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Each week, at least one noteworthy small business owner is featured in a 60-second radio spot that runs Monday-thru-Friday during the day on 710 KNUS AM in Denver.

THIS WEEK

Aaron Lapedis The Garage Sale Millionaire

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Would you like to be featured in an upcoming 710 KNUS AM / Small Business Drives Colorado™ radio spot? 

There is no charge and you'll reach an audience of tens of thousands of radio listeners.

Email us at editor@smallbusinessdrivescolorado.com and let us know what makes your small business distinctive.  We'd love to hear from you.

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Previous Small Business Drives America™/710 KNUS AM Radio Spots

Jordan Jackson - Owner

Security Central Inc.

Alicia Vargo - Owner

Pampered Passions Fine Lingerie

Simultaneous Entrepreneurs:

Creativity coupled with necessity often drive small business owners and entrepreneurs to juggle more than one unrelated startup at the same time.  These 'Simultaneous Entrepreneurs' are, in many ways, just hedging their bets. Read the full story .

A Cranberry Newswire Feature

By Dean Rotbart

Editor-in-Chief 

Praful K. Shah, an angel investor from Superior, Colorado, went 'window shopping' last night for promising small business investment opportunities.

The turnout was impressive, not only for its size, but for the quality of those both in the audience and presenting on stage.

Indeed, the Colorado startup economy remains vibrant, with innovative, diverse, and leading-edge companies planting roots in all four corners of our state.  Today's startups and early-stage small businesses are tomorrow's drivers of job creation and economic strength.

Two recent guests on Business Unconventional, pitching coaches Dom DiDia and Frank Hofmeister, invited us to witness the process as four area companies were allotted 5 minutes each on stage to tell their company's tale and explain to audience members such as Praful Shah why they should make an angel investment.

[Hear our extended interview with Dom and Frank]

On a monthly basis, Rockies Venture Club hosts a networking happy hour, a panel or other educational component, and four presenting companies.

Last night, these companies took their turn:

• P2Bi - A company that uses crowdfunding to raise money for factoring   
• Couragent - Maker of the FlipPad Scanner, and currently raising capital through crowdfunding   
• Tensegrity - A local company with a superior prosthetic foot raising capital for their go-to-market phase 
• Crowdfunding Offerings - Their product 'Mainstreet Crowd' is a crowdfunding platform that focuses on local and regional offerings  

As Dom and Frank explained on our weekly radio broadcast, a lot rides on the quality of these pitches. Good companies with mediocre pitches face a steep uphill funding battle.  It's one reason that the Rockies Venture Club now offers regular clinics, known as Pitch Academy, to help founders and CEOs hone their presentations.

Of the four companies pitching last night, I thought the most impressive was Tensegrity, not only because its presentation - handled by Morgan Stanfield, director of Marketing & Communications - was the most polished, but because the Boulder-based company seems poised for enormous growth and ultimate success.

Tensegrity produces a superior, proprietary product in a rapidly growing and relatively non-competitive field.

With the global population aging, and incidents of diabetes on a sharp upward trajectory, sadly more and more people will face amputation in the years ahead.  Already, more than 1.5 million amputees in the United States rely on prosthetic feet - often featuring outdated, less effective models.

Tensegrity's Rifkin

While web apps, innovative business financing and gadgets are a lot sexier to most investors than prosthetics, Tensegrity stands to grow to be a major player - if not the major player - in its specialty.

I liked the fact that Tensegrity came to the Rockies Venture Club with all barrels loaded.  In addition to Morgan, who made the formal presentation, Tensegrity had four other company executives on stage and invited one of its satisfied customers, Arthur Stone, to provide a personal testimonial.

Stone, who wore blue jean shorts to the event - making it perfectly clear he is a Tensegrity prosthetic wearer - is a grandfather of four, and a two-time Amputee Golf Association National Champion.

Of the four companies and executives presenting, only Tensegrity's CEO, Jerome Rifkin, openly raised the possibility that he and his colleagues would not sell their company at the first opportunity to a larger, potential suitor.

No, that is not what some angel investors want to hear, since they are eager to know each company's "exit strategy" - and hence, how quickly they'll get back their money and profits.

But I like hearing from a CEO who is not simply a surrogate mother - birthing the company and then handing it over to others to grow and raise.  In my view, a CEO who wants to raise his or her own child - or at least sees that as a real option - is someone who is more likely to give an early-stage company the love and management nutrition it will require to thrive during later stages of its life.

Dean Rotbart, founder and editor-in-chief of Small Business Drives America™, previously wrote the Heard on the Street investment column for The Wall Street Journal. 

Small Business Drives America™ - Colorado Edition is the "community newspaper" of our state's small business community.  We're interested in hearing from you and about you, including:

• New product lines you are launching
• New management/hires
• New locations
• Awards won
• Upcoming speeches/presentations
• Special landmarks, including "years in business"

Throughout 2013, Small Business Drives America™ - Colorado Edition will be shining the spotlight on some of the fabulous small businesses and small business owners in our state.  

Would you like more free visibility for your small business?  Would you like an opportunity to earn statewide peer recognition, as well as a suite of prizes that includes cash, technology and services designed for your business?

Small Business Drives America™ will be showcasing 100s of Colorado-owned businesses in the coming weeks and months.  Let us know why you are a great role model for other entrepreneurs to emulate? 

More details on specific visibility and prize opportunities will be announced soon.  Until then, go right ahead and nominate yourself.  Email us and tell us about you and your business - and what makes you unique.  Be sure to include all of your contact information.  Our email is: editor@smallbusinessdrivesamerica.com.

PR is like customer service - It's in your interest to do it right

Although I don't keep formal statistics on the results of my outbound calls, I would guess that roughly 50 percent of the time when a release does catch my attention, the "contact" person listed on the paid news release is not available when I call.  

That is particularly vexing, since I typically phone on the same day, and often within minutes, of when the news release crosses the public relations newswire. 

Read the full column.

Dean Rotbart, founder and editor-in-chief of Small Business Drives America™, is a veteran journalist and successful entrepreneur. 

He is also a contributor to Talking Biz 2, where this article was first published.

Discovering Your Company's Key Performance Indicator

Each and every business, regardless of its size, has a key performance indicator that if properly identified and pursued, will lead it to meaningful and durable financial success. 

Columnists Jake and Jeff Wilson, co-founders of LoomView Enterprises, are veteran business intelligence analysts. Read their column here.