Yellow-page newcomers take on Dex.

• Author: Coppock, Mike
• Position: Small biz

A pair of Utah entrepreneurs who arrived in Denver a little over a year ago have turned an idea for a community yellow pages into a $1 million, 30-employee company.

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Rob Crawley and Mike Sego didn't even have a published book when they first went door-to-door to businesses in Parker, Castle Rock and Evergreen, they said.

But their concept was to offer a telephone book tailored to the community that the book would service: A local artist would design the cover, it would have quick references to school numbers for parents, easy-to-read double columns in large print, residential and business listings mixed together, an introduction to the history and offerings of the area, and a community calendar. Profits would come from the sale of advertising.

Their competition, of course, would be mammoth Dex Media, divested by Qwest Communications International in order to stave off a Qwest bankruptcy, but still a very profitable business with a sales force of 1,000 in the 14 states where it publishes 259 phone directories.

"We saw an opportunity here because there hasn't been anything quite like the community phone book we are producing," said Crawley, 32, now president of Rocky Mountain Community Directories.

Crawley, a CPA, and Sego, who holds an MBA, had previously worked for Utah-based Phone Book Cos. Inc., and that's where their concept for a smaller, community-oriented phone book took shape. The pair wanted to strike out on their own, but not in their home state of Utah.

"Too many phone books already there," says Sego, 33. So the two loaded up their car and zigzagged across Colorado looking for a place to start. They settled on the outlying...