Small Business Majority has created a comprehensive state policy agenda to ensure entrepreneurship is at the center of a thriving and inclusive economy in Colorado. It’s critical that state lawmakers enact policies to support and empower these entrepreneurs, guaranteeing they have access to capital to start and grow their business, affordable and quality healthcare and benefit programs that will make it easier for them to attract and retain talented employees.
Colorado Outreach Manager Hunter Railey testified in support of legislation that would create the Early Childhood Educator Tax Credit. The hearing was called by the Colorado General Assembly Education Committee. Hunter's testimony explained how the proposed bill will benefit small businesses by increasing access to affordable, quality child care. The bill will also directly help home-based child care providers.
Colorado’s family leave program currently only provides unpaid leave for certain workers who need to take time off from work to bond with a new child or to care for a seriously ill family member. However, many workers cannot afford to take extended unpaid leave, and some small employers are unable provide paid leave benefits to their employees for an extended period of time.
Spills are an inevitable part of life for a mom with two toddlers, but Cara Brzezicki of Littleton, Colorado, needed a way to minimize messes after her sixth-month-old son’s favorite game became throwing his sippy cup on the floor.
After trying to no avail to find a product that would prevent her son’s cup from falling, Cara decided to take matters into her own hands. She bought a clamp from a hardware store, drilled a hole in it, attached a cord and hair tie, and the Sippie Clippie was born.
Sweet Action Ice Cream is a socially conscious Denver ice cream shop that serves unique sweet treats and has an even sweeter mission of giving a helping hand to the community.
Originally from New York City, Sweet Action Ice Cream owners Chia and Sam Basinger are no strangers to the foodservice industry. Both have backgrounds working in restaurants, and when they decided to make their move to Denver in 2007, those experiences helped them to build what is now today a very successful ice cream shop.
Tracy duCharme does not fit the traditional profile an entrepreneur. Tracy’s background is in the arts, and her experience with illustration and graphic design inspired her to open a branch of Color Me Mine, the world's leading paint-it-yourself ceramics franchise studio chain, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Leslie Baer is the owner of Energy Intersections LLC, an energy efficiency-consulting firm in Denver. For years, Leslie has been assessing and analyzing the effectiveness of renewable energy sources, and she can spot an inefficient plan from a mile away. That’s why she was so concerned when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), earlier this month.
Three years ago, Howard Paul started Howard Paul Photography for Communication and Commerce in Denver, Colo. But before opening his business, Howard was an EMS first responder, and eventually held an Executive Director position for the EMS Association of Colorado. Needless to say, thanks to his 31-year long career in emergency services, Howard is not easily rattled. However, mountain rescue missions pale in comparison to the terror he feels knowing that he could lose his health insurance in a matter of months.
Something significant happened on Election Day that had nothing to do with the presidential race: Four states quietly voted to raise their minimum wage.
In what is fast becoming a national trend, a majority of citizens in Colorado, Maine, Arizona and Washington voted in favor of a gradual minimum wage increase until 2020; after that, the wage will be modified in accordance with the cost of living.
And it seems good things come in fours. In 2014, a quartet of states (Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota) also voted to increase their minimum wage.
Steve Katsaros has always been an innovator. He began inventing products for the ski industry in his late teens, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) from Purdue University so he could follow his dream of creating new technologies to improve the world. In the early 2000s, Katsaros came up with his first big invention: the RevoPower, an efficient motorized wheel designed to travel up to 20 miles per hour at over 100 miles per gallon.
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