August 2008 In This Issue Borrower Success Story Mountain Whitewater Decents News From CEF HP Grant Helps Form Partnerships And Bring Training To Entrepreneurs

COLORADO ENTERPRISE FUND Mountain Whitewater Descents At their first meeting, Lewis Hagler, CEF’s Director of Lending, recalls that Bradley Modesitt was serious about taking his business to the next level. He was an experienced river guide in Idaho who came to Fort Collins to purchase and revitalize a river guiding business.  Mountain Whitewater Descents, guides whitewater-rafting trips on the Cache la Poudre River, Colorado’s only designated “Wild and Scenic” river.   Rafting trips are available on a full day or half-day basis from May through August.  They also offer raft, canoe, kayak and inflatable kayak rentals, photography of the trips, as well as retail and nature photography stores.  In his off-season, Bradley has authored three books titled, Pura Vida, Taking the Old Highway, and Professionally Guiding Whitewater.   Since 2000, when Bradley purchased Mountain Whitewater Descents, they have gone from 18 employees to 58.  When we asked Bradley what impact the business has had on him as the owner, his employees and his community, he had the following to say.  “ The business is a great love where I met my wife and where I have fun.  I consider my company a transition for employees between college and that ‘Real Job.’  I make them into better employees and thinkers.  We do an annual river cleanup in May.  Each year we give over 100 trips to local organizations for bettering our community." And the community noticed what a good citizen and entrepreneur Bradley is - he won the Arlene Nedendog Award for promoting cultural diversity, and was the runner-up for the Rising Business Star Of The Year by the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Bradley has said that his loan from CEF allowed him to buy "superb" equipment so that his guests have a better rafting and kayaking experience.  He recently sent us an email telling us that, “I love my job - it gives me the ability to serve people and give them memories that will last a lifetime.  I owe it to you guys for trusting in me that I had a good idea and could make it happen.  Thanks!!!”   Before summer is over consider making some memories of your own.  Visit www.MountainWhitewaterDescents.com. Hewlett-Packard Grant Helps Form Partnerships And Bring Training To Entrepreneurs In 2007, Colorado Enterprise Fund (CEF) was the recipient of a Hewlett-Packard Technology Grant which helped CEF outfit a state-of-the-art laptop computer lab in order to provide new and established small businesses in the community with much needed resources and training.  With this goal in mind, CEF reached out to SCORE - Counselors to America's Small Business -  a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide.   SCORE is a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration.  This strategic partnership helped us launch our first classes earlier this year.  SCORE has been instrumental in the advertising, registration and instruction for our Beginner QuickBooks classes.  The classes are held in the CEF training room using CEF’s computer lab.  There have been over 50 entrepreneurs who have completed the class since March of this year when the program was launched.  The SCORE volunteer, Sydney Lapidus, who teaches Beginning QuickBooks, has a real hands-on approach.  One student said, “Sydney does a great job and gets into important specifics in a short period of time!”  CEF has also developed two other strategic partnerships with Colorado Lending Source and CHASE Bank to help us take our computer lab to other Colorado communities.  CEF is currently building partnerships throughout the State in order to conduct classes on QuickBooks and other small business related issues.  If you would like to discuss the possibility of partnering with CEF to utilize this portable computer lab in your area, please contact Teresa Vanderbosch at (303) 860-0242, ext. 11. Colorado Enterprise Fund 1888 Sherman Street, Suite 530 Denver, CO 80203 Phone: 303-860-0242 Fax:     303-860-0409 Please visit our website at www.coloradoentperisefund.org. Colorado Enterprise Fund is a nonprofit community development business loan fund.  Our purpose is to foster economic opportunity and create jobs through business ownership and expansion.  CEF has provided over 760 loans totaling over $14 million to Colorado businesses that are not able to obtain adequate bank financing.  We support our borrowers with business counseling and technical assistance to ensure loan repayment and business success.  CEF has been serving Colorado small businesses since 1976.