Unser Karting surpassed a monumental benchmark on October 19, 2015 celebrating our fifth anniversary. That’s pretty good for a business that I was told by numerous bankers, business leaders, and even respected mentors was “a crazy idea.” Looking back at the economic landscape in 2010, I don’t blame them. I was so enamored with launching my entertainment concept that I didn’t want to hear all of the reasons why everyone thought it was a crazy idea. I remember saying to a loan committee after they laughed me out of their conference room that I couldn’t understand why they turned me down. I summarized by saying “I was opening a relatively unique business model that completely relied on an individuals and company’s disposable income. What could possibly go wrong with that?”

It’s a little more obvious to me now that the global economic crisis of 2007 was still affecting everything from employment to banking and finance. I can confirm that 28 Colorado banks rejected my business plan and refused to loan me money. I know, 28. I guess I didn’t believe the first 27.

The five-year mark seems like a big deal to me. I remember reading a few business articles that stated only 15-20% of all businesses survive the five-year mark. But according to the Small Business Administration, 50% of all small businesses survive the first 5 years. That’s a lot more then 15- 20%. So maybe it’s not as big of a deal then I had originally thought based on the survival rates published by the SBA. But looking back, it is; to put it lightly, the last 5 years has been crazy. The company, and me personally, has experienced great wins and achievements, made some big mistakes and suffered some significant loses. The fact that we are here as a company today means something to me and the whole team. There were no less then several hundred times in the last 5 years that I could have thrown in the towel and never looked back. Things got hard, frustrating, and expensive, all good reasons to quit. I can only say that it pays to be an optimist most of the time because I always thought tough situations would work themselves out. With a lot of luck and some gritty perseverance, they have.

I was still very curious about the 50% five year survival rate published by the SBA. In fact, it was really bugging me so I looked at some numbers to get a better understanding of the small business landscape in the US. I found that there are approximately 28 million registered small businesses in the US of which 75% are single employee (sole proprietor) companies with an average revenue of $44,000 annually. So that leaves 7 million small businesses in the US with employees. So if you take 50% of each of those numbers then roughly 10.5 million sole proprietor companies and 3.5 million companies with employees survive the 5 year mark. It’s a big deal to me that my team worked hard enough to be one of the 3.5 million companies with employees to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Cheers to that! 

Now it’s time to shake things up with some pretty big changes in 2016. We’ll be adding an exciting new feature in Denver which I guarantee will turn some heads and provide some interesting dialogue. We will also initiate the first phase of our expansion plans breaking ground on a new facility in Dallas, Texas. We have secured some land and if all goes relatively well, construction should begin in the next few months.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated as the details of these projects unfold. Until then, get out and have some fun!