Thanks in part to the efforts of the South Metro Small Business
Development Center, 165 jobs have been created and 92 jobs retained
so far this year.
The center, housed in the South Metro Denver Chamber of
Commerce, provides classes and consulting services for owners
looking to expand their businesses, merchants seeking to keep their
businesses going and individuals like Elizabeth True and her fiance
Miguel when they were looking to start a business.
Their business, Axiom Roofing, began in 2008 with just the two
founders. True said much of the credit for the success of their
company goes to the guidance and assistance provided by the
business development center that has helped the firm grow to eight
full-time employees and four part-time employees.
Like many people, True was a victim of the economic downturn and
was laid off from her high-tech job last year.
“My fiance and I had been talking about starting a business for
a while and, when I was laid off, we thought long and hard before
we finally decided opening our own business was the thing to do,”
True said. “We wisely made the decision to get started by visiting
the South Metro Small Business Development Center. I looked at the
courses and materials then I signed up for the 15-week business
start-up course.”
She said the course helped her develop a sound business plan and
establish a solid foundation for the new company.
“While I was in class, we started making connections and doing
part-time jobs on weekends,” she said. “In July 2008, we
incorporated our company and on New Year’s Day, we went full
time.”
Miguel, with 23 years in the roofing industry, oversees that
portion of the company while Elizabeth directs the administrative
portion of the firm.
True said the business is growing and thriving and she is
excited about the future of the company.
But she said she still regularly draws on the expertise
available through the Small Business Development Center to make
sure the company stays on the right track and continues to grow
responsibly.
Sharon Gnatt-Epel also went to the center to help get her
manufacturing and distributing business started.
She said she had no background in the manufacturing area and
turned to the center for guidance to help her do things right.
That was in 2007. Now, she heads the company manufacturing and
distributing natural skin care products for women over 30. She also
has signed up three to five people as independent contractors to
work with the company.
She also gives back to the center as she now is a business coach
and works to help locate possible grants for minority and
women-owned businesses.
The South Metro Small Business Development Center is part of the
statewide network of 16 centers.
Centers are a cooperative venture between the state of Colorado,
the U.S. Small Business Administration and local communities.
Partial funding is provided by a SBA grant, with the remainder of
the money coming from local organizations and donations from area
businesses.
The local center is housed in the South Metro Denver Chamber of
Commerce offices, but Marcia McGilley, center director, noted those
seeking services do not have to be chamber members.
So far this year, the local center has seen 503 clients. About
half of the clients represent existing businesses while the
remainder are looking to start new businesses.
The center provides classes as well as consulting services. This
year’s 503 clients have received 1,560 hours of consulting
services.
“Requests for our services are up quite a bit this year,”
McGilley said. “At this time last year, we had provided about 1,000
hours of consulting services to 457 clients.”
She said the center helped businesses arrange to receive about
$3.5 million in loans, including about $382,000 in SBA loans.
The result is the effort helped generate $3.8 million in sales
and clients were awarded $3 million in government contracts.
For information about the center and its programs, go to the Web
site at www.smallbusinessdenver.com,
call the center at 303-548-5300 or e-mail them at info@smallbusinessdenver.com.
