Yo, yo, yo, Utah Valley!
It’s that time again — time to celebrate our local entrepreneurs who are the bomb diggity off the hizzie hook. (Did we say that right?)
Regardless of our wicked vernacular, these 10 crazy kids are legitimately cool — in business and in life. If there was an entrepreneur cafeteria, they would so own it.
Read on to find out who can bench press 300 pounds, who won a car on “The Price is Right,” and whose favorite movie is Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never.” (Yes, this is the first time we’ve typed the words Justin Bieber onto BusinessQ’s glossy pages. And no, it probably won’t be the last. We’re cool like that.)

You’d like David Bradford. (And we’re not just talking on Facebook.) First of all, the man knows people. Even better? He connects them. “I can’t think of anything more fun than connecting people,” says Bradford, whose wife, Linda, coined his “Human Internet” nickname. “People make businesses happen. It’s that simple.”

Utah Valley regularly trounces national “best place to live and work” surveys.
And the best part? It’s no illusion.
Exhibit A, B and C: One on One Marketing, American Name Services and Xlear — three companies that work their employee magic 2,080 hours a year.
BusinessQ took just a handful of those hours to sit down with these spellbinding companies and coax them into spilling their secrets. (Now who’s the magician?)
Read on to learn the methods to their magic.

Prepare to be charmed by these local companies that have risen above a recession (hello, 1,800 percent growth!), had stellar sales (hello, billion dollars!) and gotten cheeky with their marketing (hello, tongue costume!).
Devour the lists to see which companies next door made rank. Plus, we’ll take you inside six businesses that share how in the world they did it.

Think women in business. What comes to mind? Glass ceiling? Girl power? Balance? Gossip? Guilt? Emotions? Devil? Prada? Nurturing? Competitive? Supportive? Rare? Yep. These words conjure up a discourse of champions. We just can’t stop talking about working women, and by extension, the who, what, where, when and how of them. Which begs the question … is what we think about women in business, in fact, a fact? Or are decades-old deterrents determining our perception of reality? Local businesswomen know the answer. And BusinessQ thought it was high time they told us what’s boss.

Talk about scene stealers.
This year’s batch of charismatic youngins is charming audiences all over Utah Valley. And whether it’s the genre of tech, cuisine, blogging or education, these pros have skyrocketed to star status.
Get to know these feature-worthy up-and-comers as they share their “Oscar moments,” “favorite roles” and the would-be “film title” of their career.
Go ahead. Get star struck.

Business — it runs in the family.
And thank goodness. Family businesses account for some of the most powerful economic engines in the world (you’ve heard of Wal-Mart, yes?) and not to mention our very own Utah County (here’s looking at you, Clyde Companies).
But the clearly powerful business model doesn’t always create a clear black and white entity. With the potential for blurred boundaries and family feuds (sans surveys), there’s a whole lotta grey going on.
Even still, talk to any family business, and the pros pummel the cons. So if you’re thinking of starting a family company — or if your current family business needs a reminder or a reboot — here are 26 areas to discuss at the dining (or conference room) table.
May we present … the ABCs of running a family business.

For three years running we’ve featured the groundbreaking growth of local companies.
And for three years we’ve been swept off our feet.
The UV50 — which features the county’s 25 Fastest-Growing Companies (measured by percentage growth over a three-year period), 15 Top Revenue Companies and 10 Startups to Watch — has enjoyed another year of record-ranking success.
Meet all 50 winners, and go inside six companies that share how they did it — in their own words.

Who needs Webster’s? BusinessQ has its own definition of cool — and it’s off the hizzie. (Yes, we just said “hizzie.” We never claimed to be cool ourselves.) But these 10 entrepreneurs? They’re more than cool. They’re the best and the brightest. The hip and the happenin’. The bold and the brave. And they’re 10 local “idea nerds” you need to add to your must-meet list. Oh, and we mean “nerd” in the coolest possible way.

Our five winning bloggers are men and women of their word.

Not only do they post clever content and marvelous musings, they wield virtual power at their fingertips — and use it for good.

Plus, these keyboard kings and queens include the “first family” of Utah Valley’s blogosphere — Phil Windley, Paul Allen and Kelly King Anderson.

“I started blogging because of you,” Allen said to Windley at our August photo shoot.

“And I started blogging because of you,” Anderson said to Allen.

To which Windley concluded: “So that makes you my blogging granddaughter!”

Talk about a blog roll.