Can't get a 25-cent raise, and know you are worth more? Want to start a new business? Get help now. Read this website, check out our Facebook Page then if your serious about starting in a new direction join us next Friday, June 29 for our free Denver IDEA Cafe Startup Workshop (click here.) 

Your Small Business Chamber of Commerce will be co-hosting the 2^nd Annual Colorado Capital Congress.  This public forum will address issues on the subject of access to capital by Colorado businesses.ion

Capital is the lifeblood of business, so this is a critically important topic for all startups and small businesses.

This year, the forum will be held on three dates: June 20th, July 30^th, and August 7^th, 2012.  The main event will be held at Regis University; 3333 Regis Boulevard; Denver, CO 80221 (Mountain View Room, Claver Hall).  Arrangements have been made for a live broadcast to different locations in the State of Colorado.  Check the Sullivan Chair website for the latest information: http://www.SullivanChair.org

Each event will feature an educational presentation.  On June 20^th, the JOBS Act and Federal Crowdfunding will be the topic.  On July 30^th, Community Impact Investing and Colorado Limited Registrations will be the topic.  On August 7^th, capital agents/finders and Colorado Issuer Agents will be the topic.

Issues are being solicited for consideration at this year’s Colorado Capital Congress.  Interested participants will form Task Forces on individual initiatives to improve the quality of business offerings and to reduce time and expense of regulatory compliance.

Last year, seven Initiatives were selected: Colorado Capital Agents, Community Impact Investments, Improving Specialty Funds, International Investment in Colorado Businesses, Investor and Investment Scoring, Low Profit Limited Liability Companies (L3C’s) and Government Incentives to Business.

New issues may include a state bank, alternative banking, and the development of an econometric model regarding new laws and regulations.

The Colorado Capital Congress is hosted by the Sullivan Chair for Free Enterprise at Regis University.  Co-hosts for this year’s Congress include several business, government and civic organizations and federal and state representatives.

To register for the 2^nd Annual Colorado Capital Congress, go to: http://www.ColoradoCapitalCongress.com

Your Small Business Chamber of Commerce's free Denver IDEA Cafe Startup Workshop now meets from 2 to 4 p.m. each Friday in Charlie Brown's at the Colburn Hotel, 980 Grant in Denver. Free and Free Parking. Startup speakers and brainstorming. No RSVP is required, walkins are welcome. But an RSVP guarantees you a seat at the table. For more information and to RSVP see http://meetup.com/Denver-IDEA-Cafe

 

Speakers at upcoming meetings:

 

Today, June 8: John Wren, http://www.SmallBizChamber.org, "My experience starting the IDEA Cafe and our new Small Business Chamber of Commerce." 

 

June 15: Daniel McCoy, Co-founder & CEO, Association of Veteran Entrepreneurs http://trepvets.com/ on "How our group started."

 

June 22: Dick Ling, founder of Mile Hi Conversations; and Paul Kottke, Pastor, University Park Methodist Church http://UniversityParkUMC.org on "How I started my career."

Our 2nd business meeting went well. I'll be the speaker tomorrow at our Denver IDEA Cafe Startup Workshop to share about the start of our new Small Business Chamber of Commerce, where we have been, where we are now, my best guess of what will happen in the next few months.

Hope you can join us, and please forward this along to any of your friends who you think might like to attend. Your friend will thank you, and so will I if you'll let me know what you've done.

I've posted a few very interesting articles on our Facebook Page over the last few days. You can RSVP via the link to our June 8 IDEA Cafe there and at the same time check out the articles. See http://Facebook.com/Small.Business.Chamber 

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