We've started a process for turning our Small Business Chamber of Commerce, Inc into something more substantial than the one-man band it has been for nearly 20 years, when it all started with "John Wren's TV Journal" and those first meetings back then to meet the TV guests that we called the IDEA Association.

Part of this process is conducting a monthly "business meeting" right after the Denver IDEA Cafe on the last Friday of each month. Our second meeting will be June 1, it will be the first one with an official agenda. I hope you'll RSVP now for our June 1 Denver IDEA Cafe (click here) and then stick around or just join us at 4:15 p.m. business meeting, no need to RSVP but please do plan on being on time or a little early. If you have any questions or items you'd like to see on the agenda, contact John Wren at (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com 

Starting in a new direction? Join an IDEA Cafe Startup Group to get a boost as you get underway with a new career, a new project or campaign, or a new business. We share startup experience and brainstorm. Attend just once and get a quick boost, or attend each week as you get underway. Later, we hope you'll return from time to time to share your startup experience with others. For more information, see http://meetup.com/Denver-IDEA-Cafe

 This media release just went out from PioneerHQ.com about our joint effort:

PioneerHQ.com begins effort with Small Business Chamber of Commerce to help launch more startups.

DENVER, April 5, 2012 – Business owners who buy a marketing page in the PioneerHQ.com business directory (www.PioneerHQ.com) for their own business by July 1 will be able to designate a local chamber of commerce, trade association, club, or local newspaper to receive a similar PioneerHQ.com page for free.

The Small Business Chamber also will give the designated organizations help to launch low cost/no cost IDEA Cafe Startup Workshops and Franklin Circles with their members.

Announcing the new effort, PioneerHQ.com co-founder Robert Schwab said, “Now that SB 143, which would have duplicated our efforts with tax dollars, is behind us, we plan to reach out aggressively to businesses throughout the state to offer them the opportunity to participate.” The outreach will include contacting every chamber of commerce in Colorado to solicit their assistance with the project.

When PioneerHQ.com launched last month, John Brackney, president and CEO of the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, said: “I applaud the founders of PioneerHQ.com for their ambitious effort to provide a much-needed resource for businesses statewide. And I especially like the fact that they plan to work with the state’s local chambers of commerce.”

PioneerHQ.com is an almanac and business directory serving the Colorado business community as a meeting place, information source and marketing tool. The almanac will provide the latest market information about industries operating in the state and put the information in historical context to give businesses a real-time perspective on the growth or decline of the markets where they do business. The directory will serve as a real-time measure of market participants and a source for finding customers, partners, investors and suppliers.

In addition to free listings available to any business in Colorado, the directory will include paid listings that offer businesses an opportunity to offer more information about themselves. Go to www.PioneerHQ.com to sign up for a free listing or obtain information about the paid listings.

PioneerHQ.com was founded by three men with strong ties to Colorado’s small-business community and a long history of helping small business succeed and grow -- John S. Wren, Robert Schwab and Scott Rodgers.

Wren founded the Small Business Chamber of Commerce in 2011 and since 1994 has organized and facilitated IDEA Cafes and Franklin Circle Peer Advisory Groups that help  people starting new careers, new projects or new businesses.

Schwab was editor of ColoradoBiz magazine for seven years and is a former small-business columnist and deputy business editor of The Denver Post. He was named Region VIII Small Business Advocate of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 1998. He writes a blog on small business, politics and other issues.

Rodgers is a digital marketing engineer who has enabled organizations to take advantage of the web to engage their audiences and meet business objectives since 2001.  He has managed over 120 websites owned by radio, television and newspaper properties and was at the center of building a $4 million digital media business.

Contact:

Jerry Brown

303-594-8016

jerry@pr-impact.com

Are you headed in a new direction with your work? Know someone else who is? Each Friday afternoon John Wren leads a startup workshop, we share startup experience and brainstorm. Free and open to everyone, just bring your brain for the brainstorming. For more about it and optional RSVP see http://meetup.com/Denver-IDEA-Cafe 

We are starting a new Linked In group, do you think that's a good idea? Or would it be better to keep things simple and just stick with the website, our Facebook page, our Meetup.com groups, and our email list? Please vote in our poll at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Small-Business-Chamber-Commerce-Inc-106689?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

While you are there, join in the new conversation that's just starting about brainstorming. Do you use brainstorming in your business life? Why or why not?

We are looking for people across Colorado to help us in their local area with our new online business almanac and small business directory. Take a look at http://PioneerHQ.com and then contact John Wren at (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com if you'd be willing to help. Please forward this along to anyone you know who might be interested in helping us with this or taking a free listing in the new directory.

Want to start an IDEA Cafe Startup Workshop and/or Franklin Circle Peer Advisory Group in cooperation with your local chamber of commerce? Contact John Wren for more information at (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com

Visit our Friday afternoon Denver IDEA Cafe Startup Workshop (click here for more info and optional RSVP)  and John Wren's Group on Groups (click here), then return home with enough information to get your new group(s) started.

See our Facebook Page (click here) now with the new Timeline layout.