ColoradoBiz articles from July 2006

ColoradoBiz archives from July 2006

Beware of credit-card penalty box.(On Colorado)(Column)
July 1, 2006... LAST MONTH, I WARNED OUR SMALL-BUSINESS OWNER/READERS to bulk up on cyber security even though it might cost you some money. This month, I want to caution you to keep your credit-card accounts lean, because, unless you read the details of your...

The secret of leadership: let the other guy catch a fish once in a while. And stay out of his way while he's doing it.(On Management)(Column)
July 1, 2006... FOURTEEN DOWN AND 14 TO GO. DAYS THAT IS. For two weeks, three of us have been on a boat on the Intercoastal Waterway going from Florida to Cape Cod. (How I spent my summer vacation!) It's really interesting to see what becomes important to...

Write stuff no longer enough.(Guest column)(Column)
July 1, 2006... MARKETING. Speak this word in a room full of literary types--poets, short-fiction writers, essayists--and watch the cheese fall off the crackers and the wine slosh in the long-stemmed glasses. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's not the...

Business base lacking.(Readers respond)
July 1, 2006... The June issue of ColoradoBiz seems to typify what is going on with the Colorado business community. It's nice to address businesses like wineries and professional sports teams and real estate, but the truth is that major business headquarters...

Papers' circulations puzzling.(Readers respond)
July 1, 2006... I just finished your article on the Denver Newspaper Agency JOA (Robert Schwab, "Allied newspapers, warring newsrooms," June). As someone who covered the old newspaper war for a couple of years, I appreciate the information you got and your...

Economic initiative mired in cronyism.(Readers respond)
July 1, 2006... No one would dispute that Brian Vogt, the Secretary of Economic Development, is an attractive, affable and well-spoken person. Behind the facade is an unapproachable minion of a failed economic policy. If you want help from the office of...

Correction.(Correction notice)
July 1, 2006... Coca-Cola Co. has signed with Kroenke Sports Enterprises to be a sponsor at the Commerce City/Prairie Gateway soccer stadium and complex, but Coke has not agreed to be the naming-rights partner for the stadium. The naming partner for the Rapids...

Can Diana DeGette work a miracle? Denver congresswoman fights to open U.S. to federally funded embryonic stem-cell research.(Attitude at Altitude)(Interview)
July 1, 2006... Colorado U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is trying to pull off a miracle this summer. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DeGette, a 10-year Democratic congresswoman from Denver's First Congressional District, is trying to convince President George W....

RouteSmith Inc.(TECH STARTUP OF THE MONTH)
July 1, 2006... INITIAL LIGHTBULB As a side project in 2004, Jeff Smith, a software developer at American Express in Denver with a background in higher mathematics, wrote a software application for a friend, the owner of a Dallas-based appliance...

Boulder adviser aids young inheritors.(Attitude at Altitude)(Myra Salzer )(The Wealth Conservancy)
July 1, 2006... Young inheritors of tremendous wealth struggle like anyone else. They just don't get much sympathy from the unwealthy who consider money a cure-all. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Boulder-based financial adviser who has built a 50-client...

Executive edge: Phil Steinhauer; High-end landscapes rooted in passion for art.(Designscapes Colorado Inc.)
July 1, 2006... Phil Steinhauer brushes the dried dirt off his khakis after delivering flowers to a new high-end residence that Designscapes Colorado Inc., the company he co-founded 14 years ago, is landscaping. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "As you can see,...

Small fries: mom-and-pops, regional upstarts fight fast-food giants for a bite of the market.(Cover story)
July 1, 2006... It's not even 11 a.m., and Crown Burger is already swamped, thanks to a bus full of people who pulled into Crown's drive-through on South Colorado Boulevard and ordered 35 cheeseburgers, 10 fries and 10 onion rings to go. Relayed back to the...

Newspaper free-for-all: former Post publisher spearheads national daily giveaway trend.(Ryan McKibben)
July 1, 2006... Ryan McKibben, former publisher of The Denver Post, was named chief executive officer of Clarity Media Group in early 2005, putting him in charge of what another Denver-area newspaper executive describes as "a major, grand experiment," the rise...

Fiber-optical illusion: despite promises, the state's high-speed Internet connection falls short of expectations.(Q3 Tech Report)
July 1, 2006... From the perspective of Aaron Brill, manager of the Silverton Mountain Ski Area, the digital divide in rural Colorado is 16 miles wide--the distance between his office and Cascade Village at Durango Mountain Resort. Qwest Communication...

Luxury hotel boom: denver and colorado's mountain resorts build to suit upper-upper upscale occupants.
July 1, 2006... Now that Denver will have a Ritz-Carlton hotel, wealthy travelers might stop in the city on the way to Vail or the Broad-moor in Colorado Springs. At least that's new Rich Grant, spokesperson for the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau,...

Contractors lead minority top 50 resurgence.(List)
July 1, 2006... ANNA GARCIA, OWNER AND PRESIDENT OF ANKO Metal Services Inc., testifies to the success of minority-business development programs with a few simple numbers: "Between 2001, when we got our first contract," Garcia said of ANKO's work on T-Rex, the...

Red Top: 'one's a meal'.(ON SMALL BIZ)(Company overview)
July 1, 2006... Conway's Red Top family restaurant of Colorado Springs boasts arguably the state's biggest hamburger--and the leanest slogan: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "One's a Meal." The late Norbert Conway coined the phrase in the 1960s to trumpet...

Aerogarden.(Colorado Cool Stuff)(AeroGrow International Inc.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... In the 1980s, Michael Bissonnette built and sold an innovative home security company. In the 1990s, he did the same thing with a voice-powered consumer technology startup. Now he's founded a third company, AeroGrow, to bring aeroponic...

Ramble: a field guide to the U. S. A.(Colorado Cool Stuff)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2006... Sure, this writer is biased, but "Ramble" is not your ordinary travel book. The hybrid travel guide/travelogue by Eric Peterson (yes, the same Eric Peterson who writes this column) highlights some of the country's most definitively American...

PrimeAire Draft Indicator.(Colorado Cool Stuff)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... During Ride the Rockies in 1987, Lloyd Lawrence tried to draft--i.e. find the "sweet spot" with the least air resistance behind other bicyclists in the race to conserve energy--but found it was no simple task. "I never really knew where I...

Baseball habit.(Colorado Cool Stuff)
July 1, 2006... The Gorham family has a serious baseball habit. In fact, Heather, the mom, spent so much time shuttling sons Nate and Collin to baseball fields in Denver's south suburbs that the family traded the Mile High City for Centennial last year. While...

A football fantasy comes true.(Sports Biz)(DAN Grogan)
July 1, 2006... WHEN WE LAST VISITED WITH LITTLETON PUBLISHER DAN Grogan, it was on the eve of the late summer ritual that consumes millions of otherwise well-balanced individuals: the fantasy football draft. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Between fielding...

Housing bust may ride on taste.(Rundles Wrap-up)
July 1, 2006... IN YET ANOTHER CASE OF HUMAN NATURE GONE RATHER SILLY, I have been hearing a lot lately from people worried that the price of their house is going to drop precipitously. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Calm down. I have lived in Colorado...