Business News And Views
Greatness of Metro Denver quantified Denver Business Journal
Date: Friday, September 23, 2011, 6:11am MDT University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora has been rated the highest-performing academic medical center in the country by Chicago-based University HealthSystem Consortium. Read More at denverbusinessjournal.com
Related: Aurora, Denver Tuesday, May 24, 2011, 7:21am MDT Denver is ranked third on a list of cities considered to be poised on the edge of greatness. The rankings were compiled by research firm Sperling’s BestPlaces for the makers of Edge Shave Gel and based on such factors as sports, art, music, culture and population growth. San Francisco was first, followed by Boston.
Read more: Greatness of Denver quantified | Denver Business Journal
Boulder is nation’s top city for startups, Bloomberg Businessweek saysBoulder is named America’s best city for tech startups in a Bloomberg Businessweek report.
“An influx of entrepreneurs ... has changed the face of this Colorado city of 98,000, making it a destination for Internet startups,” author Vivek Wadhwa writes of Boulder in the online package. “With the University of Colorado as an anchor and a backyard full of mountains as lifestyle bait, Boulder now has the highest concentration of software engineers per capita in the nation.”
Boulder takes the top spot out of 10 U.S. cities singled out by Bloomberg Businessweek as the best places for startups.
The report relies on data from ZoomProspector.com, a business-location website, which weighed 11 factors — including the number of startups already in a city, quality of the workforce, and resources like universities and venture capital.
It said smaller cities and towns generally are the best places today to start new tech companies.
Wadhwa quotes author and urban development expert Richard Florida as saying that Boulder has the nation’s greatest concentration of the “creative class” — scientists, artists, engineers and related fields.
The article also notes the presence of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“In the 1970s, Celestial Seasonings and StorageTek helped foster a robust natural foods industry and a thriving tech community” in Boulder, Wadhwa writes. “Over the years, software, data services, and biotech blossomed as employees of those companies branched out to pursue other interests. The combination of entrepreneurship, engineering talent, and a counterculture vibe gave rise to many pre-bubble Net startups.”
Boca Raton, Fla., follows Boulder in second place. Rounding out the top 10: Santa Monica, Calif.; Bend, Ore.; Irvine, Calif.; Cambridge, Mass.; Bellevue, Wash.; Franklin, Tenn.; San Francisco; and Rockville, Md.Compiled by the DBJ's (Denver Business Journal) Mark Harden
Denver second for finance jobsTuesday, May 24, 2011, 6:03am MDT Denver placed second because of its growing financial sector related to the region’s “booming oil and gas companies and improving manufacturing sector,” according to Accounting Principals.
Eat Your Competition:Funny how things change. Lately, the more I talk to people about selling a business the greater the temptation arises to offer them a plan to buy a business. The plank is tipping in a different direction, and it's a direction that makes sense today. We are hearing about under water real estate constantly with "buy now" ads on the radio, articles in the paper about home sales, or just passing those unfortunate Home for Sale Signs marked FORECLOSURE.There are plenty of businesses that have been hit and hit hard by the recent economic shifts. Some are unable to get back on their feet and some are just suffering enough reduction in their volume and margins to make them need more "mass" or financial velocity to fight and win. The key word is "MASS". Recently we have been getting more calls from clients inquiring about finding a compatible company (usually a competitor that they think is hurting more than they, themselves, are) for the purpose of increasing their client base, adding new technology or picking up a reputation that they currently don't have in a niche they never considered. MASS is about the bigger firms competing better against the smaller firms. MASS is about increasing recognition, market share or just appearances. In any case, the acquisition of a competing company solves two problems...obviously, as long as the surviving company has planned the "meal" and how to properly digest it. Mergers are the other way of attaining mass with the resulting new company having improved competitive position. Here, the difficulty is the compatibility of the merged management, their missions and surviving personnel issues. In both mergers and acquisitions there is unemployment fallout, and often the surviving company gets a good case of indigestion too. Smaller companies and entrepreneurial buyers generally keep most of the purchased employees, establish and internally preach the mission themselves, and allow for the creativity of the new larger company to accomplish that mission. So, today, when someone says that they're going to "kill the competition", they might be thinking about eating them instead. Planning, even meal planning, is better than no planning. Bon Appétit
Boulder rated top city in U.S. for ‘well-being’; Colorado 7th among statesDenver Business Journal - by Mark Harden Boulder has the highest level of “well-being” among 185 metro areas nationwide, and Colorado ranks No. 7 among states, a new report says. The “Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index,” released Monday, seeks to measure the daily state of health and well-being in cities and states, based on interviews by the Gallup polling organization assessing emotional and physical health, behavior, work environment and access to health care, among other factors. Study: Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins rank among best places to attend college The American Institute of Economic Research ranked Denver No. 5 among mid-sized metro areas in its "College Destinations Index 2009-10." Boulder is No. 1 and Fort Collins No. 5 among small cities. Colorado gets federal grant to promote 'clean tech' exports Colorado's international trade office has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to promote "clean tech" exports from the state to China and Mexico. The state's Office of Economic Development and International Trade plans to announce the grant and provide details -- including the amount of the grant -- on Thursday. Colorado's international trade office is one of five recipients of grants under the Market Development Cooperators Program for 2009. The three-year grant will support the export of clean and environmentally friendly products and services to China and Mexico by Colorado companies.
Deloitte: 10 Colorado tech companies on fastest-growing listTen Colorado companies have been named to Deloitte’s 2009 “Technology Fast 500” ranking of the fastest-growing tech firms. Released Tuesday, the list includes businesses in such fields as media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology.The top Colorado business on the list, at No. 30, is Arca BioPharma Inc., a Broomfield biotechnology company that this year shifted its business strategies, laid off half its workforce and replaced its CEO. Arca also saw the Food and Drug Administration in May reject its new drug application for Gencaro, an experimental heart-failure drug that it hopes to make its main product. But Deloitte based its list on each company’s revenue growth between 2004 and 2008 — before Arca’s current difficulties emerged. According to Deloitte, Arca’s revenue rose from $195,000 in 2004 to $15.25 million last year, an increase of 7,721 percent.Other Colorado companies in the latest Technology Fast 500:
SBA is not as Tight Fisted as Rumored – Loans are Happening and Blue Sky has Been Doubled.
Businesses for Sale and Business Buyers have been supported by the SBA. Since the Recovery Act was signed on Feb. 17, SBA has supported more than $11.3 billion in lending to small business through its two largest loan programs and seen its average weekly dollar volume increase by more than 60 percent in comparison to the weeks before the Recovery Act. Additionally, the average number of loans approved per week has increased by more than 50 percent. The dollar volume for September 2009 ($1.9 billion) was the highest single-month total since August 2007.
As of October 1st, 2009, the SBA has also raised its blue sky limit to $500,000 from $250,000 (March amendment) as long as the blue sky does not exceed 50% of the total business value. In cases where it does, they will still finance, but the buyer must show a 25% down payment. The SBA will recognize Seller Financing of 25% as the down payment requirement fulfillment.
SBA offers help to women business owners
Women small businesses owners will be able to use a new online training course to learn how to identify and take advantage of federal contracting opportunities.The course being offered by the Small Business Administration is part of a government-wide initiative to promote opportunities for women-owned businesses in the area of government contracting. SBA noted in a news release that it is committed to ensuring that women-owned businesses receive at least 5 percent of federal contracts.“Federal contracts can provide unique opportunities for women entrepreneurs and small business owners to grow their businesses and create jobs, particularly during these tough economic times,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said in a news release. The course, which is designed to help women entrepreneurs learn about the federal procurement process and to prepare them to compete for contracting opportunities can be accessed at http://www.sba.gov/fedcontractingtraining/ |
