Success Stories

We are proud to feature the companies below as clients of the Grand Junction SBDC. We’ve helped these clients start, grow and sustain their businesses through our free consulting services and low-cost training programs.

Check them out and then come see us – we’d love to add your business to our list!

JT Crane Service: Taking Business to New Heights

Jeff Thornton, veteran, owner, and operator had 12 years of crane operating experience and another five years of heavy equipment operator experience. However, something Jeff had limited experience with was starting and growing a business. “The classes and coaches [at the Grand Junction SBDC] have been essential because I have no experience in bookkeeping or web design,” said Jeff. After learning about the Grand Junction SBDC through the SBA’s website, Jeff made his first coaching …

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Thai Number 9

Running a restaurant has its challenges, but 2020 really took it to the next level. Thai Number 9 faced these challenges head-on all while keeping their customers fed and satisfied. Thai Number 9 opened in 2018 and is a family-owned and operated authentic Thai restaurant in Grand Junction, Colorado. The dream of running a restaurant started years earlier when siblings and owners Jojo Barnes and Peter Unaboot enrolled in the GJ SBDC’s flagship-class “How to …

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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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CrossFit Juke Joint

CrossFit Juke Joint (CFJJ) is a box, not a gym. Unlike gyms, CrossFit facilities (boxes) do not house treadmills or 20 weight machines. They resemble a box with four walls that contain weights, ropes, and bars. However, perhaps the most important piece of equipment a box can carry is a sense of community – something CFJJ owner Sung Hong cares deeply about. An accomplished martial artist, Hong was first introduced to the CrossFit lifestyle while …

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Yoga Vinyassa

When Tessa McInnis moved to Grand Junction just over a year ago, she left her training and teaching at Core Power Yoga with hopes she would find something comparable in Grand Junction. To her dismay though, there was nothing even close to similar so she decided to utilize her extensive training and open her own Power Yoga studio. While waitressing, Tessa worked with the Grand Junction SBDC taking the How to Start a Business class …

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Western Colorado Specialty Pharmacy

What’s a person to do if premanufactured pharmaceuticals just don’t work for you or your pet?  That’s what many people with specific allergies (fillers, dyes, etc), finicky kids/pets, or folks in need of a specific non-traditional dosage of a medication were left to ask until now in Grand Junction, CO.  Karen Floyd has been a pharmacist for over 30 years and has seen an increasing need for the services compounding pharmacies provide.  In 2006 alone, …

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Vital Earth Minerals

Long time SBDC client, Jody Ahrens, is no stranger to starting and running a successful small business. Jody was an attendee at the first Leading Edge course offered by the Grand Junction SBDC in 1986. She attributes the success of her first business, Evergreen Productions, to the knowledge she gained in that class. She learned the basics of starting and running a business and the proper way to keep books and do the day to …

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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, …

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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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gelu Italian Ice

Ronn and Karin Gookin are not new to the entrepreneur world. They bought their first business, a flooring store years ago. With no food service background, it was an idea presented to them by their partner, John Nelson, to start producing and selling Italian Ice in the Grand Valley. In New York City, where John is from, it is not unusual to see an Italian Ice cart on every corner and in every park. However, …

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Frame Depot

The Frame Depot was opened in 1986 by Randy Bogart. The business was originally housed with its companion business, Art Depot, which was owned by Randy’s brother, Jack. In 1996, the business moved to a new location with a street that was yet to be named. Since two other family members also had businesses on the street, it only seemed natural to name it Bogart Lane. The new building housed both Depots, but after Jack …

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Epic Escape Room

Larry and Kathleen White, along with their daughter, Leslie Kell, were on vacation looking for something fun to do as a family. They looked at a local website listing upcoming activities when something caught their eye and they visited a place called Epic Escape Game. They had so much fun, all they talked about on the way home was how exciting it would be to run a business like Epic Escape Game. They even met …

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Edgewater 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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Delixers LLC

PRODUCTS I have assembled a stable of stars to assist me in the promotion of my fine line of delicious elixirs, mixers and more. I exhibit two breeds of bloody mary mixes: Rooster Collbran’s Tart & Twangy Bloody Mary Mix, tuned with the taste of dill pickles and lemons and Rowdy Roubidoux’s Hot & Wild Bloody Mary Mix, fueled by habanero, horseradish and wasabi. I also boast of a complementary food line featuring: bloody mary …

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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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Bloomin Babies

Early in Patty’s nursing career, she knew she wanted to become a midwife. After years as a RN and completing her BSN, she decided it was time to pursue her dream and enrolled at Frontier Nursing University. Little did she know, her education at Frontier Nursing University would not only prepare her to become a midwife but also potentially a future entrepreneur; one of the final capstone projects she had to do was write a …

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Angels In the Making

Teri Thomas, owner of Angels in the Making, LLC, has always had a passion for working with animals. She trained her first dog at the age of 8. As a child she spent her summers at her grandparent’s ranch in New Mexico, there she raised and trained chickens to do a variety of tasks much to everyone’s surprise. Born and raised in Colorado she attended CSU in Fort Collins for 1 year and Mesa College …

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