Author Archives: Admin

2020 Campaign Supports, Celebrates Entrepreneurs

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By Kathy Keith, Executive Director (center); pictured with RDC team members Monica Abeita and Gail Gordon

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.

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Depreciation Prevents Expense Spikes That Can Unsettle Investors

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Jimmy Pendergrass

Jimmy D. Pendergrass, CPA, Partner, Accounting & Consulting Group LLC

The Internal Revenue Service stipulates that businesses must capitalize expenditures for big-ticket items and recover that cost over several years – a practice known as depreciation – to avoid dramatic changes in the financial statements of a business from one year to the next. Knowing when to depreciate and when to claim a special one-time expense deduction is critical for entrepreneurs.

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Lunches Give Businesswomen a Chance to Find Clients, Make Contacts

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Jennifer Craig

Jennifer Craig, Regional Manager, WESST Las Cruces

Networking is a form of marketing that exponentially increases the influence that a professional or business owner can have when searching for new markets or clients. WESST, a nonprofit that helps build small businesses in New Mexico, used the occasion of Women’s History Month in March to teach women entrepreneurs how to use this powerful tool: The organization’s Las Cruces enterprise center started an Empowering Women in Business Networking lunch meeting so clients and other women could mingle, share ideas, get acquainted and help one another.

The gatherings started small — about three dozen women — but that number nearly doubled by June, suggesting that WESST had tapped into an unmet need.

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Employers Who Mislabel Employees Risk Penalties

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Suzanne C. Odom

Suzanne C. Odom, Attorney at Law, Montgomery & Andrews, P.A.

Under competitive pressures, some employers are tempted to label workers “independent contractors” rather than employees so they can avoid paying benefits, matching Social Security and Medicare taxes, paying federal and state unemployment taxes and following employment laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act. This practice of misclassification has created substantial problems for affected employees and for the United States Treasury, the Social Security and Medicare funds, and state unemployment and workers’ compensation funds.

As a result, the U.S. Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2011 so the agencies could work together and share information to reduce employee misclassification, close the tax gap and improve compliance with federal labor laws.  Continue reading →

Workshops Aim to Teach Principles of Lean Manufacturing

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Jennifer Sinsabaugh

Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Operations Director, NM MEP

Michael Tso was 10 months into his job running a high-tech envelope-making machine at Desert Paper and Envelope in Albuquerque when his employer sent him to the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s lean-manufacturing workshop this summer. There with other representatives of New Mexico companies he learned fundamentals of the lean manufacturing philosophy, which aims to improve business operations – and enhance competitiveness – from the shop floor to the front office.

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Lender-Client Relationship Built on Trust, Mutual Benefits

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Jordan van Rijn, NM Loan Officer, Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

By Jordan van Rijn, NM Loan Officer, Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

Mauro Nava’s seven-year relationship with microlender Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado paid off when the Mexico City native and his Ukrainian-born business partner, Olena Dziuba, decided to open a health clinic to serve residents of Albuquerque’s underserved South Valley. Clínica la Esperanza opened in October 2011 at Bridge and Isleta boulevards with seed money from the two partners to remodel the building and a line of credit from Accion to pay bills until the business started generating revenue.

Nava first contacted Accion in 2005 for funds to start a mobile radiography business called On-Site Radiography. Nava’s perfect payment history on past Accion loans made him a good candidate for the most recent investment. Continue reading →

TED Conference is Incubator for Innovative Ideas

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Tim Nisly

Tim Nisly, Founder, TEDxABQ

The adage that business success is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration hit home for me through TED, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the spread of inspiring ideas. Established in 1996 by magazine publishing entrepreneur Chris Anderson on the basis of a 1984 gathering of leaders in the fields of design, technology and entertainment, TED aims to provide a platform for the world’s most innovative thinkers, visionaries and teachers to help people gain a better understanding of the world’s most serious problems and hear some ideas about how to solve them. The Sapling Foundation, TED’s parent organization since 2001, has supported projects that use these tools to create sustainable change in areas such as global public health, poverty alleviation and biodiversity through such organizations as the Acumen Fund, OneWorld Health, and PATH.

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Prepare Early When Planning a Business Sale

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Ray Roberts

Ray C. Roberts CPA, ACG Capital Advisors

Because selling a business is the most important financial transaction of an owner’s life, he should think carefully about his exit strategy before it’s time to leave.

The choices are many: He can transfer the enterprise to a family member or sell to a strategic partner and retain some involvement. He can take it public or sell and move on. Most exits follow this path.

To maximize the sales price, owners should begin preparing their company for sale well before the transaction. That requires understanding what buyers look for when acquiring a business and making sure these elements are present.

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Outside Capital Helps Aerial Photography Company Take Off

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F. Leroy Pacheco

F. Leroy Pacheco, CEO, The Loan Fund

Blue Skies Consulting knows a lot about building a business through strategic growth funded by outside capital. The Belen-based aerial photography company is a client of The Loan Fund, a top-ranked community development financial institution that provides loans and other banking services to underserved markets in New Mexico.

Blue Skies began its relationship with The Loan Fund in 2009 when it sought funding to buy aerial camera system components in preparation for the purchase of a digital aerial camera designed for high-resolution photography. Two loans in 2011 made it possible for the company to buy the Microsoft Vexcel UltraCam Lp, the only photogrammetric digital mapping camera in New Mexico. Continue reading →

Program Offers NM Herbalist Free Technical Help

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Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for NNM Connect

In the 29 years since he bought Santa Fe-based Herbs, Etc. from its founder, herbalist Daniel Gagnon has worked hard to meet demand from the more than 2,000 U.S. retailers that carry the liquid herbal extracts and herbal medicines he manufactures.

Because quality control was critical to establishing and maintaining the company’s reputation, Gagnon imposed rigorous anti-microbial standards for his potions. Traditionally, Gagnon eliminated unwanted microbes by processing his herbs with water and alcohol. But in 2000, he developed a way to remove the alcohol to produce an alcohol-free product using olive oil and soft gel encapsulation.

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