Great Divide Brewing Co., Denver

* Business: Craft brewery

* How long: 141/2 years

* Employees: 19

The economy is in the tank. Workers in Colorado and nationwide are losing their jobs by the thousands. But craft beer drinkers are still quaffing their beer.

And that's been good for craft brewers such as Great Divide Brewing.

"We grew last year and we expect to grow this year," said Brian Dunn, the brewery's founder and president.

Sales were up 9 percent in 2008. Dunn is reluctant to predict what the increase will be this year.

And while he is cautious about spending money on advertising or new brewing equipment, Dunn is guardedly upbeat. He reckons his customers and other craft beer enthusiasts aren't about to give up their beer.

"It's an affordable luxury," said Dunn, whose beers typically retail for $8.99 to $9.99 a six-pack.

Historically, experts say, beer drinkers have tended to keep quaffing during tough economic times.

During the last recession - in 2001 - craft beer sales kept growing, and have continued to grow since then to about 4 million barrels during the first half of 2008.

Still, potential storm clouds are gathered on the horizon.

Some industry officials worry that a drop in business at bars and restaurants could hurt craft beer sales.

"If a bar or a restaurant is a little more quiet, we will sell less beer," Dunn said.

That hasn't happened - yet. Dunn said Great Divide's draft sales outpaced the brewer's bottle sales.

"What we're seeing is a little bit different than what people are saying or predicting," Dunn said.

What's more, craft beer drinkers still appear ready to grab a six-pack at the store and cart it home to enjoy.

So far, Dunn hasn't laid off any workers. But he isn't about to spend freely on newspaper ads or equipment.

Dunn hasn't stopped spending altogether, however.

Great Divide is poised to introduce eight beers this year. In mid-February, the award-winning brewery plans to roll out Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti Imperial Stout in 22-ounce bottles and Claymore Scotch Ale in 12-ounce six-packs.

That costs money. "You have a lot of new art and packaging," Dunn said.

Looking ahead, he predicts craft beer drinkers won't trade down and switch to cheaper suds produced by giants such as Anheuser-Busch.

"People will stick with it," Dunn said.

Vibrant Solar Inc.

* Business: Solar panel design and installation

* How long: Four years

* Employees: 42

Tom Schwing is adept at pushing his sales pitch to customers.

He tells them about the two E's - economic and environmental benefits - of installing solar panels on their rooftops. He visits their homes, fires up his laptop and makes impromptu presentations.

At times, he even climbs on their roofs to get an estimate of how big a solar system could be fitted to them.

His hard work finally paid off: Four customers signed up, making January a robust month after a long stretch of poor sales.

A salesman at Vibrant Solar, a 4-year-old solar company in Denver, Schwing has had a rough couple of months. In December, he managed to sell only one solar system. That compares with up to six sales a month he was inking during the summer.

"This is a good week," Schwing said. "I am happy."

Colorado's 200 or so solar companies are keeping their fingers crossed for a better 2009 after a dismal fourth quarter.

After two years of unprecedented growth - 50 percent or more - sales of residential solar systems plunged 75 percent in the past quarter as customers canceled or postponed plans in the face of recession. Also, Xcel Energy's sudden scaling back of solar rebates in late October to $3.50 a watt, down from $4.50 a watt, added to the industry's woes.

Vibrant Solar didn't lay off any employees. Instead, it focused on increasing business and revenue.

"When things are tight, you need to work harder to find customers," said Mark Simmons, Vibrant Solar's vice president of sales and marketing. "This is the time to increase marketing costs, not decrease them."

The company has virtually doubled its marketing budget. It is mailing postcards with personalized messages to potential customers, asking them to contact the company online.

Vibrant Solar also has stepped up its participation at trade shows and events, hoping to turn visitors into customers.

Today, the company is signing up 12 to 15 customers a week, compared with five in past months but far fewer than the 30 to 40 sales a week it logged in spring and summer 2008.

"We are opening offices in Los Angeles and Maryland," Simmons said. "We will begin hiring in spring and ramp up in the second quarter. We want to grow to 60 to 65 employees."

Boulder Ice Cream

* Business: Natural and organic superpremium ice cream

* How long: 11 years

* Employees: Eight

Boulder Ice Cream is hoping to find itself in a sweet spot during the recession.

The Boulder-based maker of ice cream sold at stores such as Whole Foods, Safeway and King Soopers as well as scoop shops so far hasn't seen demand droop any more than what typically happens in the slower winter months, said Glennise Humphrey, company co-owner.

The company is positioning itself to take advantage of newly austere customers when ice cream season returns, preparing to introduce a line of inexpensive, "grab-and-go" single- serving cups at grocery stores.

"We see a lot of opportunity (to attract) people who are on a budget," Humphrey said. "It's an affordable indulgence."

Scott Roy was a software developer in 1997 when he purchased Boulder Ice Cream, then a scoop shop on Pearl Street in Boulder. He transitioned the company into wholesale sales and last year experienced a surge in growth as it revamped packaging, introduced seven organic flavors and added Costco as a seasonal customer. The company deliberately priced its organic line at $3.99, the same as its natural line, to keep it affordable.

But Boulder Ice Cream was careful to not increase its overhead along with its sales. The company doesn't provide health or retirement benefits and uses contract workers to ramp up production during peak selling season, allowing the company to hold steady with six full-time production workers.

Buenos Aires Grill and Buenos Aires Pizzeria

* Businesses: Restaurants

* How long: Grill, 21/2 years; Pizzeria, five years

* Employees: 24

The short life of the Buenos Aires Grill can be divided into two chapters. "The first 18 months were great," owner Francis Carrera said. "But things change."

Patrons started cutting back on their visits to Carrera's Argentine eatery. When they did come, they tended to stick with the entrees, avoiding extras like the fried empanadas and grilled pork sausage and ordering glasses of wine rather than bottles.

Then the holiday party cancellations poured in, said Carrera, a native of Argentina whose family moved to Colorado in 1990.

Sales dropped 60 percent from last year's levels.

"I'm not going to tell you anything new," said his wife, Ana Carrera. "Dining is suffering."

Across the nation, only one out of every five restaurant operators expects to have higher sales in six months, according to the National Restaurant Association's most recent report. About half the owners think the economy will worsen.

The Carreras said that while their nearby pizzeria is healthy, offering up more affordable fare, the grill is not. The Buenos Aires Grill, Carrera's "dream," situated not too far from the ballpark, will serve its last steak Feb. 15.

In hindsight, Carrera realizes that the location of the restaurant was far from ideal, a little grittier and more detached from the LoDo buzz than he would like.

"The location is one thing," he said. "The economy is not something I can handle."

The family will focus full time on the pizzeria. When the economy improves, Carrera, whose son manages their first restaurant venture, hopes to start similar eateries, maybe in the Tech Center, Golden or Boulder.

Modo Developers Inc./UrbanThrive

* Business: Infill condo developer

* How long: Five years

* Employees: Nine - six principals and three brokers

When Modo Developers was really rockin' and rollin' from 2004 to 2006, it built an organization of 18 people that bought ugly Denver apartments, converted them into contemporary condos and sold them for as little as $107,000.

The most expensive units were priced at less than $400,000. Target customers were first-time buyers.

"We had seven projects and all pistons were firing," said Dave Ness, one of the principals of the company, which specialized in neighborhoods close to downtown, such as Capitol Hill, Congress Park and West Washington Park.

Now, the original six partners are doing the work of 18, he said.

"In some fashion, all of the partners have absorbed the other 12 jobs in some fashion," Ness said. "That means everyone does a little bookkeeping and takes care of this or that. We have definitely scaled back."

Of the original 140 units, about 33 are left.

"One thing we strategically had to do, and it was definitely the right thing - we leased some of them instead of keeping them on the market and watching the prices go down," Ness said.

A number of the company's renters have first right of refusal to buy the units when they are placed back on the market, and some renters have lease options to buy in the future at a price set in today's depressed market, he said.

Modo also has examined things such as marketing efforts, dropping ones that didn't prove cost-effective.

The six partners also own a separate real estate brokerage company, now called UrbanThrive Realty. In addition to Modo projects, UrbanThrive sells for other developers and individuals. It is listing the Chroma Townhomes at 2501 Larimer St. near Coors Field for the St. Charles Town Co., for example.

UrbanThrive retained its name and ownership, but it recently merged with Keller Williams Denver Tech Center. UrbanThrive, which used to have eight brokers, now has four.

Ness said Modo pays Keller Williams a fee to handle its back-office work, allowing it to concentrate on what the brokers do best - selling homes.

Even before the downturn, Ness said, "We were pretty lean to begin with."

Brightkite

* Business: Social networking via cell phones

* How long: 11/2 years

* Employees: Six

The CEO of Denver-based Brightkite said he's following the advice of experts.

"It's time to be extra careful, make the money last as long as you can," said Martin May, also a co-founder of the company.

Brightkite is a social networking application for people on the go.

The idea is for members to use their cell phones to post pictures and short descriptions of what they're doing and to meet new people or get together with friends.

May said the biggest challenge is finding additional capital. And if it weren't for the recession, the company might have hired staff members a bit faster.

But, all in all, "We're kind of going at the pace we want to go right now," he said.

The company received $1 million of funding last year from private investors and opened an office near Coors Field.

It hired a software engineer about a month ago to bring its staff up to six employees and, despite the recession, "We're probably still going to hire a few people in the coming months," May said.

The small staff is enough to continue to develop new applications. In October, the company launched an iPhone application and in December it removed its invitation-only restriction.

May said the company doesn't disclose the number of users, but they come from such areas as Denver, the East Coast, West Coast, Australia, United Kingdom, France and Germany.

* Business: Flight school

* How long: More than 20 years; under current ownership since 2001

* Employees: 20

The economic downturn continues to tighten its grip on the country, crushing businesses in almost every industry and leaving a pulp of layoffs, cutbacks and closures in its wake.

But the worst is over for McAir Aviation. At least, that's what co-owner and Chief Operating Officer Gary Hulme thinks.

"We know this will be turning around soon for us," Hulme said. "I don't really have any doubt that, come spring, things will be back where they were."

It's a bold prediction, especially as an increasing number of companies across the country cut jobs, scale back growth and close shop.

But Hulme said McAir likely hit its roughest patch of turbulence last summer as fuel prices marched toward record levels. The company's existing clients - including older recreational pilots and newbies hoping to one day land a job at a commercial airline - cut back their training hours. And potential new students, struggling with higher gasoline prices and less support from financially strapped parents, put off plans for flight school.

"In 2005, a gallon of aviation fuel cost $2.70, but by May of 2008 it had gone to $6.10 a gallon," Hulme said. "Fuel comprises 25 percent of the operating costs of an airplane, so that was a huge cost increase."

Still, McAir fared better than its peers. Hulme said the company saw a 5 percent to 10 percent dip in new enrollments last year compared with a 30 percent drop nationally. It also didn't have to reduce its fleet of Cessna airplanes or shed any workers.

And business began to recover at the end of November, with new enrollments returning to historical levels. In fact, McAir has actually brought on five new instructors in the past few months to replace ones who left.

Chalk it up to the sharp decline in fuel prices over the past few months, which more than offsets the economic decline.

Hulme said the key is to keep in mind that the business, like most everything else in the economy, is cyclical.

"We just look at this as a short-term fluctuation," Hulme said. "We try to keep an optimistic positive mentality about it and focus not on our troubles but on giving the customer a good product and on taking care of our employees. That's served us well in the past, and it did so again this time."

Highland Haven Creekside Inn, Evergreen

* Business: Bed and breakfast

* How long: Almost 30 years

* Employees: Nine

Tucked away from the road along a sharp bend in Bear Creek, this Evergreen hideaway experienced a modest drop in bookings over the past couple of months. But a worsening economy hasn't stopped the romance-minded from again filling every room over Valentine's Day Weekend.

"People are still celebrating their love," said Gail Riley, who owns the property with her husband, Tom Statzell. "It seems bulletproof, thank goodness. We all need to acknowledge the happy times."

With its 30th anniversary as a bed and breakfast coming up in May, Highland Haven will be trying to fill its rooms during the week with 30 percent-off specials.

It will be pushing the "staycation" concept to Front Range residents in hopes that even in down times people can afford to splurge in their own backyard for just a night or two.

Still, its upscale visitors - rumored to have included actor Johnny Depp - continue to opt for the most luxurious accommodations at the inn, which is decorated in a manner Riley refers to as "high-style Western."

Highland Haven's 6 percent drop in December business proved to be smaller than Riley had anticipated.

She's keeping a careful watch on spending but expects to continue pampering the guests, who dine on elaborate breakfast fare in a historic rough-hewn log cabin.

"I feel strongly that we will even raise our standards - buy the expensive raspberries for breakfast, better flowers," said Riley, whose daughter Roxy Alexander and son-in-law Blake Alexander now manage the business.

The inn has yet to cut back on staff but has trimmed hours for some. It has received interest from many "amazing" and "overqualified" job applicants.

Plans to build a new guest dwelling called the "Tree House" were put on hold because of the economic downturn. It plans to move forward with the project either later this year or early in 2010.

Just last week, Riley counseled a woman planning to open a bed and breakfast in Fort Collins. "Hope springs eternal," Riley said.

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