Author Archives: Taura Costidis

Late Movers Reap Benefits in Select Markets

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By Finance New Mexico

By Finance New Mexico

Just because a company invents a popular product or introduces a novel service doesn’t mean it won’t face competition from late movers eager to share the action. New Mexico entrepreneurs can fight for a niche in new industries — or even challenge a pioneering company with significant improvements on the original — but they need a clear strategy, good timing and the right product category.

The developer of a new commodity or service has the initial advantage. It sets a standard by which all competitors are judged, and it dominates the market at first because it created the market.
It maintains that place until a rival offers something compelling enough to persuade people to try a fresh alternative. Continue reading →

Free Online Tool Aims to Help Businesses Succeed in Las Cruces

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By Finance New Mexico

By Finance New Mexico

The City of Las Cruces wants local entrepreneurs to know about a new software tool that can help them succeed by accurately assessing how their existing or prospective business compares to industry competitors.

The Web-based program, SizeUp, gives users immediate access to reliable data from public and private sources that they can use to make informed business decisions and write reality-based business plans.

SizeUp has an interactive map that allows businesses to benchmark their performance against that of their competitors, decide where advertising messages are most likely to be seen by their target audience and identify where to find customers, competitors and suppliers. Continue reading →

Loan Helps College Student Build Business on Barrel-Racing Bling

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Run As One Tack and Equine

By Finance New Mexico

Lyndseyanne Wilken started making custom tack sets to help pay her way through college. Now her small business, Run as One Tack and Equine, is doing so well that she’s starting to think her degree in agricultural sciences will be part of a fallback plan rather than her dominant career path.

The 22-year-old lives in the Doña Ana County community of Salem and attends New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. She acquired the skills to create equine finery for rodeo horses in 4-H leatherwork classes and has refined them over more than a decade. Continue reading →

Succession Planning Should Begin Well Before Owner Exits

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By Finance New Mexico

By Finance New Mexico

Many small-business owners fantasize about what they’ll do when they retire, but most are too preoccupied with day-to-day survival to devote the same attention to what will become of the business once they’re gone.

Some expect to sell their business or take it public; others assume it’ll stay in the family if an heir or relative shows interest and aptitude. To protect their interests, small-business owners need an exit strategy that includes a well-conceived succession plan that also accounts for unexpected events, such as disability, financial collapse or death. Continue reading →

Cross-Promotion Can Help Compatible Businesses Build Client Base

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By Finance New Mexico

By Finance New Mexico

Sharing customers seems incompatible with a competitive marketplace, but examples of such cross-promotion are everywhere: the bank or coffee shop that occupies its own niche inside a supermarket, for example, or the fast-food chain that promotes a blockbuster movie with theme-related food offerings.

But the large corporations that take advantage of these strategic arrangements don’t have a franchise on cross-pollination. In fact, many small businesses have found that collaborating with a compatible business or businesses can be mutually beneficial: It can help all parties expand their outreach into new sales channels and build a client base while saving marketing costs. Continue reading →

Boots to Business Helps Veterans Start Personal-Security Venture

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By Finance New Mexico, with the assistance of John Woosley, Director, U.S. Small Business Administration New Mexico district

BootstoBusinessLogoChris Sweetin was transitioning to civilian life after more than 20 years as an active-duty Air Force flight examiner, engineer and instructor when he heard about the Boots to Business program from a representative of the New Mexico Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC). Continue reading →

New Mexico Film Conference Sheds Light on Entrepreneurial Opportunities

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By Belle Allen

The film industry in New Mexico offers numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to get in on the “lights, camera, action!”

To share information about state resources and growing industry trends with filmmakers, producers, accountants, studios, vendors, crew, actors and emerging media innovators, the New Mexico State Film Office hosts the New Mexico Film and Media Industry Conference.

Established players in the state’s vibrant film industry aren’t the only ones who could benefit from the workshops and sessions: The event is a setting for savvy creatives and go-getters to find a niche in established service areas and to learn about unmet needs their products, properties and talents might fill. Continue reading →

Small-Business Lending Bears Fruit Throughout New Mexico

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Russell Cummins

By Russell Cummins, Executive Director, New Mexico Small Business Investment Corporation

The owners of Montoya Transportation in Silver City, Enchanted Smiles in Belen and Santa Fe Thrive in New Mexico’s capital city run vastly different businesses in separate parts of the state. But each of these entrepreneurs has borrowed money from the pool of capital managed by the New Mexico Small Business Investment Corporation (NMSBIC) and made available to borrowers through NMSBIC’s network of lenders.

Loans similar to these are among the 473 approved in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Those loans, totaling $8.1 million, supported 1,308 jobs throughout the state.

Since 2004, NMSBIC’s lending partners — including The Loan Fund, Accion and WESST — have delivered funding for 3,524 loans to virtually every community in New Mexico, including areas underserved by traditional lenders. These loans, totaling $56 million, have supported 9,379 jobs. Continue reading →

Consultants Help Yarn Cafe Owner Raise Business Profile

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By George Kenefic, Director of Enterprise Empowerment, The Loan Fund

About a year after she had secured a small-business startup loan through The Loan Fund, Deborah Grossman got a visit from two consultants who work for the nonprofit lender. The pair — Joaquin Amador and Andrew Carrabus — dropped by Grossman’s Santa Fe store, Yarn & Coffee, to ask if she needed help with marketing, financial record keeping or any of the other tasks involved in starting and sustaining a business.

The timing was fortunate. “I was trying to figure out how to get more people in the door,” Grossman said of her shop, where people can buy yarn, knitting and crocheting tools and accessories, patterns and books or take a needle-craft class — and enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or cold drink at the same time.

Grossman strives to create a community atmosphere at her business housed in a stand-alone building tucked behind the Pantry Restaurant on Cerrillos Road and Fifth Street. Continue reading →