fbpx

Dale’s Meats

Paul Beier has family business roots in the meat industry dating back to 1950 and has continued
the tradition by carrying on his father’s business, Dale’s Meats, in Brighton, Colorado. Weathering the
impacts of a pandemic has not been an easy feat for small businesses, especially ones with such
longstanding history attached. However, through the support of the CARES Act funding, Paul as been
able to shepherd Dale’s Meats through the economic slowdown and has even positioned the business
for future success by implementing new approaches.


By the end of February 2020, Dale’s Meats was experiencing an increase of 40% from the
previous year’s sales. Paul was looking into the possibilities of hiring more employees or purchasing
improved equipment to increase efficiency, but when the pandemic began to make headway in the U.S.
the business took a devastating blow. By mid-March wholesale business had virtually stopped and for
the next two months the only reliable sales would be sourced online.


To react to this sudden shift, Paul began ramping up the business’ current e-commerce
marketing, increasing email campaigns with content focused on healthcare workers and how to stay
prepared during these unforeseen times. He also applied for the Paycheck Protection Program when it
first went live as well as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program. After a rollercoaster of ups and
downs and having jumped through a few hoops, Dale’s Meats received the necessary funding to stay
afloat.


Due to support from the SBA funding, Paul was able to bring back all his employees who felt
comfortable working and was able to make a new hire as well as they work to get ahead of the curve for
the return of business demands. Looking ahead, Paul is interested in diversifying the product line and
customer base to offer more options to secure the business. Looking back, Paul is thankful for the
supportive community of SBDC consultants, banks, vendors, industry associations, the SBA, and his local
community, who have all come together to help small businesses navigate this challenging time through
financial assistance, guidance, information, resources, and encouragement.

CG Habitats

CG Habitats is a premium “Board sport Lifestyle” apparel and accessories brand that strives to make the world’s best product offering high quality products for snowboarders, skateboarders, and others who live an active life. Their merchandise ranges from Technical Streetwear, to headwear, to detailed leather gloves. According to Brandi Paik and Co-founder Austin Paik, CG Habitats was born from necessity. As riders who spent nearly every day on the snow, they struggled to find products

Read More »
Mother Tucker Brewery

After decades in corporate America Deb and Scott Tucker agreed it was time to start living their dreams. So after 30 years, with one of the pair in risk management, they decided to take a calculated risk at owning their own business and started Mother Tucker Brewery. They started practicing their craft in their garage inviting neighbors to come in and taste their wares. Their brews were a hit with neighbor and friends. After many

Read More »
Rise Collective Counseling

What drives a person to boldly venture down the winding path of owning their own business varies from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. For Megan Giehl, the motivation developed over years of training and experience in the systemic relationship therapy field. She knew she wanted to provide quality care to her clients for the long haul and felt owning her own practice would provide her the flexibility she was desiring to do so in a way that felt authentic to her.

Read More »
Mon Cheri Bakery & Bistro

Baking for Cheri Spickard owner of Mon Cheri started as a young child in her grandmother’s kitchen. Cheri loved spending time in Grandma’s kitchen making biscuits and cookies using Grandma’s method of a pinch of this and a bit of that. She did not learn about recipes until age 13 when working with her mother in her mother’s catering business. No one on her mother’s team liked to make deserts so Cheri took out the

Read More »
Ruby Jean Patisserie

Jen Essex, owner and baker at Ruby Jean Patisserie came to the Small Business Development Center with a passion for baking and a dream of opening up her own bakery shop. Having completed her French technique training in Chicago Jen was driven to make her dream a reality. Jen decided the best strategy was to enroll in our 11 week Leading Edge Business Planning course which prepares students for starting their own business and writing

Read More »
Old School Heros

Tom Concannon, owner of Old School Heros, had the business plans set, loans lined up, and was even doing walk throughs to lease a space for his brick and mortar sandwich shop in Thornton, a dream that had been in the making for more than 25 years and one he had been actively pursuing for the past four years. But suddenly all those plans fell away. Sound familiar? As restaurants shuttered across the country, grappling

Read More »
Skip to content