The recent 2010 Business Tax Symposium was huge, with 300 participants (including many from out of state) getting many their state and home-rule sales and use tax questions answered. Caron Notarmuzi, Colorado's Public Information & Education Trainer with CDOR's Taxpayer Service Division, clarified, with great enthusiasm, common sales and use tax myths, as well as the state's many resources and enhanced electronic services available to taxpayers. You can find sales tax rates, view your business tax account online and, for businesses with only one location, file and pay state sales tax and state-collected local sales taxes quickly and easily online.

Visit www.TaxColorado.com, and, to pay your Colorado sales tax on line, go to: www.Colorado.gov/paytax.  The state's Call Center is ready to answer your questions Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM, For general information, call (303) 238-7378 (SERV). For specific account information, call (303) 238-3278 (FAST).

Robin Peterson, Manager for the City of Aurora's Tax & Licensing Division, also encouraged businesses to file the Aurora Sales and Use Tax Return on line.   Click here for a link to Aurora's site (Finance Dept. at auroragov.org).  The city's Tax & Licensing customer service number is (303) 739-7057. You can also go online for a business license application (required if doing any business in Aurora), information on sales tax exemptions, Special Use Permits, and more. Click to review Aurora's complete Taxation information (click on Taxation, left column).

TRUST AGENTS: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith (Wiley Pub., 2009), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, is for anyone new to social media and community management.  The concepts in this book will help you gain trust with your online peers.  The primary focus is about how to excel in today's online marketplace by building and maintaining a reputation of trust.  It is this trust factor that sets one up as a Trust Agent.  And, according to Brogan, once you've established yourself as a Trust Agent, you can command and do just about anything you want via the online marketplace, whether it be for profit, influence, charity or whatever you like.

The Colorado and California Departments of Agriculture and the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, in cooperation with WUSATA, will be coordinating participation in the following activity:

European Inbound Buying Mission for Gluten-Free Ingredients and Products
November 3, 2010:  Denver, Colorado
November 4, 2010:  Carson City, Nevada
November 5, 2010:  Sacramento, California

This will be an excellent opportunity for companies to participate in the growing European gluten-free market.

• Meet with buyers of gluten-free ingredients and products from England, Benelux and Germany.
• Present your products to these buyers.
• Learn about what the European market is looking for in gluten-free products and ingredients.

Suitable products include: Gluten-free grains, ingredients and gluten-free processed foods.

For registration and more information please click here. Respond by Oct. 5th.  To learn more about the Colorado Department of Agriculture programs or export assistance, please contact Tim Larsen at (303) 239-4118 or tim.larsen@ag.state.co.us or Cassidy Woodard at (303) 239-4699 or cassidy.woodard@ag.state.co.us.

Energy Efficiency Workshop and more...

City of Aurora's Energy Efficiency Workshop is Mon., Oct. 4th, 6:00-7:00 PM. For all events, please RSVP to ( 303) 739-7483.

The city has increased its business energy rebate cap to $3,000 for Aurora business owners who make energy efficiency and conservation upgrades to their buildings. The city is layering these rebates on existing Xcel Energy rebates.

Read more about the various rebates, the Recharge Colorado campaign and related upcoming events at the city of Aurora Municipal Center.

Hypertargeting is a Facebook advertising tool that helps target potential customers in a specific town who want what you have to offer.  For instance, there are 6.8 million Texans age 18 and older on Facebook, 1,216,000 are in Houston and 1,080,820 are in Dallas. If you take just the English speakers, the number of Texans goes down to 6.5 million. And then you get to “likes and interests,” where it gets really interesting.  Let’s say you work for clients in pet care, so, click on “dogs.” There are 27,200 Texans over 18 on Facebook who are interested in dogs, 4,600 of whom are in Dallas. Add “puppies” and the number in Dallas goes up to 6,640.  So instead of creating an ad that goes out to all sorts of people who don’t care about your product or service, you could specifically target people in your town who care deeply about what you have to offer them. Here's a Forbes article on "How Facebook Changes Marketing and Sales by David F. Carr, author of THE FACEBOOK ERA.