economic development entities in the state. She ended up focusing on organizations and sites that have received awards for their success. She developed a list of elements that seemed to function optimally, including the way sites were structured, components that made sites visually interesting, and things that made the site look up-to-date. GJEP knows that a good economic development agency knows what is going on in the local business community, and the website should express that understanding. People want to feel comfortable spending time browsing the site, so colors and images must invite a pleasant experience.

With a complete marketing and communications plan in hand, Kelly started the development process with an RFP (request for proposal) to the web development community. Choosing among the responses was made even more difficult because the best proposal came from a firm outside of our Grand Valley community. Denver-based Atlas Advertising was selected because of their rich experience working specifically with economic development agencies.

In the first step of the design process, Ann Driggers (GJEP’s President and CEO), Kelly, and members of the Atlas creative team sat down and put all the elements they wanted to include on sticky notes. On a wall in the GJEP conference room, they developed a site map, arranging the notes into a structure of lists and tabs. They stayed focused on the important message and prioritized content appropriately. This kind of simple, yet detailed, advance planning is critical — and anyone can do it. Decide what content you want on your site, then create a map for how you want it to be laid out. Putting sticky notes on a wall is a simple and effective planning process.

The next step was up to the web developers. They built the site, made it visually interesting, created a data center for the community, and added tools to keep the site current and relevant to our community. The early drafts looked fabulous, and the GJEP team was thrilled. A social media strategy that included blogs and twitter feeds made the site connected and up to date.

Kelly writes the content for the site, aided by templates and guidelines supplied by Atlas that help ensure the message is well suited for online viewing. Each section is brief enough that readers don’t have to scroll down. Text is easy to read and search-engine optimized. Much of what GJEP wanted to say about the community could not be expressed in words, so pictures are used. Almost every page includes images, each personalized to our community. There’s nothing wrong with representing the Grand Valley with Mount Garfield and the beautiful desert cliffs. It’s the usual go-to strategy. The problem with this approach for GJEP is that there are no people, no activity, and no vital business community represented in a landscape. Kelly worked with Anne Keller and several other local photographers to come up with images that represent the life that makes the Valley a great place to do business. What was chosen: pictures of everything from mountain biking and skiing to manufacturing and business enterprises.

Once the site was live, some of the most important work began. A website can be a living, breathing organism. It’s critical to understand how people are interacting with it. Kelly monitors the Google Analytics weekly and adjusts the content to ensure that the important messages are in the most popular places. Kelly has found, for example, that most people will click on either the top or the bottom of a list, but not much in the middle. The most clicked-on tab is the leftmost tab, no matter what is there. Therefore, the most important messages are in the top of the list on the far left tab.

GJEP wants people to spend enough time on the website that they feel comfortable enough to call GJEP to learn more about our community. They have created a website that does exactly that through a highly effective process of research, preparation, strategic structure, and effective content. We can all follow that road map to success.

It’s Start-up Time

What we need right now are more start-ups. This downturn has every business grappling with how to thrive in an ever more global, competitive business arena. If you have a good idea that will get the creaking wheels of our economy oiled and rolling, now is your time to shine.

It’s exciting to see the Grand Valley showing some signs of life. This spring, Western Slope Economic Development agencies interviewed 82 businesses as part of an ongoing program called “Listening to Business.” Results were very positive, with 65 percent of the participating businesses expressing their intention to expand in 2010. These businesses also reported plans to create 681 new jobs and contemplate nearly $1 billion in capital investment. In addition, sales tax receipts, a loose reflection of consumer confidence, are finally flattening out in Grand Junction and rising in Fruita and Palisade. Mesa County Workforce Center reported 18 percent more available positions in July. Good news, right? Well, the counterpoint to reports of business growth is that unemployment remains high. Even with signs of business growth, jobs are hard to come by. This is a “jobless recovery.”

The phrase “jobless recovery” refers to the fact that this downturn has driven businesses to get very efficient and focused on the bottom line. Cash is tight, so they’ve gotten better at generating it. As a result, businesses have found ways to thrive without rehiring all the people they laid off last year.

On July 25, The New York Times reported that the 175 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index issuing second-quarter reports had revenue growth of 6.9 percent while increasing profits by a whopping 42.3 percent That means that profits are increasing seven times faster than revenue.  For example, Harley-Davidson’s profits have tripled over the last year, despite the fact that the motorcycle industry has been in steady decline for three years. Do you think Harley did this by raising their prices? No, they cut costs. In most cases, businesses have gotten very lean on payroll. And why shouldn’t they? If firms can make great products very efficiently, that’s job security for those who are employed and health and prosperity for the business.

People without jobs need a solution, and today it doesn’t make sense to wait for a solution to come along. With challenges, opportunity is created. Young companies (age five years or younger) accounted for 64 percent of gross U.S. job creation. It’s a good time to start a new business.

Are we seeing more start-ups here in the Grand Valley? The Colorado Secretary of State, Bernie Buescher, reports that since October of 2009 the number of new entities created (forming a legal entity being one of the first steps to start a business) has increased every quarter and by as much at 17 percent over the previous year. We also see this trend at the Business Incubator Center. The Incubator tracks hours spent working one-on-one with clients. In 2010, we are 64 percent busier than we were in 2009. We have spent almost as many hours with clients in the first six months of 2010 as we did in all of 2006. Yes, people in the Grand Valley are starting new businesses.

Start-ups are small, nimble, and focused on filling a need in the market, not just offering a skill set. For example, if you’re a bookkeeper and have been laid off, it’s hard to find a comparable position. Needs have changed, and your former position may no longer be available. The need for high-quality, skilled people remains, but the pain points have shifted. There are always creative ways to use valuable skills. For example, instead of looking for a job as a bookkeeper, you could start a company that provides virtual CFO services, helps companies to go paperless, or keeps accounts receivable within 45 days by maintaining positive relationships with customers. These are the same skills that were valuable in the old economy, just creatively repositioned to serve the needs of a new one.

Several positive trends are generating opportunities in the local market. The travel industry is in recovery. The Grand Junction Visitors and Convention Bureau reports that their visitor numbers are back up to 2007 levels and that lodging tax collection is on the rise. An increase in travel to the Western Slope has spurred growth in many local recreation businesses. Some types that are growing include outerwear, bicycle components, backpacks, and equestrian apparel. Another hot spot is in health care. Our housing is affordable again, making our wonderful weather, plentiful golf courses, and world-class hospitals an attractive retirement choice. Retirees translate into opportunities for health-care innovations like expanded medical offices, niche services, integrative medicine, wellness programs, and new medical devices — along with leisure time options. Lastly, there is a trend to return to traditional sales techniques. Gone are the days when just answering the phone qualified as good customer service. We have returned to a focus on developing a relationship with the customer. Sales staffs are re-learning to ask open-ended questions to engage the customer followed by closed questions to seal the sale. Dale Carnegie did know How to Win Friends and Influence People, and so should you. The opportunities associated with this are in social media (what I lovingly refer to as old-school relationship marketing on steroids). Whether with Facebook, where Grand Junction is trending at No. 2 in the state for usage growth, or Twitter, where Grand Junction is trending at No. 1, business is happening in social media.

With the local economy still in flux, success in this environment takes creativity and a strong connection to new trends. New jobs are being created by small businesses and innovative ideas. The new economy emerging from this downturn will be different from the old, and it’s critical to stay active and connected with current market trends in order to tap into the economic recovery.

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Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - August 2010

To learn more, here are some
links to relevant articles:

Start-Ups, Not Bailouts

How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

The Start-up Economy

Revitalizing the American Dream

Job Growth in U.S. Driven Entirely by Startups

Industries Find Surging Profits in Deeper Cuts

Artrepreneurship 2.0 — The Business of Art in a New Economy

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - July 2010

The star of a recent New York Times story by Alex Williams titled “That Hobby Looks Like a Lot of Work” is Yokoo Gibran, who quit her day job after successfully selling her hand-knit scarves and accessories in an Etsy shop. (See note at end of story.) The Times reports that she earns more than $140,000 per year knitting. That’s no hobby! And I started thinking about how artists can utilize the Long Tail economy to find customers and sell their art. We talked about the Long Tail economy last month (Strategic Marketing in a Long Tail Economy, GV June 2010).

Etsy’s mission “is to enable people to make a living making things.” What’s not to love about that? Companies like Etsy that are techie, fast-paced, web-enabled, and virtual can be used to connect us with real things in real life that are important — like art. With blogs, Facebook, and online marketplaces, there is no reason that talented artists in the Grand Valley can’t use these tools to create a great reputation and reach a viable niche market anywhere. The new economy is good for art!

The idea of artists as business people isn’t new. Cheryl McNab, Executive Director of the Western Colorado Center for the Arts, says, “Art has to be a business if you want to be serious about it.” Many artists in the community have worked with Linda Brotman-Evans and ArtSpace and Open Studio, where a mix of business seminars and studio tours can give artists the support they need to earn an income. 

Many Grand Valley artists have been successful here, but just as many have needed to go to other communities to find their niche. Art is as much about relationships (if not more) than any other business. In creating a business around an art product, it is critical to make that very personal human connection. Today, new media tools add to your ability to do this by allowing you to do it in a virtual manner.

So you want to turn your creative juices into a business. Where to begin? Let’s assume that you, the artist, are highly skilled and have developed an attractive, marketable line of products. Since your wonderful creations are in high demand, let’s get started with the business side:

1. Write a business plan.

You might think that a business plan is used only to get financing from a bank or other lender. This is not true. A business plan explains your goals, your path, your vision for your future. It can be creative — one of my favorite plans is in comic book form. In the process of writing a business plan, you take a good hard look at what you are going to do and make a strategy for how to make it successful.

2. Get the details right.

You’ll need to form an entity that is the business. Some types are: sole proprietorship, limited liability company, corporation, among others. You’ll also need to understand what expenses the business can expect and how your revenue will impact your tax liability. Developing a good working rapport with a CPA is a must. You should explore business insurance and create a system for tracking your products, sales, and expenses. This approach may be contrary to the artistic sensibility — you may be breaking out in hives at this point — but it is a necessary evil. Trust me: It’s not so bad once you dig in and find ways to do projections that are effective for your work style.

3. Identify your customer.

Start with a target customer. (Generalizations and stereotypes are perfectly acceptable here.) Prioritize; you get to select only one target customer at a time, so begin with the most likely group. You might say, “My creations appeal to all types,” but think of the person most likely to buy your work. Can you describe that person? Younger or more mature? Male or female? Urban or rural? Creative? Professional? Outdoorsy? Bluegrass music lover? Get as specific as you can.

4. Broad can be bad.

Don’t try to make art that is attractive to all people. People want art that speaks to them personally. If you take on too much, your product line will be all over the map. Find your voice and decide what you want to say. Focus on what you do best and know that with time and experience you can do and say more things. It’s a little like an introduction to a new person at a party: You don’t tell them everything about yourself in the first five minutes. You start with the primary thing you want them to know, the thing you think they are most interested in.

5. Start talking.

Make yourself known to the world through new media tools. A great starting point is the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture’s new website. Artists, groups, organizations, galleries, and arts-related businesses can apply with Lorie Gregor for a landing page, a website to introduce yourself to the local market.

Open a blog and/or Facebook page and load pictures, articles, video, or whatever you want to say about your art. This is not a build-it-and-they-will-come tool. This is a way to find and talk to people who are interested in your art. Have you ever bought art from someone who was teaching an art class? That person probably said something that impressed you enough for you to open your pocketbook. You want make that type of impression on Facebook.

6. Make a shopping cart.

Your clients are going to search for art, whether through Google, Facebook, or a local gallery. Make sure that if someone wants to buy something, they can. Make it easy. Artists need to focus on where their consumers are looking to spend dollars. Today, Facebook may have more traffic, but websites are where people are looking for products and spending their dollars.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it should get you ready to go. If you need assistance, call us at the Business Incubator Center — we’re happy to help: www.gjincubator.org.

• If you haven’t browsed on Etsy, you’re in for a treat. True, some of the creations fail to approach the level of art, but you’ll find lots that do. Visit www.etsy.com.
• The Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture’s new website can be a big help. Visit www.gjarts.org.
• Dianna Fritzler, our local Grand Valley art-marketing guru, used fineartstudioonline.com to develop her site. It is a clean, easy-to-navigate site and offers a selection of items from oil paintings for $2,000+ to prints for under $30.

Strategic Marketing in a Long Tail Economy

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - June 2010

 The Long Tail economy — it sounds so Silicon Valley, Web 2.0, business jargony. Is that really something the grounded, no-nonsense, dirt-on-our-boots Grand Valley community needs to be concerned with? Could be.

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, introduced the term “The Long Tail” in 2004 to define the ability the Internet gives businesses to sell a viable volume of hard-to-find items to specifically interested customers. This model is in stark contrast to traditional sales strategies that center on selling large amounts of mainstream products to just a few clients (80 percent of the business to 20 percent of the clients). In Anderson’s book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006), Amazon and Netflix are highlighted for their ability to get more than 25 percent, and trending toward 50 percent, of their business from little, niche, onesie-twosie, independent-type products that are not available in mass-market retailers like Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Blockbuster. Matthew Breman of Cranium 360 urges us on, saying “In a Long Tail economy, there is plenty of room for unique products or services that have real value to take hold, grow, and become profitable.”

If this concept was trendy six years ago, why am I rehashing it now? Times are changing. Interest in using technology to communicate with customers has finally reached a tipping point in the Grand Valley. Blackberries and iPhones seem ubiquitous. In early May, media reports ranked Grand Junction second in the U.S. with the largest concentration of iPads. In addition we love Facebook; over the past 12 months Grand Junction trends second in the state of Colorado for Facebook search volume. Blogs, interactive websites, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whatever, businesses in the Grand Valley are getting engaged with the tools that drive the modern Long Tail economy.

Great — right? If your product is a nanocomposite coating, custom bicycle frame, authentic Native American flute, or handmade collage, you can throw up a website and sell to hundreds of customers all over the world — right? Well, yes, that’s true, but it is not that simple.

Selling hard-to-find items to specifically interested customers requires a very deliberate and carefully crafted branding strategy. In creating a brand — your brand being every way in which you come into contact with your customer — start with a clear picture of how you want your customer to perceive your business. In most cases, successful Long Tail products are driven by purveyors who have created a deep reputation as knowledge leaders/expert practitioners in their fields. Think about how to this get done: lectures, blogs, forums, classes, whatever is applicable to become a leader in that community.

A brand needs an image, a feel, and an attitude. It is a lot more than a logo; it is a manifestation of your culture. It is everything from the product, packaging, fonts, and colors to when and how the phone is answered. It is a look and feel that is consistent in everything the business does.

An image and perception are critical as you begin talking with your target customer. Find them, go to them, and speak to them. Attend conferences, comment on blog posts, connect using social media, or whatever works for you — just start talking. These conversations are going to be absolutely critical to making sure that your product is top-of-mind when your customers make their buying decisions.

Last step is your “storefront.” Where would your target customer look for products like yours? Independent retailers, trade magazines, referrals from trusted friends, or searching online … it all depends on where that client is most likely to look. Where customers are looking is where you need your products to be.

In many instances, Long Tail ventures will need to have a strong presence on the web. Andrew BE of Elegant Technologies is well studied in internet micro-niche marketing. BE explains that search engine algorithms have adapted to Long Tail thinking, which means that they are more specific, more pertinent. When consumers are looking for products or services, they no longer search for them in two to three keyword phrases; it’s gotten bigger and more specific. BE comments that “It’s not just finding a weight-loss solution anymore … these days, it’s a weight-loss program tailored for a 35-year-old computer scientist who plays golf on the weekends.” Businesses operating in the Long Tail need to be optimized so that their communications and their presence are ideally positioned to meet the special needs of their specific customer.

Matthew Breman reminds us, “If you have a unique product or service of value, there are plenty of opportunities to find an audience that is willing to not only listen to you but also spend.” So the challenge becomes locating and recognizing distinct target customers in the Long Tail without killing ourselves by spending too much time and money to reach them. The way to do this is to be strategic so that every step you take is part of a cohesive Long Tail branding strategy.

PRESS RELEASE

THE BUSINESS INCUBATOR CENTER
2591 B ¾ Road, Grand Junction, CO 81503 • 970/243-5242 • Fax 970/241-0771

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DATE June 23, 2010
CONTACT - Chris Reddin (creddin@gjincubator.org) or Annalisa Pearson (apearson@gjincubator.org)
PHONE (970)243-5242

National Business Incubation Association Features Grand Junction’s own Business Incubator Center in “Best Practices in Action”

The Business Incubator Center is honored to be among 40 Incubator programs from across the world spotlighted in the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) “Best Practices in Action, Guidelines for Implementing First-Class Business Incubation Programs.” What are “best practices?” Simply put, best practices are the standard by which the industry measures itself. They are also yardstick for stakeholders to evaluate if the programs they support are robust and viable.

In the foreword of the book Dinah Adkins, NBIA President Emerita, states, “We believe that the managers of the programs presented here have striven for excellence. They have aspired to be more than “good enough.” Far from being prescriptive, the examples here show the creative abundance that has emerged from programs devoted to serving entrepreneurs in the “highest and best” manner possible.”

Chris Reddin, the Executive Director at the Incubator Center, comments that, “it is an incredible honor to be recognized as one of the best practices in the International Incubation industry. Our program’s strength has been built year over year, getting better with each new business. This best-practice acknowledgment comes from more than two decades of growing companies and strengthening our local economy. The community that has supported our organization for all this time should be credited for much of our success.”

The Business Incubator Center serves a mission to support the launch, growth, stabilization and long-term success of business enterprises. We measure success by our ability to guide entrepreneurs through sound business decisions and our positive influence on economic growth in the region. Over our 23 year history, this structure has generated powerful results, including:
• the launch of more than 235 companies,
• the generation of more than $146 million in revenue by these companies,
• the funding of 260 businesses in the community,
• the creation of 9,625 jobs, and
• the investment of $51.1 million in capital.
For more information please contact either Chris Reddin or Annalisa Pearson or go to www.gjincubator.org.
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Looking at an Economic Recovery...of a New Sort

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - May 2010

Signs of an economy recovery are sprouting up throughout the Grand Valley: The Mesa County Manufacturers’ Council meetings are full of activity, and new businesses are popping up in downtown Grand Junction and Fruita. Cabela’s is coming, the Dream Café is thriving (and delicious), Brown’s Cycles has expanded, The Hot Tomato Café re-opens this month, the gas rigs are plowing along slow and steady, and Mesa State is still building and expanding. Maybe the sky is not falling anymore.

The thing is, we are not going back to the way things were. This rapid uptick and then equally rapid downturn has made us all a little wiser and a little better at doing our jobs. When business was booming, workers were extremely hard to come by. Companies invested in efficiency to reduce their dependence on workers. Action Publishing implemented a program called “Lean Manufacturing” to make their operation more efficient. Grady Busse explains, “Lean allows us to produce more product and better product with fewer people.” This is good for business and good for the workers because “The jobs that remain are far better and far more enjoyable,” he continues. It is tough for the community because, although there are good jobs, there are just fewer of them.

The job climate for manufacturers remains uncertain. Sven Wedekin, president of GPD-Global, explains that GPD is now challenged to manage strong growth. “Basically, we saw a tremendous increase in demand beginning November of 2009 that continues into this year,” he says. “Prior to that time, as a capital equipment manufacturer, we were significantly impacted by the recession. We had reduced our staffing level as much as we could to survive the downturn. When business turned around, we hired a number of people through a temp agency, and we continue to maintain our temporary staff because, given current market conditions, we can only forecast out two or three months at a time. Gradually, we will bring qualified, talented people on to our core staff.”

Thinking that things will return to the way they were is not logical. All this change has caused our business community to doubt their forecast’s stability and to think creatively about ways to grow their business in a dynamic environment. Wedekin comments that the past year has not been a time to sit idle and wait for the recovery. “During the downturn,” he says, “GPD developed a couple of new products, which we hope will add to our revenue stream this year.” Busse’s business focuses at its core on teaching students life-enhancement skills, and he sees that the best vehicle to deliver that service in the future may not be their current offering of paper agendas. To this end they are investing in iPhone and iPad products that he believes may be the future of his business. “We are in a slow transition,” he explains, “and as we move to electronic products, things may change again. Looking down the pipe, we could move away from a room full of printing staff to a room full of programmers.”

Ultimately it is innovation that will allow our local economy to grow and create new jobs as the old ones become obsolete and fade away. The real challenge will be for all the talented, creative people in the Grand Valley who have been laid off and cannot expect that a recovery will translate into getting their jobs back. Your old job may not exist anymore. This is a good time to re-evaluate your career choices. Are your skills declining in demand? Or are you part of the growing needs in our community?

As we think about the next steps and how to adapt to a new economy, I would suggest thinking about how to use your skills to solve problems. What are the new “pain points” in our community? It is true that completely new and paradigm-changing, disruptive technologies are wonderful, but they are complex and not all innovation has to be complicated. Being innovative just means that you are looking to solve a problem that no one else is solving right now. One of my favorite recent business starts came from Shawn Montgomery. Shawn was looking for a chimney sweep and discovered that there were only two businesses doing this in town. He felt that the demand was greater than those two could serve. The next day Chim Chim Chimney Sweep was born to help address an underserved market. Need identified, solution created. It can be that simple.

Be scrappy. Be creative. Look for opportunities now, because change always creates opportunity.

Golf: Is It Necessary?

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - April 2010

Don’t most business people like to golf? Is it vital to one’s success? I am not a golfer, nor do I entirely understand the appeal of chasing a very small ball around a very large grassy slope. Wouldn’t my time be better spent hiking or biking? However, business is my beat, and the Grand Valley business community loves to golf — so I set out to discover what I’m missing.

Diane Schwenke of the Grand Junction Area Chamber is an avid golfer and says it can’t be beat for building business relationships. Diane enjoys spending two hours (nine holes) or even four or five hours (for 18 holes) getting to know someone on the golf course. It’s not all business all the time. (She also said something about beer and popcorn.) Diane strongly believes in the value of golf relationships. Is it mere coincidence that the GJAC puts on an annual golf tournament in September to promote this networking tool? This year will be the 17th of these events.

Norm Franke of Alpine Bank plays golf almost exclusively for personal enjoyment. He comments that golf can be competitive or not, and if you are someone who likes to improve, it can be good for you. I laughed when he commented that if you are easily distracted, you might find it frustrating. Norm enjoys many outdoor sports, including skiing, and says that, as with many sports, golf is what you make of it. Golf can be fun or competitive. Golf can be pricy and take you to resorts all over the world — or not.

Ann Driggers of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership does not golf; she uses all her outdoor time for training. She gets a special pass because few can keep up with her on backcountry skis, mountain biking, or trail running. Although Ann does not spend her Friday afternoons wandering in the sunshine with bank presidents, she does use her recreational interests to promote the outdoor lifestyle that attracts so many companies to our community. See her Outdoor Junkie blog for the Daily Sentinel (See Ann Driggers’ blog at www.gjsentinel.com/blogs/outdoor_junkie/). It’s probably a good thing that Ann doesn’t play golf. Who knows what heights of athletic performance she might bring to the sport?

Nina Anderson of Express Employment says golf is great because you get to spend two hours outside participating in an activity that is not too strenuous and that can be enjoyed, if you so choose, while drinking a beer. (Do you see a motif emerging here?) She mentions that games like a scramble, where the team of players use the best ball of the group at each stroke, is a relaxing way for people of varying skills to enjoy the game together.

Greg Schaefer of Bray Real Estate Commercial told me a few months ago that he needed to get his hip replaced because it was affecting his golf swing. I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. Greg has been playing since he was 12 years old and finds the game a continuous and constant challenge. He is drawn to golf because he is forever trying to improve what he did before. He notes that if a golfer is not trying to improve, that person is moving backward. Greg reads golf magazines and feels he might know the magic secret to shooting par but needs to play every day to get to that level. Luckily for Greg, several years ago the folks at Hilltop got his wife Sally hooked on the game. Sally uses golf as a business tool, seeing it as a different way to interact with staff and customers and good for team building. For Greg, it is an opportunity to relax and get away from work. The better you play, he notes, the more you like it.

After all this research, I conclude that I might give it a try. Discussing a business plan in the sunshine on a golf course doesn’t sound bad at all.

The business of Mountain Biking

The Bureau of Land Management has recently presented new data on the impact of mountain-biking tourism.  I am glad to see data to support that Mountain Biking brings in an estimated $24 million each year to the local economy.  Estimates indicate that since 2000 the number of riders in the valley has grown from 50,000 to 160,000.  This is serious business.


Forbes.com on Grand Valley Mountain Biking

Connecting....well at least virtually

I'm taking a quick poll.  How do you like to stay connected?
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/84558/pcosc

The Entrepreneurs: Grand Valley Life

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - March 2010

Communities that attract entrepreneurs and build strong, growing businesses tend to have a major research university, lots of PhDs, and a pack of venture capitalists throwing money at new inventions. The Grand Valley lacks all of these and yet is a thriving entrepreneurial community. So why exactly do people start their own companies here?
            I think it starts with an independent Western mind-set and an interest in solving problems ourselves. Add to that the fact that the Grand Valley has only a handful of large corporations, and 82 percent of the firms in our community have fewer than ten employees. Mix in the fact that it is very easy to start a business in Colorado (www.colorado.gov/cbe/ (Thank you to Bernie Buescher)), and our local governments are enthusiastic about new business development (for example, see Mesa County’s “Open for Business” initiative: www.mesacounty.us/openforbusiness/). And then top it off with demand for a wide variety of specialized services in sectors such as construction, natural extraction, health care, and recreation. This is not the kind of recipe or blend of factors that makes communities like Boston or San Francisco entrepreneurial, but it is what drives our local economy.
            Sometimes the choices we make about our professional careers have, at the core, more to do with our personal priorities than anything else. In digging deeper into what drives people to “put up a shingle” and go into businesses of their own, it really comes down to lifestyle. We see it every day at the Incubator Center: People choose to have their own business in order to take advantage of the flexibility this type of career gives them to accommodate other priorities.
            At the Incubator Center, you can see Kelly DeVries of Mollycoddle Soap (www.mollycoddlesoap.com), who cares for her kids during the day and works late into the night running her business. Fred Fowler of Delta Epsilon (www.deltaepsilon.com) often takes a road-bike ride at lunch, while Bruce Strong of Apex CAD Products (www.apexcadproducts.com) prefers taking a break in mid-afternoon to go mountain biking. Matt Mayer of Mayer Medical Technologies (www.mayermedical.com) is active in the Grand Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited and coaches his daughter’s soccer team, but he’s in his office both early and late to balance out his family and work obligations. In downtown Grand Junction, Matthew Breman of Cranium 360 (www.cranium360.com) travels from Alaska to Florida growing his thriving marketing firm and still serves the community as president of the United Way of Mesa County. In Fruita, Jen Zeuner and Anne Keller are hard at work renovating a building to become the new Hot Tomato Café (www.hottomatocafe.com)  — a business that blends their passions for mountain biking, pizza, and good times. And in Palisade, Naomi Shepard-Smith shares her passion for art with wine at Grand Valley Vineyards (www.grandvalleywine.com) . There are thousands of other examples, but in each case, people are finding ways to have a successful professional life in balance with all the rest: with family, with recreation, and with passions that fulfill the spirit.
            The same things that make the Valley so attractive (a family-friendly community, abundant outdoor activities, and proximity to the mountains, the desert, rivers, and canyons) also make this a wonderful place to start a business. Business owners do get to decide how much to take on and when to do it, and along with that freedom comes a lot of work and a huge challenge. Still, it’s a workable and popular method to get more out of our Grand Valley lifestyle. Is it the road map for you? That’s something to think about.

Boomers and Gen Y: Tradition vs. Innovation

Published in Grand Valley Magazine – February 2010 (www.grandvalleymagazine.com)
By Chris Reddin

Some local business owners say their younger workers “spend too much time texting” or “aren’t really looking for a career.” And some younger professionals feel underpaid and uninspired. This situation is by no means universal, but it’s also undeniable.

In the professional world, we expect new employees to follow a tried-and-true routine: Respect authority and follow instructions in order to get ahead. This method worked effectively for many of experienced organizational leaders. But a lot of our younger professionals have new priorities and different expectations. Naturally, some tensions have arisen.

Who’s correct? They both are. The collision of tradition and innovation occurs in every generation. But here I think we have a good match of strong shared values, with some differences in delivery and timing. Let’s look and listen.

For the Baby Boomers

Gen Y are the twentysomethings working today. They are a well-educated, pro-learning group (higher graduation rates than any previous generation) who are at ease with ubiquitous technology. (Yes, they’re on their cell phones a lot.) They’re eager and willing to take on big jobs and make a difference and not particularly interested in “paying their dues” to get there. This attitude isn’t a good fit with a routine, menial job with little chance to make a difference for the company. But who does prefer menial work?

Our Grand Valley business community might be well advised to adapt, to be flexible, to meet new priorities — as difficult as that might sound. Worst-case scenario: We risk losing some of our best and brightest young talent to other communities that are willing to improve to meet their needs.

I asked some of the members of Grand Valley Young Professionals and a few well-regarded twentysomethings, “What does our local business community have to do to make this an attractive place for you to work?”

The answers were both daunting and inspiring. They clearly spelled out that it’s tough to attract and retain young talent when comparable jobs pay significantly more on the Front Range. The Valley is great for recreational opportunities and has a decent social scene, but it has a tough time competing with urban communities that have more to offer both inside and outside of work (particularly for singles).

They want to be successful; they are ambitious. Angela Harness from the City of Grand Junction comments that her generation is not interested in learning to do things because “that is the way we do it.” They want to contribute to the discussion of “what changes will make a positive difference?”

The bar has been raised; this generation says, “Encourage us to be excellent at something.”

Specifically, they recommend that companies offer flexibility in the day’s schedule. Outdoor activities are one of the main attractions here. If your company lets younger workers get their bike rides in during the day and catch up on their deliverables at night, you’ll be offering something different and attractive.

Communicate. Use technology. Try texting. Let younger workers in on your strategic direction, hopes, and plans for the future of the company.

Help them to make a difference. Candice Walton of Ameriprise Financial comments that she would like to see “something along the lines of what REI and Alpine Bank do with giving employees time to give back to the community as part of their work schedule — I love that.”

For Gen Y

The Baby Boom generation are in their mid-forties to mid-sixties (and likely to be your boss or executive leadership). They are the children of the 1960s, similar to their younger staff/co-workers in their idealism. The difference is that this group has been trying to make the world a better place for 40 years now. Their core values are still strong, but their actions are tempered by experience and wisdom.

I asked some Boomer-leader types, “How can younger workers convince you to give them meaningful work — and quickly?”

Is there is a disconnect between young professionals having to “pay their dues” and their desire for important, gratifying work? Jerome Gonzales of JG Management Systems doesn’t see it that way. Jerome challenges his Gen Y staff to “be excellent” and take on bigger projects, but he also warns that with these opportunities come equal amounts of accountability and responsibility. He counsels them to “accept both the opportunity and the hard work that accompanies it.” Paying their dues means taking responsibility and delivering results.

Young professionals are advised to listen. Do not assume. Ask questions. What will it take to make a change? What will improvement cost in terms of dollars, time, and energy? You may be surprised to find that the Boomer generation shares your passion for meaningful work, but you won’t know this unless you listen first.

Ask for a mentor. Maybe one of your company’s leadership team would have coffee with you once a month to help you with your career. (And show them some respect by buying the coffee!)

Find out if your company will help you get connected in the community. Ask to apply for the Grand Junction Chamber’s Leadership Program. Ask if you can participate in the GVYP Conversation with a CEO series. This is still a small community, and our business leadership is readily accessible.

It will take some simple steps and a little progress from both sides, but the benefits are clear.

____________________________________________________

To learn more about Grand Valley Young Professionals, visit www.gvyp.org.

The Good Ol’ Boy Network: Fresh Views

Because I’m not a boy and don’t like to think of myself as ol’, I’m not one the most likely candidate to set forth the value of a network of old boys. However, I am here to say that the “good ol’ boy network” is alive and well in the Grand Valley (although it is not completely composed of old boys). In our community, it is all about who you know (male or female, young or old). From job interviews to finding the best caterer to expanding your customer base, it is all about connecting with the right people.

We hear complaints about this aspect of our community. It can be hard for newcomers to break into the network. Someone with a fresh face and a shiny new idea to sell may not get a welcome reception. When I moved here, I felt put off by how some people were known and recognized, while others were not. As a newbie, the line at Main Street Bagels in the morning drove me nuts. I would steam with frustration at the glacier-moving pace at which coffee was delivered because many customers were greeted personally and frequently by name. How’s your day going? How was Ryan’s baseball game? Have your grandchildren arrived? All these nice questions take time — time in which I was hoping to get coffee.

But over the years I’ve acclimated and embraced our networked nature. We are a community that likes to know the names of our neighbors, business associates, and customers. I get it now: Go to the drive-thru at Starbucks if you don’t want to be engaged. At Main Street Bagels, they know the names of all the regulars, and most people prefer it that way. Businesses in this Valley pride themselves on their customer service — they know their loyal customers’ names and have a personal connection with them. Many local businesses rely on their network connections for their success.

Let’s apply some analytics to this. A social network consists of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," connected by specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, financial exchange, knowledge, prestige, etc. Social networks can be either egalitarian or aristocratic. In an egalitarian network, all the nodes have an equal level of connection. In an aristocratic network, some nodes are more connected than others and become hubs of connectivity. This hub structure tends to grow more exaggerated as new nodes join with existing hubs in order to get connected to as many other nodes as possible. This sounds like our “good ol’ boy network” to me.

This can be good. In the various centers of activity in our community, there are hub people who can get you connected quickly. No need to try to reach everyone: Just connect (in a genuine way) to the hub people in your area of interest, and — presto! — you’re plugged in.

So what should you do to get connected? Get out and get active. Most of the hub people in our community play a leadership role of some sort in their fields. How do you do this? Volunteer. Participate. Organize something. If you want to start a mountain biking business, work on building local trails. If you love music, volunteer at KAFM. If you run a machine shop, join the Mesa County Manufacturer’s Council. There are always ways to help, and in doing so you’ll meet the people you need to connect with. That’s where they are, too — out making a difference.

Survey of 1,100 Small Businesses and How They Use Social Media

from Recca Larson,
Economic Intelligence Specialist with the CITY OF LITTLETON, Business/Industry Affairs

A 2010 report published by Ad-ology titled “Small Business Marketing Forecast” finds 58% of the 1,100 small businesses (under 100 employees) surveyed in November 2009 agree that “social media is a good way to both increase business and to know what people are saying about a business.”

Social networks described as “Very or Somewhat Beneficial” were Facebook (33%), LinkedIn (21%), Twitter (19%), MySpace (17%) and YouTube (15%). Listed as the top business benefits of social networks were generating leads (50%), keeping up with the industry (45%) and monitoring online conversation about their business or industry (44%). Other benefits were competitive intelligence (43%), improving customer experience (41%), finding vendors/suppliers (38%), resolving problems (33%), new employee recruiting (27%) and background checks of employees and suppliers (27%).

For more see: http://www.ad-ology.com/smallbizrpt.cfm

Economics: Biology and Business

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - December 2009

By Chris Reddin

On the last Friday of each month at Coffee Muggers, entrepreneurs, business owners, and folks with ideas meet to talk about growing their businesses. It is a light, casual, open conversation, but there’s also some evident concern, even anxiety, about the future and whether their ideas will work.

It’s not easy to predict how a business will grow in a changing market. Anyone who’s fought through creating forecasted financial statements or next year’s budget knows this. Business projections are a guess. They can’t accurately predict the future, because the world is complex and unpredictable.

There’s a new twist on economic theory called “complexity economics” that embraces this uncertain reality and uses biology to understand our economy. The business world has historically thought of business functions as mechanical: Apply force and something will happen. Run a weekly ad in the Daily Sentinel and grow the customer base. Drop your prices by 10 percent and sales will increase. We see every day that this doesn’t usually work as we had expected. Growing a business is not as simple as pulling a lever. The economy is a complex adaptive system, and it is not as simple as Adam Smith’s theory that the “invisible hand” allocates resources through the balancing forces of supply and demand. Can you explain Twitter and Facebook using conventional linear supply and demand curves? The traditional model works only in an “ideal world.” Try to find one.

Instead, let’s try to look at companies as species that evolve. Field mice, for one example, are constantly adapting to the environment by getting lighter or darker coats, longer or shorter tails, bigger or smaller ears, and so on. Nature is constantly adapting by making many small bets and then — when something works well — doubling up on the adaptation that works. If darker mice are avoiding more coyotes, nature quickly doubles up on that adaptation, and mice evolve with darker coats. If large ears are also succeeding, nature will cross-breed these two adaptations, and mice evolve with darker coats and larger ears.

Now let’s apply this to business. Your company operates in a complex world, so it must always be testing its adaptations, new products, and innovative services to see what works. We cannot always rely on the mechanical expectation that the market demands lower prices. Instead, try small bets: Seek new ideas for existing customers, sample a different form of delivery, or launch a trial in a new market. Get out there and test the waters — constantly. When something works, double up on it. Go in that direction. If you have two new twists on a product line that work, cross-breed them. As an example, look at the evolution of the Mountain Sprouts product line (a children’s clothing company in Grand Junction). They started with just fleece outerwear for children. Then they tried dresses and recycled dog beds. Hmmm … maybe focus on the cold … yes, hats and more jackets. How about jackets for the parents? Yes, well, sort of. Actually, how about a summer line? Yes, and sun protection as well. How about dresses again? Who knows? Try it. In Mountain Sprouts’ case, they sew up some samples and see who likes them. This approach means that the company stays fresh and new, and they know exactly what the customer wants.

Does that sound easy? Well, I’m afraid it’s not. Complexity economics means that entrepreneurs, companies, product managers, and salespeople must fail more than they succeed. This means putting your ideas out there knowing full well that most of them will fail. It means having to give up on the genius business plan with the singular brilliant paradigm-shifting, world-altering idea that makes us all rich. It won’t be easy, but we must get comfortable with failure. We must learn to fail fast and frequently.

Of course we won’t throw the business plan and budget out the window. We still need to communicate expectations, set goals, and research the market. But we can think biologically. Lions, tigers, and bears survive by constantly watching the competition and adapting to their environment. In the business world we expect the mechanical; we expect a response that works on paper. But in the real world, customers are drawn to the unexpected: to new ideas, to an advantage over competition. Business leaders must focus on creating new stuff that meets a need in the economic environment. It isn’t easy, but it is better — because this is how the world really works. And by embracing this theory, we’ll be better able to adapt to the changes that the world, the economy, and our customers throw at us.

For more information on complexity economics, I recommend Eric D. Beinhocker’s, The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2006.

Chris Reddin
creddin@gjincubator.org
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