High Fliers.

• Position: Top 100 Colorado women-owned businesses - Statistical Data Included

THE YEAR 200 COLORADOBIZ TOP 100 WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES LIST SOARS -- DESPITE A FEW GOLDEN PARACHUTISTS

The ColoradoBiz Top 100 Women-owned Businesses list flies high this year. And it also took a little flak in the fuselage.

Flying high? Take the examples of Niwot-based Blue Spruce Design & Construction Co., with '99 revenue up 270%; or SpringSips LP of Steamboat Springs, up 216%.

Optimism abounds. In aggregate, women's businesses reported the expectation that revenue would rise 17% in 2000. The Top 10 listed businesses were about equally optimistic, reporting expected 2000 revenue 15% higher than 1999's

Broken out by community, women's business revenue in 1999 showed mixed results. By far the greatest growth was reported by Denver, ground zero of the state's economic boom.

Flak? Well, the list fell an aggregate hair below $1 billion this year, to $996.57 million from last year's tally of $ 1.089 billion. Why?

Because some big women-owned businesses became mixed-gender success stories in 1999, by selling out or merging with men-owned companies.

But this year's businesses, while showing slightly lower overall sales than last year's, did very well on their own, with revenue rising 11% from '98 to '99.

We concede that the ColoradoBiz Top 100 Women-owned Businesses list is not rocket science. It's just a picture of the state's female entrepreneurs in flight.

PEG JOHNSTON

BUSINESS ACQUISITIONS LTD., NO. 43

"I love the outdoors of Colorado," said Johnston, who enjoys a panoramic Rocky Mountain view from her South Denver office. The New York native moved to Colorado in 1964, worked for corporate America for two years, and then was sacked -- for being pregnant. "Needless to say, I didn't want to go there again," she said.

Fast forward to 2986, when Johnston started up Business Acquisitions Ltd., a business brokerage specializing in selling companies with price tags of $20 million or less. She believes her life story parallels that of many women business owners in Colorado. "We've chosen to leave the corporate world, and in many cases, start our own business and be successful at it."

Ever the optimist, Johnston expects Business Acquisitions "to double (its) business in 2000." In her eyes, the sky's the limit for the state's women-owned businesses. "We're going to take over the world," Johnston said, laughing.

TERESA LEHMAN

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT SPECIALISTS INC., NO. 32

While working for a major office supply company in the '80s, Teresa Lehman began forming the vision for Associated Equipment Specialists. "I was very frustrated, being in a large conglomerate," she remembered. "I really thought my customers deserved better, and I thought I could do it. I knew I could do it."

Since going entrepreneurial in 1989, Lehman's Associated Equipment has steadily grown, from $500,000 in sales in its first year to $8.1 million in 1999. Her business credo: "Really, truly, you have to love what you do."

Married since 1993, Lehman has two small children, aged 7 months and 2 years. Of balancing career and family, Lehman said, "You just get better at juggling. After (the kids) go to sleep, you finalize your day."

DOROTHY GRANDBOIS JOB STORE INC., NO. 18

After a career as a RN in the '60s, Dorothy Grandbois migrated from Minnesota to Colorado and went to work in the employee services industry.

"I was very good at it, so I decided to go into the business," she said. In 1973, she founded Job Store, a staffing services company based in Denver.

A quarter-century of steady growth later, six Job Store offices dot the Front Range, from Longmont to Highlands Ranch. "We specialize in placing full-time and temporary employees in the administrative, technical, accounting and production fields," Grandbois said. "We're very highly involved in training people" in everything from the latest office software to time management and ergonomics.

When she's not working, Grandbois spends her time "hiking, reading or playing with the grandchildren," currently five "with the sixth one hopefully on the way."

BETH SLIFER

SLIFER DESIGNS INC., NO. 12

Slifer opened Slifer Designs in 1984 to immediate success, "fluffing" a Vail home to the point where it sold for the full asking price within a week. Since then, the company has focused on design for upscale resorts, growing by leaps and bounds, and winning accolades -- Slifer Designs has ruled Interior Design magazine's Top 100 Giants survey for the last three years.

"My mother was an independent interior designer in Florida," Slifer said. "I grew up knowing what interior design could be." After getting her MBA from the University of Chicago in 1984, she moved to Vail to work as a product and marketing manager for a chemical company.

Looking for a change, she went into design less than a year later, taking cues from both her mom and her former professors. "They (MBA professors) drill it into your head about niches, and this niche wasn't being filled," said Slifer.

Fast Facts Total growth '98 to '99 11% Top 10 Companies' Growth/'98 to '99 11% Total Projected Growth/'99 to '00 17% Top 10 Projected Growth/'99 to '00 [*] 15% Total Revenue/'98 $901.71 million Total Revenue/'99 $996.57 million Total Projected Revenue/'00 $995.28 million Top 10 Revenue/'98 $452.20 million Top 10 Revenue/'99 $500.64 million Top 10 Projected Revenue/'00 $411.67 million Top 10 Total Employees 1,348 (*.)Less companies that did not project, including No. 1 Ralph Schamp Automotive Five Fastest Growers Blue Spruce Design & Construction Co. Niwot 270% SpringSips LP Steamboat Springs 216% Concept 3 Co. Westminster 74% First Revenue/Assurance LLC Denver 72% Pascoe Associates Inc. Denver 70% Where It Came From '98 '99 Boulder $9.64 million $11.59 million Colorado Springs $52.31 million $51.85 million Denver $279.62 million $327.32 million Englewood $127.72 million $137.33 million Littleton $153.58 million $167.05 million Steamboat Springs $10.86 million $11.79 million '99 '98 COMPANY CITY RANK RANK 1 1 Ralph Schamp...