Author Archives: Admin

Small Business Publicity: Writing Effective Press Releases

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Julianna Martinez-Barbee

Julianna Martinez-Barbee, Director, NMSBDC at Northern NM College

Professional publicists recommend press releases to deliver business news to the media for broadcast to potential customers. Publicity of this kind is free and can often be done by a business owner or someone who works for her company. If the media publish the story, the business stands to gain the goodwill of existing customers and attract new ones. The result can be increased sales at a cost of only the time it takes to write and distribute the release.

But the average newsroom receives hundreds of emails and faxes every day, only a fraction of which are published. Competition for print space and airtime means press releases need to be creative, factual and informative. They must provide content the media believe its readers, viewers and listeners want.

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Government Contracting: A New Path to Increased Revenue?

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Elaine Palin

Elaine Palin, Advisor, PTAP at Santa Fe Community College

In times of economic upheaval when private sector output slows, government contracts may mean the difference between running a company at profit rather than loss. The Procurement Technical Assistance Program, set up by the New Mexico Small Business Development Network in 2009, is a non-profit organization that helps small businesses obtain government contracts.

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National Labs Encourage Small Business Collaboration

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Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, RDC for Northern NM Connect

Members of Espanola Valley’s Santa Cruz Irrigation District (SCID) believed they needed to invest in an expensive sediment trap to maintain the capacity of their reservoir. Sedimentation had filled more than a third of the reservoir, resulting in water rationing and a shorter growing season for the more than 3,000 farms that depend on its water. With help from a leveraged project through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program, the district learned that sediment was coming from multiple sources rather than just one, and it is now pursuing plans to build several smaller, less expensive traps.

“NMSBA prevented us from making a costly investment that would not be effective and offered better alternatives to benefit the farmers,” said Kenny Salazar, orchard owner and board chairman of SCID.

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SBA Seeks Feedback at Event

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John C. Woosley

John C. Woosley, District Director, SBA NM District Office

Janice Lucero was convinced people would pay a little more to renew their driver’s license or car registration if they could do it quickly from a convenient location with friendly service. Lucero turned her conviction into MVD Express, a $5 million company that serves 22,000 customers a month from its 11 New Mexico locations. Lucero’s success and community involvement led the U.S. Small Business Administration to name her the New Mexico Small Business Person of the Year. The award earned Lucero a trip to Washington D.C. where she’s in the running for national recognition.

The New Mexico district of the U.S. Small Business Administration will honor Lucero and other small-business leaders from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. June 2 at the state’s Small Business Week Award Celebration luncheon at Embassy Suites Albuquerque Hotel, 1000 Woodward Place N.E.

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LANL Puts Students to Work for New Mexico Businesses

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Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect

When Scott Laidlaw and Jennifer Harris created Ko’s Journey, a game designed to teach math in middle schools, they weren’t sure how to get it into the marketplace. With help from MBA students participating in a summer internship program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, they are now better prepared. The students helped them target interested schools and made recommendations to market their product on the Internet.

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Stay Stable with Balanced Cash Flow

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Sandra Taylor Sawyer

Sandra Taylor Sawyer, Director, NMSBDC at Clovis Community College

Cash-flow imbalance is the leading cause of business failure in a healthy economy, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. So when the economy is sputtering toward its prior vigor, it’s more urgent than ever to maintain a balance between what’s flowing into the business and what’s flowing out.

In business, cash is king. It’s used to pay short-term bills, cover unexpected emergencies and invest for future business needs. Savvy business owners look beyond income and expenses by keeping an eye on cash to manage all cash inflows and outflows.

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Personal Approach to Sales Prospecting Yields Results

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Stacy Sacco

Stacy Sacco, MBA, VP Marketing at WESST

Small-business owners focused on increasing sales sometimes turn to prospect lists – names of potential customers researched on the internet or purchased from a marketing firm. Even if the selection criteria are finely targeted, “cold calls” made from these lists result in fewer sales than calls made to people with whom there is a personal relationship. The key is to turn unknown potential customers into personal connections.

One approach is to generate an ongoing prospect list from public announcements about people who have won industry awards or reached achievements of note, and use the announcement to make a personal connection by sending a letter of congratulations. The letter should be written and addressed by hand, and suggest how doing business together can make the award-winner become even more successful.

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In the Zone: Know the Laws About Home-Based Businesses

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Don Bustos

Don Bustos, Director, NMSBDC at Luna Community College

Almost half of U.S. businesses are based in the business owner’s home, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and that number might grow as more people decide to go into business for themselves.

Those planning to launch a home-based business in New Mexico need to understand the zoning laws that apply in their area. Depending on where one lives in the state, zoning laws are enacted by city or county officials.

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Small Businesses, Labs Celebrate Collaboration

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Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, created by the state Legislature in 2000 to provide technical help from Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories to small businesses throughout the state.

At the 2011 NMSBA Innovation Celebration, held April 7 at the Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque, laboratory officials recognized 12 small businesses that have participated in the program. The businesses are in both urban and rural communities of New Mexico, and include agricultural companies, medical technologies and an irrigation district.

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Looking for Equity? Seek the Right Specialist

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Tom Stephenson

Tom Stephenson, Managing General Partner, Verge Fund

Specialization is common within the equity investment world, with investors generally focused on specific stages of business development. A “seed” stage investor, for example, has a different specialty than a firm that provides expansion capital.

An entrepreneur who knows the terms used to describe development-related types of equity financing is more likely to seek the investor right for her venture and increase the chance of obtaining funds.

Most investor specialization terms fall close to the following:

Seed-stage venture capital refers to investments made in firms with products under development or recently introduced to the market. Continue reading →