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Companies & the Local Economy

How Utah Valley actually makes its money

Utah Valley is the southern half of Silicon Slopes, the birthplace of a direct-sales industry that staffs itself every summer, and the home of employers most of the country has never heard of. Honest profiles of the companies and the industries behind them.

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Grad School or the Job Market? The Utah Valley Math Changed in July 2026

Federal Grad PLUS loans ended for instruction beginning on or after 1 July 2026, replaced by hard annual and aggregate borrowing caps. That single...

14 min read · Elly Giordano
Jobs & Business

Starting a Business the Year You Graduate: The Utah Paperwork, in Order

Registering a business in Utah is three separate filings with three separate offices, and...

14 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

Non-Competes and Job-Offer Law in Utah: What First-Jobbers Actually Sign

Utah caps non-compete agreements at one year, and a 2026 amendment banned them outright for...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Holiday & Seasonal Hiring in Utah Valley: The Calendar, the Pay Rules, and the 24-Hour Law Nobody Mentions

Seasonal hiring in Utah Valley runs on a calendar that closes far earlier than most...

15 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Selling Homemade Food in Utah: The Exemption, the Informed Final Consumer, and What You Still Cannot Sell

Utah's Home Consumption and Homemade Food Act exempts a home producer from licensing,...

15 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

Unemployment Benefits in Utah: What the Employment Security Act Is For, and Why Eligibility Turns on How the Job Ended

Utah's unemployment system exists under the Employment Security Act, and the Legislature...

15 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Workers' Compensation in Utah: The Trade at the Heart of It, and What the Act Actually Covers

Utah's Workers' Compensation Act is a bargain, not a benefit: the injured worker gets...

15 min · JoAnn Giordano
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The Best Companies to Work For in Utah Valley: How Those Lists Are Actually Made

Utah has three competing 'best workplace' lists and all of them are opt-in — two charge the...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Coding Bootcamps in Utah Valley: The Industry Started Here, and the Word 'Registered' Does Not Mean What You Think

The modern coding bootcamp was partly invented in a Provo candy factory. Understanding what...

16 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

The Chip Factory in Lehi: How a Failed Memory Venture Became Utah's Largest Investment Ever

The building off I-15 in Lehi has had three owners in twenty years and made three different...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Nu Skin: The Provo Apartment That Built the Building Downtown Is Named After

Started in a Provo apartment in 1984 with $5,000 and no advertising budget. How Nu Skin's...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
History

Omniture: How Two BYU Dropouts Built the Company That Became Adobe's Utah Campus

Adobe's Lehi campus exists because of a company two BYU students started in 1996. The real...

15 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

The Point: What Is Actually Being Built on the Old Prison Site

The 600-acre former Utah State Prison site is becoming a state-owned district called The...

15 min · JoAnn Giordano
History

The Provo Woolen Mills: The Factory That Made Provo an Industrial Town, and Then Vanished

In 1872 Provo opened the first large factory in Utah Territory, employing 150 people a few...

15 min · JoAnn Giordano
History

The Chains Utah Built: Kneaders, Cafe Rio, Costa Vida and the Valley That Exports Restaurants

Kneaders started in Orem. Costa Vida's first franchise was in Provo. Cafe Rio sued Costa...

13 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

Raising Money in Utah Valley: Who Actually Writes Checks Here, and at What Stage

Utah County has a real funding ecosystem and almost none of it is explained anywhere. The...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

The Genealogy Industry in Utah Valley: How a Provo Book Publisher Became a $4.7 Billion Company in Lehi

Utah Valley owns the global family history industry — a Lehi headquarters sold for $4.7...

15 min · Elly Giordano
Jobs & Business

Healthcare Jobs in Utah Valley: The Four Employers, the Credential Ladder, and the Jobs Nobody Tells Students About

Utah Valley's health system runs on four large employers and a credential ladder that starts...

15 min · Elly Giordano
Jobs & Business

Teaching Jobs in Utah Valley: Three Districts Becoming Five, and the Licensing Routes That Actually Get You Hired

Utah County's school employment is about to be reorganized — Alpine School District splits...

15 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

Trades and Apprenticeships in Utah Valley: The Job Comes First, and Almost Nobody Tells You That

In Utah you generally need the job before you can get the license, and the license before...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Getting a Business License in Provo: The Four Agencies, the Two Home-Occupation Tiers, and the Short-Term Rental Trap

A Provo business license is one of four separate registrations most new businesses need, and...

12 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

Food Handler Cards & Health Permits in Utah County: What Every Food Job Requires First

Nearly every food job in Utah starts with a food handler card, and it has to come from an...

12 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Getting Your First Provo Job: Applications That Actually Work Here

Provo's hiring market runs on a calendar most newcomers do not know about and a referral...

13 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

Gig Work in Provo: The Honest Math on Delivery, Rideshare and Side Apps

Provo has more people willing to drive for apps than almost any city its size, and that fact...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Job Fairs & Hiring Events in Utah Valley: Who Runs Them and When

Utah Valley runs four separate job fair circuits — the annual Provo community fair, BYU's...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
History

Qualtrics: The Provo Basement That Built a $12 Billion Company

A BYU marketing professor, his two sons and a family friend started a survey company in a...

12 min · JoAnn Giordano
History

Startup Candy: The Provo Family That Claims America's First Filled Candy Bar

A widow kept a candy business alive after her husband was killed by a cooling slab, her sons...

12 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Government Jobs in Utah County: How Civil-Service Hiring Actually Works Here

Public-sector work in Utah County pays differently, hires differently, and takes longer than...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Job Help in Utah Valley That Costs Nothing: The Register

Where to get free job search help in Utah County — the Workforce Services offices and what...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Jobs in Provo With No Degree or Experience: The Honest Map

Entry-level work in Provo that does not require a degree — which employers genuinely hire...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Part-Time Jobs in Provo: Who Hires, When They Hire, and What the Shifts Are Really Like

Where part-time work in Provo actually exists — the employers who hire year-round, the...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Working at Provo Airport: Who Actually Hires There, and What the Expansion Changes

Jobs at Provo Airport are not posted in one place — the city, the airlines, the ground...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

What Jobs Actually Pay in Provo: A Sector-by-Sector Wage Guide

What work actually pays in Provo and Utah County, sector by sector, using the state's own...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Summer Jobs in Utah Valley That Are Not Door-to-Door Sales

Utah Valley's summer job market is far wider than the sales industry that recruits hardest...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Tech Jobs in Utah Valley Without Moving to Lehi

The honest map of Utah Valley's tech market — where the jobs actually sit, what the corridor...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Teen Jobs in Provo: The Utah Rules, and Who Actually Hires at 14, 15 and 16

What Utah law allows at each age, which Provo employers hire teenagers, and the hour limits...

14 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

WordPerfect & Novell: Utah Valley's First Tech Boom

Before Silicon Slopes had a name, Utah Valley ran the world's word processing. The story of...

13 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Provo's Oldest Businesses Still Open — and Why the Dates Don't Agree

Provo's oldest surviving business has a founding date published at least four different...

11 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Jobs in Provo & Utah Valley: Who's Hiring, What It Pays, and What Nobody Tells You

An honest guide to working in Provo and Utah Valley — who the biggest employers actually...

15 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Companies Founded in Utah Valley: The Ones You've Actually Heard Of

Utah Valley has produced a strange number of nationally known companies for a metro its size...

12 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Crumbl: How a Logan Cookie Shop Ended Up Headquartered in Lindon

Crumbl was founded in Logan in 2017 and now runs a national franchise from a headquarters in...

10 min · Abigail Giordano
Jobs & Business

Direct Sales in Utah Valley: Why the Industry's Capital Is Here

Utah County holds roughly three-quarters of Utah's direct-selling jobs — Nu Skin, doTERRA,...

12 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Silicon Slopes, Explained: What It Is and Why It Started Here

Silicon Slopes is the name for Utah's tech corridor — but the name was coined by a Utah...

11 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

The Biggest Employers in Utah Valley

Who actually employs Utah Valley — BYU, Alpine School District, Intermountain, UVU, Vivint,...

11 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

Vivint: Provo's Smart-Home Giant

Vivint is the biggest homegrown company headquartered in Provo — a smart-home firm that grew...

12 min · JoAnn Giordano
Jobs & Business

LGCY Power: Lehi's Homegrown Solar Company

LGCY Power (pronounced 'Legacy Power') is a Lehi-based residential solar company and one of...

8 min · JoAnn Giordano