Williams recognizes Colorado businesses as part of National Small Business Week

DENVER, May 7, 2015 - The Small Business Administration designated May 4-8, 2015 as National Small Business Week. Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams marked the occasion Tuesday in an email to Colorado business owners registered with the Secretary of State’s office. The email message contained helpful resources for small businesses from the SBA, as well as tips for starting a small business in Colorado offered by the Secretary of State’s office.

"Thank you for being a part of Colorado’s business community, and for doing so much to ensure our state has a vibrant and bright future," Williams wrote in the email.

The Secretary of State’s office is the gateway to starting a business in Colorado. According to the latest Quarterly Business & Economic Indicators Report, published by the Secretary of State’s office and the Business Research Division at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder, there are 571,386 entities in good standing in Colorado. The first quarter of 2015 saw a record high of existing entity renewals, examining data going back to 1990. In the three-month period ending in March, there were 126,282 business entity renewals, an increase of 6.9% over the last year and a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% over the past five years.

During the first quarter, a total of 28,115 new businesses filed with the Secretary of State’s office, an increase over the fourth quarter of 2014 and a 6% increase over the prior year.

Colorado recorded 103,719 new entities during the 12 months ending in March - a 15.7 percent increase over the previous twelve months.