Category Archives: General Business Advice

Collaboration is Ingredient for Success of Culinary Business Incubator

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Tony Gallegos

Tony Gallegos, CEO, Rio Grande Community Development Corporation

New Mexico is home to delicious and distinctive foods and to one of the largest commercial kitchen incubators in the country.

Albuquerque’s South Valley Economic Development Center— a collaborative effort of Bernalillo County and the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation — houses a 3,500-square-foot commercial kitchen that’s available to entrepreneurs who want to turn their cooking skills into money-making ventures. More than 60 small businesses share the nonprofit Mixing Bowl Community Kitchen at any given time, and 200 potential entrepreneurs hatch their food-based businesses at the incubator every year.

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Energy Efficient Lighting Slashes Costs for Deming Manufacturer

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Terry Brunner

Terry Brunner, State Director, USDA Rural Development Agency

A new energy-efficient system installed at Compass Components Incorporated (CCI) is expected to save the Deming company more than 50 percent on its lighting bill. A $48,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America (REAP) made the upgrade possible in late 2011.

Lighting is critical at the company’s high-ceiling plant, where electrical components and wiring harness assemblies for buses are manufactured. CCI replaced the plant’s 630 fluorescent tube lights and fixtures with 48 T-8 Hi-Bay lights. In doing so, it removed and safely disposed of old ballasts containing liquid polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); these highly toxic materials haven’t been produced in the United States since 1979 due to their classification as persistent organic pollutants.

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Buying Business Property Offers Numerous Perks – and Potential Pitfalls

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Alexia Constantaras

Alexia Constantaras, Attorney at Law, Montgomery & Andrews

Business owners can sometimes save money by buying the building where they’re housed. Rather than monthly payments going toward rent, mortgage payments build an asset the business can sell or use as loan collateral. Corporate business owners can buy property privately and rent it to the business, providing income for the owner and a deductible expense for the business. When the business owns the property, depreciation expense is maximized and the asset side of the balance sheet is strengthened. However the property is purchased, several aspects of the purchase agreement require review.

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State Helps Businesses Obtain Certification That Puts Major Contracts Within Reach

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Jeff Abrams

Jeff Abrams, Innovation Director, New Mexico MEP

Winning government contracts can enrich a business and workers in the community where the business is based. But getting contracts from government agencies and private industries that value quality-management certification can seem daunting at first.

To simplify the process for eligible businesses, the state Economic Development Department, in partnership with New Mexico MEP, created New Mexico 9000, or ISO 9000 — a class that trains businesses to procure the ISO 9001:2008 certification that is critical to winning big contracts and doing business with privately held national and international companies.

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Board Membership Offers Connections, Fulfillment

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Leslie McCarthy Apodaca

Leslie McCarthy Apodaca, Director, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce; and Partner, Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, P.A.

Serving on the board of a nonprofit organization can be professionally and personally satisfying, or it can be an exercise in boredom and frustration. Getting the most from board membership requires a good fit between individual and organization, and that requires some research.


Pros and Cons

The benefits of board service are generally recognized, which is why the busiest and most successful members of a community often serve on community boards. Board membership offers an opportunity to collaborate with others who are interesting and like-minded. Board members can learn new skills and use skills they already possess to improve and benefit an organization they support. Most people who volunteer to serve on boards say they do so because of a desire to have an impact, to effect positive change and to give back to the community.

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Trade Missions Help New Mexico Businesses Expand into Global Market

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Edward R. Herrera

Edward R. Herrera, Acting Director, Office of International Trade, NM EDD

Glenn Mallory traveled to Chile and Argentina this winter to gauge the potential market for Kalwall, an energy-saving translucent building material made and marketed by Illuminación Natural Inc. and its Southwest affiliate, Daylighting Solutions. The trade mission was coordinated by the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s Office of International Trade.

“I had worked in both markets several years ago with no tangible results,” Mallory said. But on this trip, “I got very clear ideas about the potential in both markets. It will take months of follow-up and persistence to determine whether or not there will be direct economic benefit from the mission, but one small order would pay for the cost of making the trip, so it is worth the investment.”

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How Businesses Can Protect Themselves From Hackers

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Caroline Dennis

Caroline Dennis, President, Wired Nation

Given the numerous products and promises of the information technology (IT) security industry and the frequent news stories about data breaches, it’s not surprising that business owners don’t know where to start when it comes to protecting themselves from information-highway robbers. Some wonder why they should spend money on sophisticated security systems when hackers can get around them.

Even if a business doesn’t hire someone to watch over its systems, it can implement some basic IT security measures to significantly reduce its vulnerability.

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Private-Public Partnership Brings Export Experts to New Mexico

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Jennifer Sinsabaugh

Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Operations Director, NM MEP

New Mexico businesses interested in exporting their products or services — or expanding their export capacity — can take advantage of special training sessions being offered in Albuquerque by ExporTech, a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Export Assistance Centers of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The event is set in Albuquerque because of that city’s central location, but businesses throughout the state are encouraged to attend, even if it means a long drive, to take advantage of the national resources being offered.

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Bonds Benefit Both Parties to a Contract, Not Just the Client

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Kendra Zacharias-Trujillo

Kendra Zacharias-Trujillo, Rio Grande Insurance Services Inc.

Many contractors — especially those with a demonstrated reliability and good credit — resent that they’re required to be bonded for the work they do and consider bonds an unnecessary expense for something that doesn’t appear to provide a tangible benefit.

But bonds protect the interests of both parties to a contract: They’re a form of credit that helps the contractor attract serious, big-ticket clients, and they assure the client that he will receive money to cover the costs of finishing a project that isn’t completed to contract terms.

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Early Planning Can Help Owner Live Off Assets From Business Sale

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Priscilla Dakin

Priscilla Dakin, Dakin Business Group Business Brokerage

Many business owners dream of selling their business at a price that will pay them in retirement what they earned while working. The ones who achieve this goal start planning and preparing well before retirement by saving a portion of personal income from the business in retirement accounts and diverse investments and by managing the business so it’s offered for sale at the peak of its success.

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