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.