Small businesses that continue to recover from the pandemic still have relief options. Among them is the RELieF loan offered by Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) which provides up to $25,000 to help eligible rural businesses in New Mexico emerge from the pandemic.
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RCAC Boosts Food Truck “Over the Moon”
Melinda Arquero’s dream of owning a food truck business came true in 2019. Spurred by childhood memories of selling frybread from a roadside tent alongside her mother, the Cochiti Pueblo native purchased a truck to maintain the Pueblo frybread tradition and honor the dream she shared with the mother she lost to cancer 10 years earlier. Her plan was to serve frybread to Cochiti Pueblo residents and visitors at tribal events.
And then the pandemic hit. Pueblo communities were placed on lockdown prohibiting visitors from entering tribal lands where they could pass the virus to Native Americans – a population that suffered virus deaths at one of the highest rates of any race or ethnicity. Arquero’s new Over The Moon food truck was forced to sit idle.
A Chance Meeting
Arquero, known by family and friends as Moon, learned about the nonprofit lender Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) by chance soon after pandemic health regulations loosened. She was invited to bring Over The Moon to a regional housing meeting at the Cochiti Housing Department. Hosted by RCAC, the meeting focused on RCAC housing and development programs, but conversations revealed RCAC’s work with rural small businesses. Subsequent conversations resulted in a loan and a relationship that has put the business on solid footing and given it more opportunities than Arquero originally envisioned.
Continue readingGovt. Contracting as Path to Increased Revenue
Business owners curious about growing their businesses through government contracting can attend one or more upcoming webinars, workshops, and accelerator programs.
Continue readingHardship Accommodation Plan Aims to Help EIDL Borrowers
Two news organizations reported this week that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has made changes to its COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) program to help small businesses that have been unable to repay their loans.
Continue readingClearinghouse CDFI
Clearinghouse CDFI is a direct lender financing projects that create jobs and services to help people live, work, dream, grow, and thrive in healthy communities.
Continue readingGallup Bakery Thriving
A book changed Jacqueline Ahasteen’s life. As a teenager, she stumbled across a culinary arts encyclopedia that had belonged to her father, and she was captivated by words and images so vivid that she could almost taste the wonders they described. Smitten with what was tucked in the pages of that tome, Jacqueline began experimenting with baking tarts, cupcakes and doughnuts, all from scratch. She was in the kitchen, and she was in heaven.
When she grew up, however, she put that passion aside in favor of a steady paycheck and a job in IT. That lasted until 2016, when Jacqueline posed to her husband the idea of opening a bakery. They secured a location, signed a lease, and began renovations with his enthusiastic support. The couple opened the doors of I Knead Sugar, their sweet treat bakery in Gallup, New Mexico, in May 2017.
Although fed by a dream, business ownership is about reality, and I Knead Sugar nearly closed before it even opened. After spending hard-earned personal resources on renovations and build-out, Jacqueline realized they didn’t have enough money for the ingredients that would make the bakery thrive.
DreamSpring Receives More Money to Lend
The nonprofit lender DreamSpring has been awarded almost $5 million in Equitable Recovery Program grant funds from the U.S. Treasury to support small-business lending. The U.S. Treasury grant program is aimed at strengthening the ability of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) like DreamSpring to help low- and moderate-income communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and invest in long-term prosperity.
Continue readingSpanish is Natural for this Small Business Advisor
Spanish has historically been the language of choice for many multi-generational New Mexico families. And with Latin American immigration contributing to the number of small-business startups in New Mexico, it’s no surprise that many entrepreneurs can benefit from resources and assistance delivered in their first and natural language.
Enter Juan Albert, a Technical Assistance Advisor for the nonprofit lender The Loan Fund. Born in Cuba to a family from Spain, Albert uses his Spanish language skills to help deliver loans and lines of credit to small businesses and nonprofit organizations in the southern part of New Mexico. And then he offers technical support – in Spanish or English – to ensure those businesses thrive.
Albert’s 40-year career has taken him to 35 countries throughout Latin America, Europe, and Asia. After a stint at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington DC, Albert was transferred to Panama to manage projects and personnel throughout Latin America. He later joined the firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers as a manager serving in Honduras with responsibilities overseeing projects and staff in five Central American countries. During his 10 years in Latin America, Albert worked primarily on programs related to economic and development assistance.
Continue readingAnother Grant, Another Deadline
Northern New Mexico businesses that have an immediate need for money to diversify, sustain or grow revenue, leverage other investments, and/or put systems in place that will lead to growth and create job opportunities have until May 12 at 5:00 pm to submit an application for a grant of $500 to $3,000 from the Regional Development Corporation (RDC). Grants are made on a competitive basis to businesses in RDC’s service area, which is defined as the counties of Santa Fe, Sandoval, San Miguel, Mora, Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, and Taos.
Continue readingHFFF Will Award Grants to Food Businesses
The Healthy Food Financing Fund (HFFF) is a new grant-based program that offers between $20,000 and $100,000 to New Mexico food enterprises. A new round of application acceptance is open from October 16 until November 13, 2023.
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