HB 13-1003 Summary

• Creates an economic gardening pilot project within the Colorado Office of Economic Development to provide strategic business assistance to second-stage companies (those with 6-99 employees, $500K-$50M annual revenue, and Colorado operations for 2+ years).

• Requires at least 8 small business development center staff members to obtain economic gardening certification by September 1, 2013, before services can be provided to participating companies.

• State director must select a minimum of 20 companies to participate by March 1, 2014, with each participating company paying a one-time $750 fee deposited into the economic gardening pilot project fund.

• Participating companies receive 12 months of strategic assistance including market research, competitor analysis, geographic information systems analysis, search engine optimization, and business modeling services.

• Appropriates $200,000 from the general fund and $18,750 from the economic gardening pilot project fund for fiscal year 2013-2014; pilot project terminates June 30, 2016, and the entire section repeals July 1, 2017.