By Secretary Jon Barela, New Mexico Economic Development Department

Economic development in New Mexico is often a joint effort of individual communities and the state’s Economic Development Department (EDD), which oversees multiple programs designed to bolster the state’s infrastructure and support the entrepreneurial ambitions of New Mexicans.

Three high profile initiatives are the New Mexico MainStreet Program and two programs that fall under its umbrella: the Frontier Communities Initiative and the Arts and Cultural Districts Program.

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Russell Cummins, Executive Director and Investment Adviser, NMSBIC

While many financial experts predict slow economic growth in 2013, the New Mexico Small Business Investment Corporation (NMSBIC) is taking action to improve the economy in New Mexico by providing capital to small businesses around the state.

Created in 2001 under the New Mexico Small Business Investment Act to stimulate job creation, the NMSBIC plans to assist more small businesses in more parts of the state, said Joseph Badal, board chairman and president of the organization.

“We want to increase the velocity of money we have to deploy,” he said. “The faster money gets into the hands of small-business owners, the faster the economic development impact on those businesses and on the state’s economy. Continue reading →

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corporation for Los Alamos Connect

The work of artist and Santa Fe native Nicola López explores how human-built constructions like cities, buildings and technologies grow organically and become increasingly complex over time.

“Like the biblical Tower of Babel, the complexity is an immense opportunity that becomes more and more difficult to manage,” López said. “There is an element of destruction here, which gave me the idea to use explosives in my works.”

To express this idea artistically, López wanted to explore a new printmaking technique that used explosives to etch metal. She appealed to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program, through which the state’s small businesses can tap into the scientific expertise of the two national laboratories based here — Los Alamos and Sandia — to overcome a technical challenge at no cost to the business. Help includes testing, design consultation and access to special equipment or facilities.

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Rich Williams, NM MainStreet Director and Arts and Cultural District Coordinator, NM Economic Development Dept.

Artesia is a southeastern New Mexico town named for the artesian aquifer on which the area’s early agricultural industry was based. Today Artesia’s 10,700 residents are drawing on the city’s history as they work with the Artesia MainStreet program to remake the town’s downtown.

Artesia MainStreet is part of the New Mexico MainStreet Program, a grassroots economic development program of the New Mexico Economic Development Department. The state Legislature launched the program in 1985 to help communities remake older commercial neighborhoods as economically viable business environments while preserving local cultural and historical resources.

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Paul F. Goblet, Investment Advisor, NMSBIC

One job may not be all that important in New Mexico, and one small business may not solve the economic challenges facing the state. But the collective power of multiple jobs and businesses saved and created by investment through the New Mexico Small Business Investment Corp. — especially when nationwide unemployment hovers at 9.7 percent – makes a significant difference in the lives of people and the strength of communities.

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Leslie Hoffman, V.P. of Lending and Client Service, ACCIÓN New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

ACCION New Mexico · Arizona · Colorado reached a major milestone in its 16-year history this fall by surpassing the $30 million mark in loans disbursed to small businesses in the three-state area. The event was a milestone as well in the life of borrower Jammie Ross, who is using an ACCION loan to open Caked, a dessert and cupcake bakery, in northwest Albuquerque in early 2011 with her husband, Shane. It was Ross’s loan that pushed ACCION’s lending history past the $30 million milestone.

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

The New Mexico District of the U.S. Small Business Administration is soliciting nominations for several awards that aim to highlight the achievements and entrepreneurial spirit of the state’s small business owners and supporters. Awards will be presented next spring at the annual New Mexico Small Business Week event, and winners may advance to regional and then national competitions and be recognized at the agency’s national Small Business Week celebration in May 2011.

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