A steady stream of sales is crucial to sustaining or growing a business. How do you increase sales in an economy where consumer buying styles have changed?
Join WESST online from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm on Tuesday, Aug. 17 for the first of four sessions to learn how to engage customers with a new approach to selling that increases revenue and eliminates pressure from the buying process.
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When the coronavirus pandemic temporarily halted tourist traffic and shuttered restaurants and bars throughout New Mexico, Black Mesa Winery in Velarde had an inventory of wine and hard cider worth $100,000 and fewer avenues to deliver its products to customers. Winery owners Jerry and Lynda Burd were able to keep products moving out the door through online wine tasting events, shipments to wine club members, and creative drive-by tours that kept customers engaged.
The slowdown also gave the Burds time to examine all aspects of their operation and to consider changes that could streamline processes, open new markets, and increase market share when the pandemic ended.
The Burds sought help from New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (New Mexico MEP), a nonprofit organization that helps businesses transform their operations to improve production, competitiveness, and profitability. New Mexico MEP Innovation Director Scott Bryant worked with the couple and their 12 employees to help them evaluate the entire production line.
Continue readingSmall businesses that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic were the greatest beneficiaries of services provided by the nonprofit lender DreamSpring in 2020.
When the pandemic hit early in 2020, DreamSpring quickly adapted to a fully remote work model and pivoted from business-as-usual to providing economic triage alongside an array of partners, which included community-based organizations, banks, federal and local government agencies, philanthropies, individual donors, and existing clients. DreamSpring’s ability to serve as economic first responders to the smallest, most vulnerable businesses in the crisis by providing access to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds and other resources was crucial to keeping thousands of businesses afloat.
The results are impressive.
Continue readingDisrupTECH is a celebration of the disruptive technology created by the scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory. At this signature innovation event — now in its seventh year — thirteen carefully selected entrepreneurial-minded scientists will present their ideas with the goal of introducing the latest groundbreaking technology from Los Alamos and their inventors to entrepreneurs, investors, regional leaders, policymakers, and industrial partners. Be the first to see and experience the work of these featured scientists, and have the first shot at engaging in tech transfer opportunities.
Continue readingThe Collateral Assistance Program (CAP) helps creditworthy small businesses obtain a loan for which they might not otherwise qualify. To help banks and other financial institutions make loans to small businesses in underserved markets, the New Mexico Economic Development Department can pledge cash to cover a collateral shortfall of a loan to enable commercial financing. Business owners apply through a participating bank or financial institution that can initiate the loan.
Continue readingThe Rural Efficient Business Program (REBP) offers assistance to small businesses and agricultural producers to reduce energy consumption, implement renewable energy systems, and increase profits.
Continue readingLos Alamos National Laboratory has a stockpile of patents covering technologies with untapped commercial potential, as well as a portfolio of copyright-protected software it wants to share with businesses that can translate these assets into private-sector jobs.
Continue readingNative American business owners are encouraged to utilize the wide range of resources available to all New Mexico entrepreneurs, however, a number of opportunities focus exclusively on the growth of Native-owned businesses.
Continue readingThe United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched a new website in May 2021, to help entrepreneurs and inventors navigate the system that protects intellectual property.
Continue readingThe Regional Development Corporation will begin accepting applications for grants from its Tribal Economic Diversity Fund on July 1, 2021. The deadline to apply is August 2 at 5:00 pm.
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