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Larimer

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Empowering Businesses to Thrive in Larimer County

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The Larimer SBDC is proud to serve entrepreneurs and small businesses since 1987. We are one of 14 centers across Colorado and help from idea stage to succession planning. Small businesses are the heart of our communities, and we're happy to play our part to support their education and growth.

970-204-8600
info@larimersbdc.org


See Address & Map

Photo Courtesy of DDA
Downtown Old Town Square in Fort Collins
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No-Cost, Confidential, One-on-One Business Advising and 
No-or-Low-Cost Training

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  • Each of our SBDC centers have business advisors ready to serve you with local, regional knowledge and whose experience and areas of expertise can best assist you
  • Advising is not only no cost and confidential; it is tailored to your business needs 
  • Our advisors can discuss a wide range of business opportunities and challenges, and provide specific, in-depth assistance
  • All advising sessions are by appointment only
  • Trainings, events, and workshops are either no-cost or low-cost
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Initial Advising Session

New to the SBDC? To request your first advising appointment please click the button below.

Request Initial Advising Session

Follow-up

If you’ve already met with an SBDC advisor, click the button below to request a follow-up appointment

Request Follow-up

Training

Check out all training, programs, networking, events, workshops, and on-demand classes.

Events/Workshops

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Success Stories

Jamie Blanchard-Poling sifting through compost with gloved hands and a big smile for Compost Queen

Compost Queen

Jamie Blanchard-Poling knew something had to change for how composting is done locally with small piles and only in the warmer months. “I  wondered why there wasn’t a solution in Northern Colorado. I decided I could be that solution,” said owner and queen Blanchard-Poling. Blanchard-Poling founded Compost Queen in 2018, operating it on partner farm sites until March 2023, when, with state grant funding, she was able to open her headquarters at 1505 N. College Ave. in Fort Collins. She picks up food waste at her customers’ homes and businesses and takes it to the headquarters and four permitted farm partners in Fort Collins. She does curbside pickups in Fort Collins and Timnath, but also has five drop-off sites in Fort Collins, Windsor and Loveland.

“We do everything with organic waste from top to bottom,” Blanchard-Poling said. “We pick it up, haul it and take it to whichever facility that route goes to. We have a very high retention rate of customers because we do such a good job in what we do,” Blanchard-Poling said. “It’s a really good feeling when you get a finished product out of what other people call waste.”

- Jamie Blanchard-Poling
For more info visit https://compostqueenfc.com/

Kory Moore Luther, Founder Metanoia

Metanoia

Metanoia is on the leading edge of public health workforce development. Founder, visionary and lead consultant, Kory Moore Luther, CPQC, ACC, MPH reflected about the Leading Edge Strategic Planning Series program of the Colorado Small Business Development Center Network. Kory stated, “(the program) supercharged the business.”

Kory took her weekly consulting team calls with national experts in public health from Michigan to the United States Virgin Islands in the parking lot of Front Range Community College in Fort Collins before the program began every Tuesday through the summer months. For Metanoia, it wasn’t the curriculum, instruction, or location that supercharged the business, it was relationships across businesses participating in the program. During the last class, Kory was “so impressed by the diversity of small businesses and founders who were dedicating so much effort to their passion and purpose.”

Metanoia (meh-ta-noy-ah) means the journey of transforming one’s mind, heart, self, or way of life and is a call to action for the public health industry across the globe. This small business began in 2019 as a small consulting company focused on building capacity across the national network of public health agencies to implement high impact, culture change learning and development strategies. Specifically, the learning model founded at the University of New Mexico, Project ECHO.

Officially established in January 2020, Metanoia’s client base expanded quickly to community health networks, public health institutes, public health training centers, schools of public health, state and local public health departments, not-for-profit community-based organizations, and large health systems. The goal: change burnout culture. The approach: Project ECHO, Coaching, and Action Learning.

Metanoia was involved in the “National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities” and represented lessons learned regarding Project ECHO in public health at the global metaECHO conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico just after the Leading Edge wrapped up in 2023.

Kory highlights, “the connections with B.A. Rebel and Explore Younique from Leading Edge gave not only myself, but coaches and consultants from across the country who have been fighting injustices in public health for decades the extra special care and attention we all needed. Just in time to supercharge our workforce while we build infrastructure!”

Metanoia is the first Leading Edge success story of 2024, celebrating the increased capacity to connect, amplify the work of BIPOC and women owned small businesses in Northern Colorado and spreading more joy and love in the public health industry locally, nationally, and globally! 

For more info visit metanoiamodel.com
 

Amy Snider, Owner Cups Community Coffee

Cups

Cups is a local, family-owned coffee shop in west Fort Collins. Amy Snider, owner and operator said, "Our cafe has been serving the community for over twenty years, and our family took over ownership in 2019, just 8 months before COVID. As all businesses can attest, it was a trying time! Fortunately, we were able to make the most of it by fundraising and then serving coffee and baked goods to essential workers throughout the town. We served over 1,100 in our community during the COVID shut down months."

She continued, "From this outreach, we established strong relationships within the community, especially, the Poudre School District(PSD) and nearby schools. And since our own children benefited tremendously from working here at an early age, we enrolled in PSD’s Workbased Learning Program to provide internships and work pathways at Cups. We host first time worker student interns, as well as open our cafe up for work tours, student shadowing and mentorship programs. We also partner with Project Search and ACE internships to provide exploration and experience to special needs students. We have received small business and work-based learning grants from the efforts we made and continue to make to utilize our cafe to serve others."

We have always done catering outside the shop for schools, business meetings, graduation parties, weddings, and such. We are looking forward to further growing this aspect of our business as we’ve added an in-house baker to our staff. We are excited to promote our offerings as a great option for small groups or businesses who want to support other local businesses and have fresh food and amazing coffee for their meetings or events. We look forward to rolling out our options and marketing our ease of ordering in the coming weeks!

When discussing how the Leading Edge helped Amy, she stated, "As all of us in the small business service industry can attest, the last few years have been extremely challenging to navigate financially. Wages, cost of goods, and all other expenses have risen. Even with a steady business growth and rise of prices, it has been difficult to yield a profitable business. I was ready for more support and to personally make more of a concerted effort to steady and rethink my business. In January of 2024, I signed up for the eight week Leading Edge Strategic Planning Series. It was just what I needed to inspire and get myself focused on redefining and re-imagining what the next five years will look like for Cups Community Coffee! I especially liked the requirement of at least three additional 1 on 1 meetings with SDBC advisors. In all of my prior business endeavors, I have always had a board or investor group, or colleagues. While my family has been a great support, they are also focused on their own student and business lives! I found the reconnection with SBDC to be just what I needed to feel the support, have accountability, and get advice and resources to propel me forward. I say reconnection, because I did connect with SBDC when I first took over the shop, but between the learning curve of a 7 day a week business, and then COVID, I just did what I could to keep it all going. We had fortunately enrolled our son, who was just 18 at the time, in one of the Quickbook Certification Courses that was offered. He went on to major in accounting at CSU and has been a huge help as a bookkeeper and accounting guide for the family business!"

"I can’t say enough how much the SBDC is helping me continue to push to grow and build our business. I have worked with and been exposed to several great advisors throughout the course including: Franklin Taggart, Amy Hamrick, Mike Gugliotto, Amanda Simental, Mike Bennett, and Bill Welter. One of note is Sean Orner, a QuickBooks(QB) bookkeeping advisor. Sean has been invaluable as a resource to me and our son in getting our QB files cleaned up, understanding the flow of QB online, properly categorizing and numbering our chart of accounts, importing data, as well as linking with our point of sale system and payroll systems."

"We are so glad to have the resource of the SBDC available and I tell everyone I know in small business to take advantage of this wonderful community partner."

For more info visit https://www.cupstafthill.com/

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Our Team

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Hope Hartman

Hope Hartman
Executive Director, Larimer SBDC
Hope Hartman | LinkedIn

Terri Donovan-Keirns

Terri Donovan-Keirns
Assistant Director, Larimer SBDC
Terri Donovan-Keirns | LinkedIn

Becky Douthit

Becky Douthit
Administrative Assistant, Larimer SBDC
Becky Douthit | LinkedIn

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Proud to Support Larimer County

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Main Location Fort Collins: Monday - Thursday 8am - 4pm, Virtual Fridays 8am- 4pm, Consultations by appointment only

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Thank You To Our Sponsors

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Thank You To Our Partners

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