Blogs

Are you hungry for more information to make your business aspirations come true?  Be part of Techstars Startup Week Fort Collins, a free, five-day celebration of our community that builds momentum and opportunity around entrepreneurship.  Startup Week returns to Fort Collins February 23rd – March 2nd with over 130+ business sessions, discussion panels, professional development and start up workshops being offered throughout Downtown Fort Collins.   The week will offer opportunities for one-on-one consulting with Larimer …

With the new tax reform, comes new tax tables for employees. Employers should begin using the new tax withholdings as soon as possible, but no later than February 15, 2018. Although you are not required to have employees fill out a new W-4, you should consider letting the employee know that their taxes might change and therefore their paycheck may be affected. If they would like to change their withholding information, have them fill out …

Each month we will be featuring one of our consultants in the Consultant Spotlight. This will be an opportunity for you to get to know a little more about our consultants and how special they are to the Larimer SBDC, our clients and the community. Along with a short background bio on each consultant, we will also ask each of them our 5 Questions that give insight to their particular industry, experience or personal interests.  This …

Peggy Lyle receives the Consultant of the Year Award from Mike O’Connell, Larimer SBDC Director Peggy Lyle was presented with the award for 2017 Consultant of the Year for the Larimer SBDC at an Innosphere event held in December.  She is the director of Downtown Fort Collins Creative District and is heavily involved with ArtUpWeek, which is a part of 2018 StartUpWeek Fort Collins.  Peggy started as an SBDC consultant about 1½ years ago as …

Owner, Trish O’Neill Unleash Your Inner Chef! Story & Photos courtesy Sharon Long and Trish O’Neill Fifteen years ago, Trish O’Neill took her first cooking class and she was hooked! She began cooking inspired meals from scratch and it soon became her passion. Over the next 15 years she traveled for her career, all the while taking cooking classes as a hobby while on her travels. This cultivated the idea that would eventually bring Trish …

Larimer SBDC director, Mike O’Connell, along with Ft. Collins Mayor, Wade Troxell and Frances Padilla, SBA Colorado District Director, paid a visit to a few local businesses as a show of support for Small Business Saturday.  His visit included stops at Bindle Coffee, HeyDey and Knapsack located in the Jessup Farm Artisan Village development in Southeast Ft. Collins. More information on these local businesses, as well as the many others in the Jessup Farm development, …

CEF Launches Small Business Loan Program for Veterans – VALOR The Loveland Business Development Center (LBDC) has received notification that the Colorado Enterprise Fund (CEF) is launching a new small business loan program for veterans. The loan program, created to support U.S. military veterans and Gold Star Families (surviving spouses and children of veterans) in Colorado, will officially launch on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2017. Veteran Access Loan Opportunity Resource (VALOR) will provide discounted loan rates and …

Mike O’Connell, Larimer Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Director, will be a presenter at the National SBDC conference in September, in Nashville Tennessee. Over 1400 small business development professionals attend this annual conference to sharpen their consulting skills, and learn about useful entrepreneurial resources. O’Connell will present “My Top Six Ways That Businesses Get Into Trouble”. This information was also featured in BizWest magazine’s May 2017 edition.

The Warehouse Business Accelerator Announces New Executive Director August 14, 2017 LOVELAND, CO – The Warehouse Business Accelerator, a public-private regionally supported economic development engine, has appointed Bryan Pederson as leader and Executive Director for the organization. Pederson began his new role in early July and brings to the Acceler ator more than 10 years of regional business and community development experience that includes former leadership of Thrivent Financial’s community engagement initiatives in Central California and …

Spidertrax Off-Road Owner: Thom Kingston Story written by: Shelley Widhalm Photos Courtesy of Spidertrax Thom Kingston helped start Loveland-based Spidertrax Off-Road not in a garage like some startups but in a fully equipped shop at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 1999, Kingston and his former partner and co-founder, Eddie Casanueva, initially snuck into the school after-hours to develop and manufacture parts for the off-road industry until they got official approval and could work …