The Kim Sopoci Private Fitness Studio, located in southeast Aurora, is THE place to go to reduce blood pressure, improve body composition and increase cardiopulmonary health.

It all started in high school, Kim remembers, “I would look forward to gym class.  I think I was the only one that did look forward to it; I was the teacher’s favorite.”  Since then, health and fitness has been Kim's passion, and she instills that same passion in her clients, too.

She wants overweight clients to have a place that gives them real hope through real results and de-conditioned seniors to increase their independence and quality of life.  “After all, we do live in stressful times,” Kim says, "and I have seen first-hand the fantastic results people receive from the benefits of exercise.”

With over 24 years’ experience, she holds national fitness certifications with the American Council on Exercise and the National Exercise Trainers Association.  Kim also has a bit of holistic wellness about her by bringing her clients into balance with physical, mental, spiritual and emotional energy techniques.    

Having her own business gives her time for her second passion, riding motorcycles with her husband of 35 years.  She also finds time to serve as Marketing Director for the Southlands Business Team, and she is pro-active in breast cancer awareness.

The Aurora BDC’s Small Business Specialist, Chuck Hahn, is helping Kim build a better web site for her business, incorporating new product lines, and ensuring that all these years in the Health and Fitness industry pay even bigger dividends.

Support for Small Businesses:  Through Xcel Energy’s new Small Business Lighting program, you can lower your lighting costs by up to 40%, and they’ll help you through every step of the process. Customers whose facilities have less than 400kW of electric demand per month can get:

• A free lighting audit
• Assistance filling out the lighting rebate application
• Help with finding and selecting a lighting contractor

For more information, visit xcelenergy.com/LightingEfficiency or call Xcel Energy’s Business Solutions Center at 1-800-481-4700.

June 5 - - SURVIVOR: Thrive in any Economy:

• Join the Aurora BDC at the Colorado Convention Center for the 5th Annual Economic Summit & Expo presented by MRBES - - Register with the Mountain Region Black Economic Summit 2009. For additional information: contact@mrbes.com or (303) 400-5928.

2009 Russia in Colorado Events:

• June 5, 2009. 8:00  – 10:00 PM - -  Russia National Day Concert  with Denis Mazhukov, LIVE at Swallow Hill Music Association, S. Broadway & Yale in Denver
• June 15 – 19, 2009. 1:30 – 5:00 PM - - Summer Certificate Program, “Mastering Principles and Strategies of Doing Business in Russia.”
• MORE 2009 Russia in Colorado Events - - mark your calendar...

Have you created three business plans – best case, worst case and most likely?  Wow!  The Aurora BDC feels great when our clients who attend our business plan seminar, "A Winning Game Plan", write one plan. We'll have to start calling the class "Three Winning Game Plans"!

Author Joanne Baginski writes, "Communication is paramount with bankers. The sooner you identify and share issues with your lender, the more likely you can negotiate your requests. Lenders will work with companies that have a clear and detailed plan. Understand what you need, how much you need and when you need it. Have your contingency plan ready for any additional challenges."

"Present a plan that is realistic – one that you feel comfortable reaching. You don’t want to lose credibility right out of the gate by missing projections. If conditions do change, quickly implement the contingency plan and be proactive in your communication."  Read more...

With online competition more intense than ever, and more competition entering the market daily, keep your edge sharp with these factors of digital success (- from Springwise.com).

1. Define a tight niche.
2. Communicate your business intentions with crystal clarity.
3. Create a comprehensive strategy with well-defined milestones and sub-strategies.
4. Follow the strategies consistently. Have monthly sanity-check meetings.
5. Be aware of your competition.
6. Look apart from your competition. Stand on your own!
7. Create an automation plan in your strategy.
8. Create digital presence and personification.
9. Surprise customers with creative innovations of added benefit.
10. Create materials that get attention, interest and ACTION!
11. Measure your progress. Change tactics if necessary, but don't stray off plan!
12. Get professional business advice.

In a survey of 37 search experts, the 2nd highest SEO factor was the anchor text of links from other sites.  However, many webmasters who want to rank better on the search engines don’t know what anchor text is.  Fortunately, anchor text is an easy concept to understand.  In this and subsequent posts, we’ll look at what anchor text is and how to use it well for your blog. 

Simply put, anchor text is the text in a link.  Here’s an example.  The anchor text of the following link is the best blog in the world:

the best blog in the world

Anchor text is important because search engines use it in their algorithms to determine their rankings.  Here’s how it works.  Search engines are constantly checking the anchor text of your site.  Each time you get a link from another site, the search engines will note the anchor text of that link.  With each instance a word or phrase shows up in your anchor text, your chances improve for increasing your ranking for that word or phrase.

For example, let’s say you have a blog about movie reviews.  If you build a lot of links with the words movie and reviews in your anchor text, you’ll improve your chances of increasing your ranking for movie reviews.