Wyo. ranked as most pro-entrepreneur state

CHEYENNE – Wyoming is the most pro-entrepreneur state in the nation according to a recent report by the Small Business Survival Foundation.The nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation rated all 50 states on the basis of government burdens that could stand in the way of entrepreneurial endeavors. Wyoming’s regulatory and tax burdens were the lowest, followed by neighbor South Dakota and Nevada. Colorado ranked 12th in the survey.
“Wyoming offers the best climate for entrepreneurship in the nation,” the foundation said. “Wyoming benefits from not imposing personal income, capital gains and corporate income taxes, as well as levying no estate tax beyond the federal pick-up tax level.” The SBS Foundation also cited Wyoming’s low costs for health insurance, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance and its relatively low crime rate.
The foundation said its Small Business Survival Index, which includes 11 government-imposed or related costs on business, provides a measure for how states treat small businesses and entrepreneurs, the “engines of economic growth.”
“A hospitable climate for entrepreneurs means faster economic growth and more jobs,” SBS Foundation president Karen Kerrigan said in a news release.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case in Wyoming, where more than 90 percent of the businesses are classified as small. By virtually all measures, Wyoming’s economy has not been growing as rapidly as the Northern Colorado Front Range or neighboring states in the West.
Wyoming’s employment totals have been stagnant over the past year and even have declined slightly in some months, though those statistics don’t always reflect new entrepreneurs or “lone eagles” who are operating businesses from their homes. Nonetheless, the Cowboy State does have some interesting entrepreneurs.Allwayz plans for growth
PINE BLUFFS – Like the old Arlo Guthrie song about Alice’s Restaurant, you can get anything you want at Allwayz Manufacturing.
Allwayz is a job shop that manufactures everything from parts for hay balers and mowers to Western and wildlife novelties from plate steel. The metal silhouettes that adorn everything from mail boxes to barns account for almost 40 percent of the business, but you can get napkin holders, paperweights, fireplace screens or even coffee tables – just about anything.
“I always say we’re a job shop, because a job shop takes on anything,´ said Dean Bowman, manager and co-owner of a family-run business in Wyoming’s southeast corner. “Most job shops consist of machining and welding, and we’re set up to do machine work and welding. If they’ve got a job, we can do it.”
The welding and manufacturing business was started in 1981 as a spinoff division from another family business, Bowman Irrigation, founded in 1970 by Dean’s father, Dale. Bowman Irrigation does everything but drill the wells in a 150-mile radius from Pine Bluffs covering southeastern Wyoming, southwestern Nebraska and northeastern Colorado.
Allwayz hopes to add an 8,000-square-foot addition this year or next for new office and work space, though the firm has been too busy this summer to even think about embarking on the project this year.
“I was hoping it was going to get done this year, but that isn’t going to happen,” Bowman said. “So I’m shooting for the near future, but near to me might be five or 10 years.”Vendors tap into Frontier Days
CHEYENNE – And like Allwayz and Alice’s Restaurant, you could get just about everything you wanted from various vendors who tried to tap into the expanded market created by Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Frontier Park’s exposition hall has always been transformed into a booming retail center during the last full week in July, with additional retail booths underneath the West Stands and on the path to the carnival midway. But other enterprising vendors set up on street corners near the park and even on the roads into Cheyenne.
As might be expected, Western wear and novelty items are a main part of the fare, but you can find everything from fine jewelry to Elvis tributes and cooking-ware demonstrations. My favorite was the woman selling house plants on one of Cheyenne’s main streets. Late in the week, I went back to ask her how sales were, but she had moved on, presumably to a more lucrative location.
Overall, Frontier Days crowds were down at the rodeo, other events in and around Cheyenne and especially at the night shows. That was natural, given the huge record crowds last year for the 100th “Daddy of ’em All,” but the drop was greater than many expected, and we’ll take another look at that next month when all the numbers are in.Laramie duo grows herb business
LARAMIE – Like Native Americans a century ago, two Laramie women are using herbs found in southern Wyoming to produce natural herbal health-care products for consumers.
Elk Mountain Herbs Inc. of Laramie is operated by Karin Guernsey and Caroline Johnson, whose goal is not only to provide high-quality herbal products but to educate people in their beneficial uses.
“Herbs can be an excellent help for when the body is not yet sick but out of balance – just slightly off,” Guernsey said. “Often, their physician will be unable to find anything actually wrong. Still, the person doesn’t feel well.”
Guernsey was born and raised in Germany, where herbal preparations are a main focus of health care, and she worked for 16 years as an ethnobotanist for the Wyoming State Archeologist’s Office. Johnson also is an experienced herbalist, who learned the value of herbs growing up on her family’s Aspen Grove Ranch near Elk Mountain, still the source of many of their herbs.
The two partners began gathering herbs for a small clientele in the early 1990s and incorporated Elk Mountain Herbs in 1994. In 1996, they opened the Herb House in Laramie, which serves as retail outlet for their health-care products and herbal education efforts, laboratory and wholesale warehouse.
The U.S. market for herbal products is relatively new, but Elk Mountain Herbs sees it as growing and wants to help speed that growth.Dennis E. Curran can be reached at (307) 778-3666. His fax number is (307) 778-3600, and his e-mail address is denncurran@aol.com.