Category Archives: Articles

Incubators Offer More Than Space

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Roberta Easter dreamed of keeping her ancestor’s craft alive when she started Enchanting Soap Collections. Joined by her daughter, Chrystal Trykoski in 2022, the pair worked from Easter’s home, creating hand-poured soaps of unique designs with no two the same.

In 2025, Easter and her daughter moved the business into the WESST Enterprise Center business incubator, giving them room to grow, scale, and dream bigger than ever. As WESST incubator tenants, Easter and Trykoski are receiving operational support and resources that are already accelerating the company’s growth.

Barely a year after moving to the incubator, Enchanting Soap Collections was selected as one of nine businesses from a national applicant pool of 120 to pitch at a national airport concessions competition in St. Louis sponsored by the Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC). Contestants presented their concepts before a distinguished panel of airport concessions and travel retail executives who evaluated businesses based on innovation, scalability, and market readiness to sell their products in United States airports.  While they did not advance to the next round of the competition, Easter and Trykoski are still winning big: they were invited to showcase and sell their products at the 41st Annual AMAC Conference in Maryland in June 2026.  

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New Owner Expands with SBA Loans

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Emad Elmaoued never thought he would be running a business providing disability services and support to the developmentally impaired community of New Mexico. He is now doing it with the help of SBA loans.

An alumnus of the University of New Mexico (UNM), Elmaoued earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry and became a teaching assistant at UNM. From 2010-2021, he owned Gigateks, a company that maintains and administers computer networks and related computing environments, including computer hardware, system software, applications software, and all configurations. When the opportunity arose to purchase ADID Care, Elmaoued was struck by its mission, and he acquired the business in 2017 with an SBA 7(a) loan.

ADID Care provides a variety of services to the developmentally impaired community of New Mexico. Supported Living, Family Living, Community Support, In-Home Support, Non-medical Transport, and Adult Nursing provided by ADID Care assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The company aims to empower individuals with special needs, advocating for inclusivity and independence through services and support in their homes or communities rather than in institutional settings. ADID Care operates 12 single-family residences with nursing staff assistance.

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Loans and Resources Keep Business in the Air

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DreamSpring loans helped Dave Jesurun expand the services of his business, High Country Air Service

Two years after launching High Country Air Service in Albuquerque, the COVID pandemic nearly grounded Dave Jesurun’s family business. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the nonprofit lender DreamSpring kept the company in the air and forged a new relationship that would take it to new heights in subsequent years. High Country Air Service offers a suite of services for private aircraft owners. A plane under High Country’s care is always ready for takeoff, no matter the challenge. 

Jesurun credits resilience for keeping him moving forward despite the ups and downs of running a small business.

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Loans Help Ballet Academy Stay on Pointe

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Megan Yackovich founded Ballet Taos Academy in 2016 to help young dancers develop their passion for this classical art form. A former professional dancer who previously operated an academy in Colorado Springs, Yackovich fell in love with Taos while traveling through and decided to stay. Small business loans and assistance from the nonprofit lender The Loan Fund helped anchor Yackovich and her nonprofit academy in New Mexico.

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Local Program Has National Implications for Entrepreneurs

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Holly Eagleston, NM LEEP Cohort 5 Fellow

The New Mexico Lab Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (NM LEEP) has selected its fifth cohort of deep-tech innovators. The two-year fellowship, based at Los Alamos National Laboratory, supports entrepreneurs working to accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough technologies that address the nation’s most urgent energy, security, and economic challenges.

The program pairs deep-tech entrepreneurs with the unique talent and technology of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Fellows are matched with seed capital, a large network of mentors, customers, and investors to help entrepreneurs transition technology into a scalable product. The program also offers a generous stipend, health insurance, travel reimbursement, and relocation assistance.

Applications for the 2027 cohort will be accepted beginning February 28, 2026. The application period closes on May 8, 2026.

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Loans Support Childcare Center

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Architectural rendering of the new Kewa Childcare Development Center

Clearinghouse CDFI has provided loans and funding for the Kewa Childcare Development Center, a new 22,000 square foot childcare facility located in the underserved community of Santo Domingo, New Mexico. When fully operational, this transformative project will provide critical early childhood development services to the surrounding community, supporting the next generation in a region facing significant economic challenges.

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Small Businesses Gain with Year-End Giving

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Philanthropic giving is approaching $600 billion annually in the United States, and New Mexicans do their part every year to underwrite the causes that matter most to them. Often overlooked among worthy food bank and animal welfare nonprofits are organizations that promote grass-roots economic development. Nonprofit lenders that offer business assistance — LiftFund, DreamSpring, and others — rely on private giving to support and enable individual entrepreneurship in our state.

Microlenders such as these manage separate pools of private and public money, which they make available as loans and lines of credit to small businesses — especially startup businesses and those in chronically underserved communities and populations. They also support their clients’ success through other services, such as business counseling, training, and mentoring.

Thoughtful contributions — sometimes known as social investments — to any one of these organizations have a way of living indefinitely into the future.

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Buy Local to Help Your Community

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Red River, NM

Consumer studies and statistics are clear: There’s value in buying locally, especially during the holidays. Local businesses are more than twice as generous to hometown nonprofits that fulfill community-specific needs, according to the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), and they are more loyal and accountable to the people they employ and live among. Local businesses are typically small, and this sector of the economy employs about half of the private sector workforce.

Shopping locally reduces environmental impacts associated with transportation. It supports businesses that offer products and services that reflect local tastes and a community’s distinctive character.

But the best reason to spend money at a local business rather than an absentee-owned business — including during the critical holiday shopping season — is the financial recycling that results.

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NMSBA Program Improves Production

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FreshPure Waters was founded to replace single-use plastic water bottles by providing consumers with a more eco-friendly refillable bulk water option. Its system specializes in high-pH alkaline, reverse osmosis, and deionized water, all in one machine. However, the rapidly growing demand for its purified water systems outpaced its production capabilities.

FreshPure Waters applied for assistance through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) Program, a unique opportunity that brings the technology and expertise of New Mexico’s national laboratories and their partners to solve problems that inhibit business growth.

The NMSBA Program paired FreshPure Waters with Wesley Eccles and Jeff Abrams, directors at New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (New Mexico MEP), to lead the initiative to optimize production, improve system maintenance, and expand market reach.

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Resilience and Credit Support Native Owned Business

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Small businesses in rural and tribal communities often lack access to affordable credit—especially during health or economic crises—putting their survival at risk. Resilience and credit from the nonprofit lender RCAC helped Native American-owned Earth & Sky Floral Designs get back to business after a health setback.

Earth & Sky Floral Designs and Gallery, LLC is a 100% Native American woman-owned business located on the Pueblo of Laguna reservation. Owned by Shayai Lucero of the Acoma and Laguna Pueblos, the business provides full-service floral arrangements for weddings, funerals, birthdays, holidays and local ceremonies. Shayai operates the shop from a renovated lodge on her property and employs seasonal part-time help during peak times like Mother’s Day and graduations. 

In 2023, Shayai faced a series of severe health setbacks—including a COVID-19 infection, complications and hospitalization—that forced her to close the business for seven weeks. Without incoming revenue and facing more than $49,000 in medical bills, the future of Earth & Sky Floral Designs was in jeopardy. But it quickly became clear the shop played a vital role in the life of the community. Shayai’s customers rallied behind her, affirming that the business was essential—not just as a service provider, but as a trusted part of local traditions. 

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