Winners of Entrepreneur(R) Magazine’s Entrepreneur of 2009 Contest Announced

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ — Entrepreneur® magazine’s Entrepreneur of 2009 contest presented by The UPS Store® culminates with the announcement of winners Rick Alden, founder and CEO of Skullcandy; Kelly Giard, founder and CEO of Clean Air Lawn Care; and Bradley Ericson, co-founder and CEO of 3SecondReceipts. They will be recognized and honored by their peers at the upcoming Growth 2.0 Conference in Miami Beach, Fla. (www.entrepreneur.com/growthconference).

The entries started pouring in by the thousands back in March, when the second-annual competition was officially underway. Over the ensuing months, Entrepreneur reviewed their applications and narrowed down the contestants to 15 finalists in three categories: Established, Emerging and College, before handing the voting over to magazine and web followers.

The winners in all three categories exemplify what entrepreneurship is all about today: answering a need, finding a solution, following a passion, taking calculated risks and above all–adapting to change, whether it’s economic or otherwise. Just take Alden, the Established Entrepreneur of 2009, who came up with the idea of brightly colored and patterned headphones and earbuds for the action-sports crowd while on a snowboarding trip. When the downturn affected Skullcandy’s orders from retailers, he focused on attracting new wireless customers and succeeded by being in all AT&T(TM) stores. The company now expects $120 million in 2009 revenue, or about 40 percent growth over 2008.

As for the Emerging Entrepreneur of 2009, Kelly Giard managed to turn a part-time project for fun in his garage into the nation’s first sustainable lawn-care franchise. His idea began at the front end of the green movement in a way that struck a chord with people, so much so that sales multiplied from $7,000 in 2006 to more than half-a-million dollars in 2008.

Then there’s the up and comer, College Entrepreneur of 2009 and Drexel University LeBow College of Business sophomore Bradley Ericson. Ericson came up with the idea for 3SecondReceipts, a system of digitizing receipts, when noticing the appalling amount of waste generated from paper receipts on campus. He has already landed his first client–Drexel University–and is aiming to add other universities to his roster (and that’s just to start).

“These entrepreneurs are proving that economic downturn or not, they’ve got high aspirations and sustainable financial models that have earned small-business owners the title of the nation’s economic drivers,” says Amy Cosper, VP/editor-in-chief at Entrepreneur. “They’re the ones turning things up and making an impact on their customers, employees and communities. We’re proud to be able to salute them.”

“The UPS Store is once again proud to present the Growth 2.0 Conference alongside Entrepreneur magazine,” says Stuart Mathis, president of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc. (MBE), franchisor of The UPS Store. “Our thousands of franchises are run by small-business owners themselves, so it is our honor to recognize and celebrate the achievements of our fellow entrepreneurial leaders.”

The entrepreneurial experiences and insights of these winners can be heard first hand at the Growth 2.0 Conference to be held on January 26, 2010, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. This one-day, complimentary event will also feature keynote speaker and legendary guerrilla marketer Jay Conrad Levinson, numerous seminars on growth strategies led by a variety of small-business experts, and many networking opportunities. Attendance is free with online registration at www.entrepreneur.com/growthconference.

About Entrepreneur Media Inc.

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About The UPS Store

With approximately 4,800 locations in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada, The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc.® network comprises the world’s largest franchise system of retail shipping, postal, document and business service centers. In the United States, The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. locations are independently owned and operated by licensed franchisees of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc., a UPS subsidiary. In Canada, locations are independently owned and operated by licensed franchisees of master licensee MBEC Communications, L.P. For additional information, please visit www.theupsstore.com or www.mbe.com.