Photo courtesy Pet Planet Hotel and Day Camp

By Finance New Mexico

By the time they had adopted seven dogs from friends and neighbors, David and Juliana Garcia concluded that Las Cruces sorely needed a business that served animals and the people who love them.

The couple bought a van with their savings to start a mobile grooming business for large pets. By the time they were ready to buy a second van to accommodate their growing client base, the Garcias were thinking about opening a hotel and day camp, with spa services on the side, for dogs and cats. Continue reading →

By Metta Smith, Vice President of Lending and Client Services, Accion

Ohel Chillon; photos courtesy Antigua Woodwork

It’s a common conundrum for startups: The business needs money to grow, but it’s too new and untested to qualify for a loan from many traditional lenders.

But, as Regina Baca and Ohel Chillon of Antigua Woodwork discovered three months after starting their business in 2014, Accion is willing to take a chance on fledgling enterprises like theirs. The Albuquerque couple took out a loan in December of that year to purchase equipment critical to their operation. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

Ramiro Alcala learned the value of community banks in 2013 when he needed a loan to expand the parking lot at his Las Cruces restaurant, Las Trancas, and to add walk-in refrigerators to the kitchen.

Despite his long and successful track record with the business, which he opened with his mother in 1996, Alcala couldn’t find traditional financing until he approached the local office of Century Bank. It wasn’t the only financial institution in town, but it was the only one that would lend Alcala the money to continue the expansion he began in 2010 to meet ever-growing demand. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico; photo courtesy newfarmers.usda.gov

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making it easier for New Mexicans to take up — or continue — farming in a state that’s famous for its chile and other commercial crops but also produces specialty items derived from agricultural products.

Direct Farm Ownership Microloans, which help agricultural entrepreneurs buy and improve farmland and farm buildings and finance other related capital-intensive activities, are especially helpful to beginning and underserved farmers, veterans and those just embarking on a farming career. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

Editor’s Note: This article was updated March 21, 2018.

Business people who want to develop property in economically depressed New Mexico communities — or who want to purchase expensive commercial equipment or secure working capital  for use in those communities — often lack the funding they need for such ambitious and capital-intensive ventures.

That’s why the New Mexico Finance Authority created a community development entity, or CDE, in 2006 to raise capital and fill funding gaps for large projects expected to benefit low-income areas.

To be eligible for CDE funding, a project must be in a neighborhood or tract considered low-income in the most recent census. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

By Justin Hyde, Accion Market Manager

Cathy Schueler approached Accion, a nonprofit lender, in 1996 to secure her first business loan for her nascent business — a microloan of around $3,000 — to buy equipment and supplies for her private psychotherapy practice in Rio Rancho.  At the time, Schueler was a sole proprietor who wanted to build her new business.

By the time Schueler returned in 2015, she was planning to purchase a home for her thriving S corporation, Bosque Mental Health, in central Albuquerque.

“Cathy’s a great example of how a client can grow with us,” said Metta Smith, vice president of lending and client relations. “We’re able to work with a wide range of entrepreneurs — from those needing startup capital to launch, to the well-established business owner hoping to purchase a home for his or her business.” Continue reading →