The resort communities of the high Rockies are famous for the big name, high profile businesses and corporations that often define our region. Entities like Granby Ranch and Winter Park Resort are often more famous than the mountains that immediately surround them.

But as anyone with a basic understand of economics will tell you, it is the small businesses, the quiet store fronts with few employees and strong entrepreneurial spirit, which is the beating heart of any local economy. For local small businesses, especially those less reliant on tourism, reputation is nearly everything. A businesses reputation can quickly sourer in the tightly knit small communities of Grand County, where neighbors and friends offer unsolicited reviews of products and services.

For new Grand County business owners Cindy and Joseph CDeBaca though, a lot of the heavy lifting of establishing a solid reputation has already been done. The CDeBacas recently purchased the Kopy Kat business, with locations in both Granby and Winter Park, from longtime storeowners Julie and Peter Kerswell.

“We are very appreciative of Peter and Julie for the business they built and left us,” said new Kopy Kat owner Cindy CDeBaca. “It is wonderful to be able to start with a business that is already well established.”

The CDeBacas purchased Kopy Kat from the Kerswell family earlier this summer in mid-June. Since then the CDeBacas and their two employees, Customer Service Specialists Candice Holder and Nicole Reeves, have been working hard to insure the ownership transition is as smooth as possible for customers.

The CDeBacas moved to Grand County this summer from the Black Hawk area where, prior to purchasing Kopy Kat, the couple lived and worked. While living in Gilpin County Cindy worked as a finance director for a casino in Black Hawk while Joseph, a pastor, worked with a not for profit entity formed by the CDeBacas called “Helping Hands of Gilpin County”, which worked to pair local volunteers with people in need of small forms of assistance or service.

Now the couple is living in Hot Sulphur Springs as they work to wrap their arms around their new endeavor and look to define their place in the local business community. Cindy said Kopy Kat hopes to, “try to find our place in this community; to figure out where we fit so we can make a difference.”

Cindy was extremely thankful of the supportive local business community; which was one of the factors that weighed heavily on the CDeBacas as they mulled over their decision to buy Kopy Kat. “When I was researching the small business community they (Kopy Kat) are a part of everybody, seems to look out for each other,” CDeBaca said. “It comes down to, ‘local matters’ and that appealed to me.”

Kopy Kat has two brick and mortar stores in Grand County. The businesses Granby office caters more to small businesses, providing commercial printing, banner printing, special event print runs, business cards, bound books, signage flyers and more. The Granby store also functions as a FedEx and UPS shipping drop off location and can handle bulk mailing work for businesses or private individuals. Candice Holder heads up the Granby store for Kopy Kat with hours running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Winter Park Kopy Kat office is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and is headed by Nicole Reeves. The Winter Park store caters more to private individuals with a significant portion of its business dedicated to package handling and shipping. The store provides a shipping terminus for goods sent to or from the high country, including the large number of tourists who visit the area but don’t have the ability to physically take their souvenirs home. Kopy Kat of Winter Park also has business agreements with several local hotels to ship items left behind by visitors and is working to develop a functional satellite office/business support center for business professionals visiting the Rockies.