San Luis Valley Health and Wellness

Humans are meant to move. Physical activity and good diets keep our bodies working as finely tuned machines. Not doing so, has unhealthy conseqences. Modern society has allowed for increasing inactivity in most people. Health and wellness clubs in communities play a vital role in helping their members remain motivated to pursue personal fitness goals that fit their lifestyle and share ideas on workouts, diets, and overall healthy living.

Imagine being Justin and Brittany growing up in New Mexico, playing in the outdoors there and becoming committed to healthy living. They also had a dream of moving north to Colorado when they could find the right opportunity to own an athletic club. Reality came to pass when they purchased San Luis Valley Health and Wellness in 2015, an existing club, but in need of many repairs, from a leaky roof to fixing the swimming pool, to updating 30 year old equipment.

Their vision also included bringing in new high tech bikes and treadmills to allow members to ‘go places’ where they have not ridden or run before via virtual reality screens in front of them. Ultimately the upgrades would help members create good gym habits while maintaining a regular routine in a busy world. Success in owning a gym would also require a need to change business practices to meet the needs of existing and new members.

The San Luis Valley SBDC helped them in several ways even before purchasing the club. The SBDC, according to Justin, “helped give us a feel for the business environment in Alamosa. We wanted to know how well we would be supported by other business members in the community and also get a better feel for the demographics here. After purchasing the club, they helped us find the right contacts for all the information we needed whether locally, or around the state to set up our gym properly with business licenses and Federal ID number.”

One critical thing they helped us do was to get a social media intern from Adams State which worked out well for setting up our Twitter Page and Facebook. Our cost was minimal for our return.”

VeriClean Springs

When you meet Dee Anna Thompson, not only does she greet you with warm smile and welcoming hug, you would never know she was the President of a fast growing, award winning business based on her humble personality. Dee Anna Thompson, President of VeriClean Springs opened in 2000. At the time, Dee Anna needed to make ends meet. Given cleaning was the only experience she had coming out of high school, finding a job was

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JITA Contracting Inc.

With the help of the SBDC, Joel Aguilar was lucky enough to get his 8 a certification for JITA Contracting, Inc. from the SBA and has grown his business tremendously. With the help of the SBDC, Joel Aguilar was lucky enough to get his 8 a certification for JITA Contracting, Inc. from the SBA and has grown his business tremendously. He explains, “It took us over five months of filling out over 1,300 pages of

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Southern Ute Cultural Museum

Lynn Brittner, Executive Director, started planning the Southern-Ute Cultural Center and Museum over ten years ago. The Center’s opening this past May was her reward for years of dedicatedly holding the vision. Brittner’s relationship with the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center started way back at the beginning. She needed help and only had three staff. A grant from the Administration for Native Americans provided funds for her to take Board members to visit other

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Black Swift Technologies

Boulder-based company Black Swift Technologies was founded by three PhD students from the University of Colorado. The three men were inspired to start the company from their work in the field during their studies. At CU, they learned how to chase storms and collect data using old military equipment, which is relatively complicated to use. They set out to simplify the process with unmanned aircraft systems and Black Swift Technologies was born. Although they are

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Midwest-Masters/ Spoiler Dude

United States Army veteran Paul Hasty had already been successfully installing window tints, car bras, and spoilers in the Pikes Peak Region for almost fourteen years before reaching out to the Pikes Peak SBDC. Just call him the Spoiler Dude of Spoilerdude.com. With a strong love for cars, Paul decided to open up his business with the challenges of educating customers. Paul differentiates Spoilerdude.com by anticipating customers’ wishes and questions with answers prior to work.

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Espinoza Cultural Services

A small business based in La Jara is proving that a San Luis Valley company can ‘play with the big boys’. Dee Espinoza founded Espinoza Cultural Services, LLC (ECS) in 2010. Espinoza ran the company by herself out of her La Jara home for the first 2 years. She now employs 13 full time professionals (although some are seasonal) and 3 part time. ECS recently purchased and renovated a vacant historic building in downtown La

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