Jesse Esparza

As the CEO of Morning Sun Enterprises LLC, Jesse has provided guidance and supported to a variety of individuals, organizations and companies. At the present he is a certified counselor and is a business advisor to the East Colorado, the Boulder and North Metro Small Business Development Centers.

He is also certified as a Health Coverage Guide counselor for small business owners, providing direction and support for their small business healthcare needs.

He has counseled and provided needed services and resources to over 400 new potential and existing entrepreneurs. He is also currently a Board member of the Carbon Valley Chamber in Firestone, Colorado and the President of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Boulder County Work Force.

His professional career has included 31 years as an educator 21 of those years as a principal. His leadership skills include helping individual improve their performance, cross cultural education, improving organizations, business development, and tapping potential and appropriate resources. He was the Colorado Small Business Development Center volunteer of the year in 2007 and the Small Business Development Center Counselor of the Year in 2009.

Nancy Barnett

Nancy has 25 years of experience in corporate training, human resources, and vocational business training. Nancy’s passion is helping business owners start or improve their businesses by understanding all the components to build a strong business foundation. She takes great pleasure in helping owners with strategic planning and business plan development. She spent ten years at national Education College in California, as a teacher, Business Department Chairperson and Director of Education, as well as 14 years with AAA Colorado as Director of Corporate Training before joining Suzy to create Apis Business Solutions.

Besides working side-by-side with Suzy to build Apis Business Solutions, she is a trainer and consultant at the SBDC (Small Business Development Center) Metro Denver focusing on small business development as start-ups. She also designs and manages business training delivered through Apis. She and her husband, David have four grown children and eight grandchildren. In her free time, she enjoys genealogy, bead embroidery and collecting antiques.

Nancy’s areas of expertise are:

• Business Plans
• Start-up questions-how to file documents to get your business up and running
• Defining Overall Marketing Strategy
• Using Quick Books data in your business

Mike Saunders

Mike Saunders is a speaker, bestselling author of four books, and a successful business coach who holds an MBA in Marketing. Mike is also an Adjunct Marketing Professor at several Universities and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council.

“I empower entrepreneurs to break out of obscurity by amplifying their expertise to a position of prestige to become an instant celebrity. This creates omnipresence so they are seen as an Expert and Authority in their niche or industry to attract more clients, increase profits and make more impact!”

I know you want a proven marketing system to increase your revenues with high-revenue clients. In order to do that, you need higher returns on every marketing dollar you spend to get more profit and more impact. The problem is that “Shiny Object Syndrome” keeps distracting you with the latest marketing fad…and you feel pretty frustrated at the enormous amount of time you feel compelled to spend prospecting. In fact, you quickly discover that your TRUE problem you are trying to solve is Obscurity! Your best prospects simply do not know you exist.

Most Entrepreneurs struggle with not being seen as the obvious choice in their market, and it keeps you stuck on the “Revenue Roller-Coaster”, searching for marketing solutions that just don’t work! I have empowered hundreds of entrepreneurs just like you! I’ll guide you off the “Revenue Roller-Coaster” to thrust you in the spotlight of being known and visible.

You really don’t have a problem with your marketing…it just needs to be optimized with an Authority Positioning Portfolio.™ The Authority Positioning Portfolio™ is a simple tool that allows an entrepreneur to quickly and clearly display their Authority & Expertise & build instant trust with a prospect. When this is done, all of your marketing will work better!

I can help you integrate Authority Positioning into your marketing in the following areas: Search Engine Marketing, Internet Marketing, Video Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Content Creation,  Social Media Marketing, etc. Building Your Authority is Your #1 Priority™

Peter Brissette

Peter has more than fifteen years successful experience in B2B and B2C sales and marketing for small businesses.

Working in such industries as advertising, automotive, catering, financial services, computer hardware and software, senior care, high tech manufacturing, internet marketing, consumer electronics, video security and many more.

Peter can walk a small business through a discovery process to uncover the key factors that will differentiate them from their competition. This differentiation will oil the machine of digital marketing for business growth.

Peter has expertise in the following areas: Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development, Internet Marketing, Video Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Content Creation, Product Development, Social Media Marketing, etc.

He is an expert at creating digital platforms, systems and tools for small businesses.

Courtney Berg

Business humorist Courtney Berg turns typical HR and management issues into fun learning experiences. She draws from her years of human resources and operations management experience to bring boring employment concepts to life. Courtney has built HR departments from the ground up and has experience from front line supervision to vice president in both HR and operations in a variety of industries. Her goal is to bring her knowledge and experience to business owners, making management easier for them.Courtney is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). In December 2008, Courtney was featured in a “How To Conduct Annual Employee Reviews” in Inc. Magazine. Courtney is also a 2009 Denver Business Journal “Outstanding Women In Business” nominee. She received the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce “Chamber Champion” award in 2011. Courtney has a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management from the University of Northern Colorado.

Courtney’s areas of expertise are:

• HR issues
• Hiring
• Firing
• Employee Relations
• Unemployment claims
• Background checks
• Company culture
• Time management
• New hire paperwork

Suzy Schultz

Like many of her entrepreneurial clients, Suzy did not achieve her expertise through formal education beyond a high school diploma but instead through on-the-job service, self-study and mentoring from peers in her field. To gain additional technical knowledge she successfully completed a 12-month business certification program through Barnes Business College, where she was recognized as Student of the Year. Her 30+ year bookkeeping and accounting career has focused on the small to medium sized business community with a passion for providing useful and accurate financial information in a way that matches the needs and style of the individual business owner. In 1997, she founded her first private accounting and bookkeeping practice. Based on that experience, she partnered with Nancy Barnett to form the bookkeeping and accounting firm of Apis Business Solutions, LLC in August 2008 and in 2014 partnered with Nancy and Judy to form eL3. Suzy teaches financial business classes through Colorado Small Business Development Centers, Mi Casa Resource Center and for groups such as the Veteran’s Incubator. She comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and educators and embraces their combined spirits of self-reliance and courage backed by the knowledge needed to maintain success.

Teri Sanchez

Teri use to direct the North Metro Denver Small Business Development Center’s (NMSBC) Brighton office, providing advising services and educational programs to business owners looking to start or grow their business. She helps aspiring entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses, helps small firms grow, and provides the resources businesses need to make critical decisions. Teri also coordinates strategic partnerships with local education programs and higher education and Adams County Workforce Center to promote lifelong learning opportunities.

Teri has exceptional leadership skills and is accomplished in creating programs and collaborative partnerships. When she was the director for the Brighton Center Teri managed the day to day operations and was responsible for conducting community outreach efforts, developing marketing strategy, overseeing programs and recruits the center facilitators and counselors always seeking professionals who are up to date on the best business practices and knowledge about current business trends.

Teri’s background in curriculum development and as a bilingual multicultural trainer throughout the western United States lends itself nicely in working with diversified groups.
She has owned several successful small businesses, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Behavioral Science from Metropolitan State College of Denver, an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Community College of Denver and several certificates in counseling, economic development and business modeling.

She is the 2012 MVP for North Metro Denver SBDC and a past recipient of the DIAP Best Practices in Business Award for the creation of the original Brighton Small Business Assistance Center in 2003. Her passion is helping people succeed.