Part of the City of Las Vegas’ Business Incubator Program and located at the Urban Chamber of Commerce, the Business Success Center is managed by the Nevada Small Business Development Center (NSBDC), a statewide business-assistance outreach program of the University of Nevada, Reno, College of Business.

Programs provided at the Business Success Center include many currently offered at other NSBDC offices in southern Nevada and throughout the state, as well as services of several other partner agencies who all aim to work together to further economic development in the state. In addition to the City of Las Vegas and the Urban Chamber of Commerce, some other key partners in the project include the College of Southern Nevada, the Nevada Department of Transportation, the Nevada MicroEnterprise Initiative, the Nevada Procurement Outreach Program, SCORE, UNLV and the Veterans Business Outreach Center.

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Each is in different points of owning a small business, but all share a desire to grow their businesses.

Bautista will begin selling her product at local farmers’ markets in June. Ayo opened his financial services firm last year. While Heinbaugh has been in business for more than five years, she is looking to expand.

“I took the NxLevel course to be able to grow my business,” Heinbaugh said. “I am successful, but I’ve hit a point where I need to take it to the next level, literally.”

All three are participants in an entrepreneurial 13-week training program called NxLevel offered by the Nevada Small Business Development Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. The program will have more than 100 small business owners and entrepreneurs graduating from the course in June.

For more than 10 years, NxLevel has taught about 2,500 Nevada business leaders how to plan, execute and better their operations. The course was offered in Reno and Las Vegas, as well as Carson City, Virginia City, Winnemucca and Yerington this spring.

NxLevel training is a national program started in 1994. More than 300,000 graduates have learned how to execute business research, legal structure, financial planning and growth plans.

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Chuck Alvey met with lots of CEOs as head of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada for 13 years before he stepped down last year.

Now, he will be working with CEOs on another level: overseeing a peer group of local business leaders under the Vistage International executive training program.

Working part-time as a Vistage independent contractor, Alvey said he will recruit and select up to 16 chief executives to meet one day a month to discuss challenges, listen to speakers and help each other improve on the job.

“There are no agendas. We’re there to help each other,” Alvey said of the Vistage program. “There are one-to-one coaching sessions. That’s what I do. I get to pick out the right people, and I’ll be very selective. If someone’s not willing to share or be open, it’s not good for the group.”

With his tenure at EDAWN, as well as eight years as general manager of KOLO TV-Channel 8 in Reno, he said he’s well-positioned to seek area candidates for the Vistage program.

Alvey, who was replaced at EDAWN by Mike Kazmierski in November, said 15,000 Vistage participants are in 16 countries, with most staying in the program for an average of eight years. Alvey said the program costs $7,000 to $14,000 a year.

“People find they can run their business better,” he said of the leadership training under San Diego-based Vistage, a privately owned company started in 1957 in Wisconsin.

And Alvey said he sees benefits in his new assignment paralleling EDAWN’s mission.

“It’s economic development, in a way,” he said. “If 16 companies in our area can improve, you’re growing the economy that way.”

This is the first time a UNLV team has received the top prize since the competition began four years ago. UNLV beat out collegiate teams from Arkansas and Oklahoma.

“I could not be more proud of our students,” said Andrew Hardin, faculty advisor for the teams and director of the UNLV Center for Entrepreneurship at the Lee Business School. "This is a wonderful accomplishment for UNLV and the state of Nevada. The money students won will go back to the businesses created by our students."

Geyser Flow Control

Geyser Flow Control took home the first prize of $30,000. The water-saving device was created when UNLV students partnered with local entrepreneur Peter Maksymec to develop his business idea. Maksymec developed a metal disc that can be attached to a sprinkler head and limits water flow during a device malfunction. The tool reduces the flow of pressure to the sprinkler head, resulting in more concentrated water drops hitting the lawn. The team estimates the device could save as much as 10,000 gallons per year.

Earlier this year, the team received the grand prize at the Dominic Anthony Marroco 2012 Southern Nevada Business Plan Competition, as well as second place in the graduate category of the Nevada Governor’s Cup. The company already has a Nevada business license and plans to begin production in June.

“This is giving us a lot of opportunity to show the community what we’ve done,” Maksymec said. “The science for the product is there, now we need to get the word out to the public and take this technology to Clark County, the state and beyond Nevada.”

The team included UNLV students Michael Ginannini, Seth Ostrowski, Paul Kotchka-Smith, Erin Johnson and Joshua Ellison.

MASH Tool USA

In second place was MASH Tool USA, a team of UNLV students that created a business plan around a pogo stick shaped tool for use in landscaping. The MASH tool is designed to help dig and plow yards, is readily portable and weighs about 25 pounds.

MASH tool was conceived by UNLV engineering students as part of a bi-annual senior class completion to design and create inventions with commercial potential that solve everyday engineering challenges.

Students in UNLV’s Master of Business Administration program then teamed up with engineering undergraduate students to develop business plans for the projects. UNLV began the partnership between engineering and MBA students about two years ago and has experienced continued success in several regional competitions.

Earlier this year the MASH Tool team received first prize in the graduate division for the Nevada Governor’s Cup. Recipients included Angela Douglas, Elizabeth Lewis, Sarah Zalas, Brandon Peters and Peter Nazarechuck.

1^st Place – $30,000: Geyser Flow Control

Geyser Flow Control created the patented GFC Device. A low-cost, easy to install water flow restrictor for irrigation systems, it minimizes water loss if a sprinkler head fails and corrects over-pressurization. It is set to save Vegas 2.5B gal water.

•             Team Captain: Michael Giannini, MIS/MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Seth Ostrowski, MIS, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Paul Kotchka-Smith, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Erin Johnson, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Joshua Ellison, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Faculty Advisor: Andrew Hardin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2^nd Place – $20,000: MASH Tool USA

MASH Tool brings you all your landscaping and construction needs!

•             Team Captain: Angela Douglas, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Elizabeth Lewis, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Sarah Zalas, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Brandon Peters, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Peter Nazarechuck, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Angela Douglas, MBA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
•             Faculty Advisor: Andrew Hardin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.  Wire Ideas – Undergraduate – Room 8
SpectrumFX – Graduate – Room 9

9:40 a.m. – 10:40 a.m.   Simpler Solutions – Undergraduate– Room 8
SpatiaLink Solutions – Graduate – Room 9

MORNING BREAK 10:40 a.m. – 11 a.m.

11 a.m. – noon  Moleculera Labs – Undergraduate – Room 8
Geyser Flow Control – Graduate – Room 9

LUNCH  Students are on their own for lunch.

1 p.m. – 2 p.m.  Envirohaven – Undergraduate – Room 8
PsychSavvy – Graduate – Room 9

2 p.m. – 3 p.m.  Hydrovate – Undergraduate – Room 8
Boston Mountain Biotech– Graduate – Room 9

AFTERNOON BREAK 3 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.  Bright Sanitation – Undergraduate – Room 8
MASH Tool – Graduate – Room 9

Mines are running at full-bore in a modern-day gold rush fueled by never-before-seen prices that make Nevada, if it were its own country, No. 5 in the world for gold production.

The operations along the rich Carlin Trend some 300 miles northeast of Reno are both scraping the surface on pits a mile across and tunneling down a third of a mile or more.

Typically, it can take five to seven tons of ore — enough to fill a dump truck — to get one ounce of gold through a lengthy process of crushing, grinding and chemical processing.

It’s a lot of work for a little return, and the payout is hard to see — the gold produced in Nevada isn’t visible until the final stages when it’s separated from gray sludge and poured into 900-ounce, 90 percent-pure bars.

But at $1,600 or more per ounce on world markets, that works out to $1.3 million per bar. And in 2010, Nevada mines produced 5.34 million ounces of gold — the equivalent of 5,933 bars.

That’s big business, for sure, for several mining enterprises led by global corporate giants Newmont Mining Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp., which operate side by side on the Carlin Trend, considered the most prolific mining district in the Western Hemisphere.

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When was the last time the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of clean energy? Or agreed with the Senate — and the President — on any legislation in recent memory? Well, the new “Jumpstart Our Business Startups” (JOBS) Act, was overwhelmingly and quickly passed by both houses and signed into law by President Obama April 5. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has 90 days to weigh in. But assuming the intent of Congress prevails, here’s what’s possible….

The new law has the potential to change the rules for raising capital for clean energy startups, entrepreneurs, and other small companies, defined by the law as “Emerging Growth Companies” (EGC’s). Once formalized with final SEC language — theoretically, by Jul 5 — small companies will have more relaxed timing and thresholds for advertising, accounting and SEC registration.

Who Can Benefit?

Any EGC with less than $10 million in assets, $1 billion in gross revenue, and fewer than 2000 investors can now seek access to capital markets, according to the new law, notwithstanding the SEC 90-day window for amendments. In addition, individual investors will have access to share in the growth of these emerging companies, previously unavailable and unknown to them. Here’s Part 4 of a well-written 4-part discussion of the JOBS Act, with parts 1-3 at the bottom of the post.

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