By Sandy Nelson for Finance New Mexico

Whether it’s a sole proprietorship or a multinational corporation, every New Mexico business needs an individual or group of people whose job it is to advise the owner or leadership team.

Those advisers might be family members or mentors in the case of a small business, or they might be experienced executives providing a larger company objective, expert feedback and wise direction as members of a formal board of directors.

Big or small, the group of people offering counsel should reflect the business’s stakeholders, most especially its customers. It should be as diverse as its audience. Continue reading →

By Sandy Nelson for Finance New Mexico

Employers who fail to protect employees from a co-worker’s racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory and defamatory comments on social media platforms can find themselves on the losing end of a workplace harassment lawsuit.

Case law on work-related cyber-harassment is evolving with the popularity of social media as a way for people to connect, communicate and commiserate, but one trend is clear: Courts expect employers to intervene immediately when they learn of workplace disputes spilling over onto social media, and the law increasingly considers online harassment and bullying just as egregious as the kind that happens obliquely or directly in an office or other physical job site. Continue reading →

By Sandy Nelson for Finance New Mexico

Government organizations save money on procurement the same way private companies do — by finding volume discounts on products and services. Such economies of scale benefit the companies that can afford them, and they stretch taxpayer dollars, but they also squeeze out small businesses that don’t have the capacity to complete large, national jobs or work on tight profit margins. Continue reading →

By Sandy Nelson for Finance New Mexico

National organizations like the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and local resources like Finance New Mexico are setting the table for small New Mexico businesses that hunger for information and assistance. And what they offer is a fiesta of staples and specials to whet any entrepreneurial appetite. Continue reading →

By Sandy Nelson and Taura Costidis for Finance New Mexico

Business owners who don’t consider the impact of dollars spent by people with disabilities are missing a market opportunity. Complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) can raise a business’s costs, but the rewards of making a business accessible to members of America’s largest minority community more than compensate for the investment.

More than 58 million Americans live with some type of disability, and that number is expected to grow as the last of the post-World War II baby boomers reaches 65, according to Julie Ballinger, a disability rights consultant affiliated with the Southwest ADA Center — one of 10 ADA centers nationwide. Continue reading →

By Paul Braverman for Finance New Mexico

In 2009, Gregg Hull was running a shipping company in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, when he got news that would strike fear into the most lion-hearted soul: The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department would be auditing his finances for the past three years.

In a recent interview, Hull related the surprise he felt when the auditors focused on transactions involving Non-Taxable Transaction Certificates (NTTC). Surprise turned to despair when the audit expanded to six years, and to shock when Hull was told that he owed the state $120,000 in taxes that he had failed to collect. The amount threatened to shutter his business. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

Starting a business in New Mexico involves securing a tax reporting number and federal income tax ID. Beyond those basics, some business owners need special permits to serve food or alcohol or to operate in industries that are subject to heightened regulation. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

A business of any size can analyze its internal strengthens and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats — a process known by its acronym, SWOT — to gain insight into the forces it does and doesn’t control and to set realistic goals.

Strengths and weaknesses are within a company’s control: Strengths give it a competitive edge; weaknesses give rivals an opportunity to gain the upper hand. Opportunities and threats originate outside the company, and a company only can control how to anticipate and react to them: Opportunities are conditions a business can leverage to its benefit, and threats are dangers that are best avoided. Continue reading →

By Steve Resnick, Owner, Capitol Computer

The information age and rise of the internet have changed the way people live, work and interact. But along with better communication come virus attacks, hijacks and hostile invasions that can make the internet seem more like a war zone than a social and information network.

Savvy business owners can protect their frontlines by acting like commanding officers of their internet armies, ensuring that multiple levels of security are in place to repel and combat enemies.

Protection starts with a good enterprise-grade Unified Threat Management (UTM) appliance — also known as a firewall — as the primary defense against invasion of the business’s network, computers and data. Continue reading →