YEA! For Our Young Business Owners

The 15 students in the Young Entrepreneurs Academy which started in mid-September have been hard at work gaining a basic understanding of business principles, developing business plans and getting ready to launch their new businesses. We wish to once again thank our major sponsors, City of Grand Junction, CAPCO, Home Loan and Investment, WPX and Mesa County Workforce Center along with our partners Western Colorado Community College, Business Incubator Center and School District 51 for making the program possible. Additional sponsorships came from Mesa County Business Education Foundation, Alpine Bank, Bank of Colorado, Community Banks of Colorado, School District 51, Startek, The Redstone Group, US Bank and Cranium 360 and Sam’s Club. There are two events in the first quarter that Chamber members may wish to attend. On January 20th there will be a CEO roundtable with the students featuring current business leaders and how they have been successful at entrepreneurship. On March 11th the students will be going before the Investor Panels in a “Shark Tank” like event that anyone can attend and over 100 people did last year. This is a good opportunity to encourage any future YEA applicants for the class to come and observe. Since December 2nd the students have been working with business mentors and we’d like to recognize them along with our two instructors who have given generously of their time and knowledge to the program: First Trimester Instructor Skip Hudson, Turnkey Consulting Second Trimester Instructor Heather Lambeth, New Image Realty, LLC Mentors: Joe Burtard, Ute Water and JR’s Carriage Service Kristi Clark, Sitters in a Snap Lindsey Gray,  Arbonne Anthony Haverkamp, FCI Construction Kimberli Holcomb, Community Banks of Colorado Felicia Jones Jon Labrum, Jimmy Johns Craig Madsen, Merrill Lynch Claire Meil, The Palette Annalisa Pearson, Grand Junction Incubator Laura Peterson, Grand Junction Economic Partnership John Pottorf, Helmerich & Payne Doug Truitt