Press Colorado Juice Company

Stephanie Witwer’s dream of creating high quality, all-organic cold press juices to help individuals live healthier, came to life at an event early in 2015. She met Jon Maraschin, Executive Director of the Business Incubator Center, who encouraged her to attend the SBDC’s Leading Edge course in February. Stephanie did and was inspired to launch her business from the Business Incubator Center’s Commercial Kitchen a few months later.

After moving into the Business Incubator Center, Stephanie purchased a $25,000 juice press to keep up with her growing business. She continued to meet with SBDC coaches and take other SBDC classes. Stephanie learned to manage cash flows, hire an employee, and other skills to grow her business. Stephanie says she “built confidence and was able to keep after it and never give up.” She was motivated and “wanted to make the community healthier,” one person at a time.

After a busy summer season at the Downtown Farmer’s Market under her belt, it was clear she needed to expand into a location with high foot traffic. In August of 2015, she had the confidence to go it alone and moved into a location on Main Street in Grand Junction. Stephanie’s business continues to grow and she would like to eventually expand to the Telluride area.

Stephanie gets ongoing coaching from the Grand Junction SBDC. Her advice to business owners is to “go from the heart and be passionate about what you do.”

Kannah Creek Brewery

For Jim Jeffryes, brewing beer had always been a source of refuge from his stressful job in technology. That is, until 1998 when he decided to jump into brewing beer full time. Although Jim had brewed beer recreationally, he had never done it in the quantities he was going to need to support a brewery, so after purchasing land on 9th & Struthers in Grand Junction, he enrolled in beer school and took Leading Edge

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Alpine Autohaus

Louie is a six-foot-tall (and growing) house plant and the shop greeter at Alpine Autohaus. He was passed down from the original owner with the adage, “If Louie is doing well, the business is doing well.” According to Alpine Autohaus’ owner, Sean Cotter, Louie is doing very well. Alpine Autohaus opened in 1995 as a one-man operation. Cotter was hired in 2013 when the original owner was ready to move on and with the understanding

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Busy Bea Quilters

When Grand Junction’s only quilting store closed it’s doors in the Fall of 2013, the local quilting community was devastated. With the closest quilting venue hundreds of miles away, avid quilter, Bea Root, and long time quilting buddy, Tracy Miller, decided that something needed to be done. The idea began forming late last year, and Bea, after being referred to the Small Business Development Center by a close friend, signed up for the Pumping up

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