Al Switzler doesn't exactly think it's the best of times for entrepreneurs these days, with the weak dollar, gas prices soaring and the mortgage crisis ballooning.

But he doesn't think it's the worst of times, either.

"I'm reading the paper and seeing on the news how tough this recession is," said Switzler, co-founder and co-chairman of VitalSmarts, a worldwide training and management consulting firm based in Provo.

But in talking with colleagues and clients from Utah and around the country, Switzler is hearing a different story. He recalled a recent meeting of the Instructional Systems Association, a national group for learning providers like VitalSmarts, which counts many entrepreneurs among its membership.

"One of the discussions was, Have you seen signs of a recession?" he said. "About 80 to 90 percent of those that are entrepreneurs like I am were saying, 'Nope.' Almost everybody's doing better than they were last year. Our type of business training is one of the things cut first when a company's in trouble, but we haven't had those problems."

That means, Switzler said, that this year's Utah finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards face as many opportunities — and pitfalls — as companies that were nominated in more prosperous times.

"The secret of starting a company is to start it where it's scalable and without leveraging too much," said Switzler, whose company was a 2007 EOY award recipient for the Utah region, which is sponsored in part by the Deseret News. "The point is, start a business smart, regardless of what the economy is doing now."

The entrepreneurs who win this year's EOY awards — the awards gala is Friday at the Salt Palace — have almost always done that, Switzler said. After being nominated for three years, Switzler and four other VitalSmarts executives won in 2007, giving them entree to the national EOY awards in Palm Springs, Calif.

That annual event is the culminating moment of the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth forum, which features leaders of high-growth, market-leading companies discussing their success and teaching other entrepreneurs.

"It's easy to look at the Entrepreneur of the Year award from a distance and just be astounded at how the process somehow selects very good companies," Switzler said. "Having watched that for a while and being a nominee, you begin to understand the rigor of the process where you have to be pretty good to be considered (as a finalist), and there are all these criteria and serious judges ...

"Having looked at that, then having been nominated and winning it, what it did was validate our mission. We're one of the smallest companies that won this," he said. "It made us feel really validated, like we were in good company."