FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2016

Local Business Owner Jeff Wasden Named to NSBA Board

Denver, CO -- Colorado Business Roundtable (COBRT) announced today that its president Jeff Wasden was recently elected to serve on the Board of Trustees for the National Small Business Association (NSBA). NSBA is the nation’s oldest small-business advocacy organization, and operates on a staunchly nonpartisan basis.

Wasden, a recognized leader in the small-business community, joins other small-business advocates from across the country as they work to promote the interests of small business to policymakers in Washington, D.C.

“As small-business owners, we face many significant challenges,” stated Wasden, “But there is no other place I’d rather be. I look forward to working with NSBA as we urge Congress and the administration to ease the small-business burden and support pro-small-business policies.”

This is Wasden’s second time serving in an executive role for NSBA. He originally served on their national leadership council representing Colorado’s sixth district through the family business he co-owns.

Wasden attended his first NSBA Board of Trustees meeting this week in Washington, D.C. where he discussed critical issues facing small business, namely tax reform, regulatory restraint, health care costs and how the Affordable Care Act will impact small business, and much more. The NSBA Board of Trustees also met with the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy’s Director of the Office of Economic Research, Janemarie Mulvey, Ph.D. Mulvey to discuss small-business finance.

“I am proud to work with such an exemplary group of leaders who have made small-business advocacy a top priority,” stated NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken. “Wasden came to us highly recommended and I look forward to his activism and leadership for years to come.

For more on NSBA, please visit www.nsba.biz or follow us at @NSBAAdvocate.

Colorado Business Roundtable (COBRT) is a prominent advocate for proactive policy that strengthens the economy and allows businesses to grow and thrive in Colorado and beyond. Through strategic alliances with great groups of industry leaders, chambers of commerce, educational institutions and governmental bodies, our goal is to improve the business environment, increase effectiveness, and expand the networks of our partners. Engage online at www.cobrt.com and @ColoradoBRT.

Contact:
Tara Alexander, PR Coordinator
Colorado Business Roundtable
303-394-6210
[email protected]

For Immediate Release

January 13, 2015

Contact: Tara Alexander, Public Relations
Colorado Business Roundtable
303-394-6210
[email protected]

Colorado Business Roundtable Supports Job Creators Network Major New Campaign to Bring Small Businesses Back
New national poll finds small businesses are still in recession mode; overtaxation, overregulation, and lack of access to capital to blame

DENVER – Colorado Business Roundtable (COBRT) is throwing its support behind a major new campaign launched today by The Job Creators Network (JCN) that draws attention to and identifies the major reasons for the ongoing struggles of American small businesses, with the ultimate goal of working with policymakers and stakeholders across the nation who are committed to creating an environment to help small businesses flourish and create jobs. The campaign, called Bring Small Businesses Back, consists of new polling information on small businesses, commercials on cable news networks, print ads in the Washington D.C. region, and a comprehensive white paper analyzing the state and challenges of small businesses.

Jeff Wasden, President of COBRT, explains a long history of support for small business. "COBRT has supported small businesses since its inception in 2001. I serve on the national board for the Small Business Association as well as several Chamber of Commerce Boards, and I have experience as a small business owner as well. COBRT and our national affiliate Business Roundtable work closely with some of the largest companies in the country and world, and that means we work with some of the top small businesses as well. We all work together – big, mid, small, B2B, B2C, along the supply chain – toward successful enterprise. Through a 50/50 mix of efforts for public policy and best business practices, COBRT brings together companies of all sizes and supports our fellow small-businesses."

COBRT was founded among a family of companies -- small business companies, in fact. Founder Gayle Dendinger says, "No one starts a small business thinking that it will be easy. But many small business owners do anticipate and appreciate the support they receive from customers as well as regulators. Defending Main Street in a literal and metaphorical sense keeps the character of our country and economy intact."

In conjunction with the campaign’s launch, JCN commissioned a national poll* which shows overtaxation, overregulation, and a lack of access to capital among the leading reasons why small businesses are being threatened. It finds that only 1 in 5 small business owners plan to hire additional employees over the next year. Fewer than 1 in 3 responded that doing business over the next year would be easier than the previous one. By a large margin, respondents identified overtaxation and overregulation as the main hurdles they face. The campaign will promote solutions to these challenges that can finally Bring Small Businesses Back.

The campaign is running commercials in the Washington D.C. region tomorrow on the cable news stations MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, and CNN. The ad features Stephen Bienko, founder and president of 42 Holdings and franchisee of College Hunks Hauling Junk, explaining his concerns about how government overreach threatens small businesses like his.

Watch the commercial here.

The campaign is placing full page ads in the Washington D.C. edition of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal and Roll Call featuring Carlos Gazitua, President of Sergio’s Family Restaurants, a growing restaurant chain in South Florida. The ad is titled, “It’s Time To Bring Small Businesses Back” and its copy highlights the importance of small businesses to the American economy and the threats that they face from government overreach.

View the ad here.

The campaign’s white paper, “Bring Small Businesses Back: An Overview of the State of American Small Business and the Hurdles They Face,” documents numerous indicators revealing the ongoing stagnation of American small businesses and highlights how overtaxation, overregulation, and a lack of access to capital are to blame. It provides an unvarnished look at the true state of American small businesses.

Read the white paper here.

“The engine of American growth and prosperity is small business, but it has been corroded by government overreach," said Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network. "The Job Creators Network is committed to promoting solutions that would reduce the tax and regulatory burden on small businesses to finally Bring Small Businesses Back.”

For more information, visit DefendMainStreet.com. To schedule an interview, contact Andrew Ransom at [email protected].

*National poll of 408 small businesses conducted by Connection Strategies on January 7th and 8th, 2016.

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