By Kathy Keith, Executive Director (center); pictured with RDC team members Monica Abeita and Gail Gordon
The Regional Development Corporation and its partners are launching the 20/20 Campaign to celebrate the entrepreneurs who have started small businesses in Northern New Mexico, creating jobs, driving innovative industries and providing a solid economic base for our communities.
The 20/20 Campaign aims to recognize and support 20 high-growth companies that could potentially grow to double or triple in size within eight years — by 2020 — to become major employers in Northern New Mexico. A handful of businesses every year will be selected by the collaborating partners, which are service providers, economic development organizations, city and county governments and entrepreneurial support organizations from Española, Los Alamos, Santa Fe and Taos. The first crop of 20/20 companies will be announced on October 4th, 2012 during a “Spirit of Innovation” event.
RDC’s partners nominated the companies chosen for the first year of the 20/20 campaign. Each company had to have a proven and developed product or service, two or more customers, financial stability and profitability. Companies had to have made demonstrable progress toward being able to double revenue and staffing over four years, and they had to be manufacturing or producing a product with at least 50 percent or more of revenues or customer base outside of Northern New Mexico. And they had to be committed to staying and growing in Northern New Mexico.
Nominees accepted each year as 20/20 businesses will receive business resources — including operational, financial and technical support — from service providers with the aim of helping each double its revenue and work force over the following four years. The selected 20/20 companies will have the opportunity to participate in a “springboard” event organized by Northern New Mexico Connect — the principal economic development investment of Los Alamos National Security LLC, which is the contract operations manager of Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Department of Energy. A springboard event helps companies face and understand options to solve a strategic decision, such as securing funding, verifying a business model, building a management team or penetrating a new market.
The “Spirit of Innovation” event is part of a larger “Season of Innovation” celebration that involves numerous other events, including “The Next Big Idea” on Sept. 15, which showcases ideas, inventions and innovations at Los Alamos National Laboratory; and the Sandia National Laboratories’ Research and Technology Showcase on Sept. 12 at Embassy Suites in Albuquerque, which highlights Sandia’s business and economic development programs.
The 20/20 Campaign aims to make the “Season of Innovation” an annual event as each new group of businesses is announced.
For a list of partners and more information about the 20/20 campaign, log onto http://www.nnm2020.org/.
Download 257_2020 Campaign Supports and Celebrates Entrepreneurs PDF