CO Work-Share Program
If you have questions on the Colorado Work-Share Program or any other HR concern please visit https://larimersbdc.org/what-we-do/consulting/ to schedule a free one-on-one consultation.
July 2020
Fake or Scam Mailings
Samantha Peaslee
Polaris Law Group
Fake or Scam Mailings
Starting a business puts you and your business into the public domain. Your address and information now live online (as a requirement), as do other pieces of information such as when you need to renew with the Colorado Secretary of State, whether you have employees, and whether you have a trademark.
As a result of this required information being public, unsavory companies will have access to your information. These companies send out notices to public companies that have obligations with these public entities. They attempt to have companies pay for services that are either free or low cost.
Take, for example, your periodic report.
Your actual periodic report needs to be filed with the Colorado Secretary of State via its website every year. You receive a notice for it about three months before its final due date. It costs $10.00 to file online. The e-notice comes from the Colorado Secretary of State (e-mail suffix @sos.state.co.us). It has a header that includes the Secretary of State’s name and the website (www.sos.state.co.us). It will inform you that this is an automatically generated email at the bottom, with a contact e-mail address with a suffix @sos.state.co.us.
A scam notice or instruction will be by mail, most often. It will be titled something along the lines of “DATE – Periodic Report Instruction Form”. It will include a processing fee along with the $10 fee. It will request for checks payable to a non-state address (for example, “Workplace Compliance Services”). It may have space for a credit card form. Sometimes, they will have scary wording as well, such as informing you that you will be shut down.
If ever in doubt about a notice from the Secretary of State, Colorado Division of Labor, or United States Patent and Trademark Office, send it to your attorney or bring it to the SBDC. We can tell you if it is official or a scam.
[Webinar] Coffee with the Small Biz Directors + Pro Bono Legal Resources for the Small Business Owner
Please join a Zoom meeting with Larimer SBDC Director Mike O’Connell and Loveland Business Development Center Director Kat Rico, to talk about business recovery resources and the SBA’s economic recovery programs.
The Colorado Lawyers Committee will be joining us to discuss pro bono legal resources for the small business owner.
Joining them will be:
Keith A. Trammell, Partner at WilmerHale Law Firm and Samantha Peaslee with Polris Law Group.
Mike O’Connell
Larimer SBDC Senior Director
Kat Rico
LBDC Program Director
With Special Guests:
Keith Trammel
Partner at WilmerHale Law Firm
Samantha Peaslee
Polaris Law Group
Coffee with Small Business Directors + Other Small Business Resources
Larimer SBDC Director Mike O’Connell and Loveland Business Development Center Program Director Kat Rico, talk about business recovery resources and the SBA’s economic recovery programs.
Joining Mike and Kat have been City Managers, HR Consultants, Bankers and more.
Please enjoy these free webinars!
Ben McConnell
Business Architecture
Ben McConnell is co-founder and CEO of Blue Parable, a Loveland based software start-up focused on bringing elegant, intuitive software solutions to businesses big and small.
In addition to running Blue Parable, Ben serves as Manager of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing for Cloz LLC, a Loveland based boutique retailer owned by his fiancée Anna Gutierrez and her mother Penne Sperry. Cloz operates two brick and mortar retail stores in downtown Loveland, each with an accompanying ecommerce site.
Ben began his career as an intern for the Thompson School District’s IT department at age 16. Throughout his career, he has held various technical and leadership positions in a number of industries including public education, building material manufacturing, car rental, and retail; ranging from small businesses to some of the world’s largest privately and publicly owned companies. As a certified Enterprise Architect, Ben has a passion for business architecture. He’s well versed in a myriad of business analysis and modeling techniques that enable process centric design of business solutions. He loves sharing these tools with business leaders and helping them improve their existing products and services, or create new ones.
Ben’s expertise includes software development, product management, project management, business architecture, process engineering, IT architecture, team management, service management, ecommerce, and digital marketing.
Consulting Expertise Includes:
- Software Development
- Product Management
- Project Management
- Business Architecture
- Process Engineering
- IT Architecture
- Team Management
- Service Management
- eCommerce
- Digital Marketing
