About Local Business

The Mile High Business Alliance believes that when we have successful local businesses, our communities are healthier and our economy more stable. Watch the following videos for more context regarding local business and their connection to community:

First an intro to local businesses and their impact on the economy:

And this interview about local businesses and their purpose:

About Local Capital

The term "local capital" is not a standard part of people's vocabulary. This picture illustrates our meaning:

Financial Capital is one piece of the puzzle and there are things we can do to mobilize our local financial capital better. When you ask a business owner what they would do with $100k of investment, they spend it on those other sections of this picture.

However, even when cash is short, most of the resources in those sections can be mobilized by other means. This is the beginning of learning to mobilize local capital.

Financial Capital
Creating new means of accessing and circulating financial resources on a local basis, reducing the need to export value to import the cash our communities need to function. Speaking locally, this is sometimes referred to as Community Capital.

Business Capacity
Tapping into excess business capacity and harnessing other latent local capacities which are otherwise underutilized. We can't afford to lose our productive infrastructure because of economic downturn.

Shared Assets
Recognizing, increasing access to and building on the shared assets in our communities such as built infrastructure, the environment, renewable energy (sunlight, wind, etc.), neighborhood image and public art.

Human Resources
Access to the people, skills, expertise, arts, culture, knowledge and information technologies in our communities as a real asset to business operations and economic sustainability.

About the Summit

In the past twelve months, the face of our economy has changed drastically. Unemployment rates are a record high and the rocking of the financial systems has impacted all businesses. As Wall St. struggles to gain its footing and Washington attempts to establish economic stability, local and small business have borne huge burdens in this recession. Without government bailouts or special interest lobbying, many small farmers, retailers, service providers and manufacturers are looking for ways to deal with reduced access to credit, lower revenues and higher costs.

We believe that now is the time to learn from economic challenges and establish ways of working together that build a healthy economy - one that can provide for our needs without damaging people or wasting resources in the process. We can strengthen collaboration across business and other sectors and work to build a resilient local economy.

The Local Capital Summit is a culmination of many conversations with local business owners and community leaders over the past six months. It's also a way to start working together in new ways, to ensure that our resources and time are being invested in local businesses and a local economy that can withstand new problems and challenges.

The Summit is being organized by the Mile High Business Alliance and our partners, including:

Metro State College Center for Innovation
Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment
City of Denver's Office of Economic Development
State of Colorado Office of Economic Development
Fund for Complementary Currency
WWC Events
Downtown Denver Partnership

Support for the Summit is provided by:

The D Note
Great Divide Brewing Co.
Pajama Baking Co.
Queen Anne Bed & Breakfast
..and more locally owned businesses.

About the Mile High Business Alliance

Formed in 2007, the Mile High Business Alliance is a non-profit membership organization committed to building better community through better business. We work with locally owned businesses to raise awareness of the impact of local business on our economy and sense of community; and we create new ways for local businesses to work together.

At the heart of MHBA and our principles is the belief that business is not an abstract concept - but a valuable means for providing for our needs - both individually and as a community. Businesses are made of people and build on relationships. We help create stronger connections between businesses (and the people who own and operate them) and the community at large.

Find out more about Mile High Business Alliance and get involved.