Category Archives: Articles

NMSBA Program Brings Small Businesses, National Laboratories Together

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Honeymoon Brewery hosted its grand opening in Santa Fe in 2018. Article by Jason Gibbs.

The crew from Santa Fe’s Honeymoon Brewery is raising a glass to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program and offering a hearty “salud” to David Fox of Los Alamos National Laboratories.

The cause for celebration? The successful pairing of a small-scale kombucha brewing business and a scientist at one of the nation’s premier research laboratories that was made possible through the NMSBA, a free program that gives small business owners in New Mexico access to the resources available at both LANL and Sandia National Laboratory.

For Honeymoon founders Ayla Bystrom-Williams and James Hill, working with LANL’s Fox allowed them to refine their brewing process and scientifically cut through a trial-and-error development process to better understand how to achieve the particular flavors they sought. Continue reading →

Startup Resources Intrinsic to Business Success

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With help from Accion, ‘magic,’ passion, comfort with risk are other key ingredients.

Daven Lee, Owner of Love+Leche; Article by Sandy Nelson

Borrowing money to start or build a business entails taking risk — not just for the lender but also the borrower. But unless the entrepreneur has rich relatives or massive savings to draw on, securing capital usually requires multiple loans over many years to start and expand a business.

Daven Lee has tapped into New Mexico’s many small-business resources over nearly two decades to turn Love + Leche from a home-based maker of handmade soaps and lotion bars — made with milk from her own goat herd and other natural products — for retail sale into a viable year-round business that gets about half its revenue from wholesale markets throughout the U.S. and in Mexico, England and Australia. Continue reading →

WESST’s online courses help women entrepreneurs build dreams

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WESST’s DreamBuilder online business course; Article by Sandy Nelson

Not everyone has the resources to go to college for an MBA, but anyone with an internet connection and some self-discipline can learn business basics through the DreamBuilder program offered by the nonprofit small-business development and training organization WESST.

DreamBuilder targets women who want to start their own businesses or need additional support to increase profitability. It’s one of a growing number of massive open online courses (MOOCs) that offer busy people a way to explore subjects that interest them — and often to earn credit for their efforts. Continue reading →

Historic Farm Pursues Innovation with Help from NM MEP

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Los Poblanos’ Lavender Hand Salve; Article by Jason Gibbs

With a history of agricultural experimentation dating back to the 1930s and a storied tradition reaching into the depths of New Mexico’s territorial history, Los Poblanos has bridged the centuries and now, with the assistance of New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NM MEP), continues to preserve the past and pursue innovation.

The land surrounding Los Poblanos was, sometime around 1716, made a part of the Elena Gallegos Land Grant which surrounded and shaped what is now Albuquerque and was first mentioned in the 1790 Census as one of six settlements in Albuquerque’s North Valley. Continue reading →

Exiting a business presents owner with critical decisions

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Stephen Wiman, former owner of Good Water Company; Article by Sandy Nelson

When the owner of a small business wants to move on, whether to retire or to pursue other ventures, he or she has three potential paths: close the business, sell it to investors or to a competitor or let the employees purchase it.

Each option has consequences for a community that relies on local businesses for jobs and revenue generation.

Stephen Wiman, former owner of Good Water Company in Santa Fe, never considered closing the independent water company he purchased in 2005 when he exited the company 11 years later. Continue reading →

Entrepreneurial journey often misses financial mark

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Guy Gaffney, Vice President of Credit at Los Alamos National Bank; Article by Damon Scott

Business owners and entrepreneurs get excited about their product and the market they serve. But to achieve long-term success, sooner or later they have to focus on a different critical area: their business finances.

Even when grants, initial sales or investments from family and friends have funded an idea from product development to market, most businesses will need financing in order to grow. If cash has been exhausted, the company’s financial position will be strained and its funding opportunities limited.

Guy Gaffney, vice president of credit at Los Alamos National Bank, has seen this situation many times during a decade with the bank. He encourages business owners to start the loan application process while they still have enough working capital to qualify for a loan. But just as important as cash, he said, is that the owner become financially literate. Continue reading →

SEC rules allow everyone to invest in small businesses

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By Karl Dakin, Owner, Dakin Capital Guild LLC

Owners of startups and early-stage businesses can now look beyond traditional financing and equity sources when searching for growth capital. Federal and state laws make it possible for everyone — not just the top three percent of income earners known as accredited investors — to invest in small businesses.

Crowdfunding is the activity of raising money from everyone. Organizations have used it since the late 1990s to obtain a large number of small donations for art and philanthropic projects. Rules adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2015 allow the general public to participate in securities-based crowdfunding. Instead of receiving a tee shirt or other gift of appreciation for a donation, crowdfunding investors get equity in the company they help fund.

Continue reading →

Define Need Before Applying for Business Loan

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Cabra Coffee in Cedar Crest, New Mexico

Cabra Coffee in Cedar Crest financed growth through The Loan Fund

Most New Mexico entrepreneurs can’t start or operate a small business without occasionally borrowing money. And that requires preparation and a methodical approach.

It begins by identifying why the money is needed and the most appropriate loan to fulfill that need. It continues with finding a lender that offers optimal terms and fees for clients with the borrower’s credit score and financial resources and gathering documents the lender needs to review.

Define the need: Businesses may need loans for daily operating expenses or to build reserves, renovate a commercial building or buy equipment. The specific need typically drives the decision about what type of loan to shop for. Continue reading →

New Mexico Set to Celebrate Manufacturing Sector

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Technology Leadership High School students during the Sandia Science and Technology Park Manufacturing Day 2015 tour

More than a third of young people studying for vocational and technical careers have no contact with potential future employers before they graduate, and only 12 percent have seen the inside of a manufacturing facility.

That conclusion, from a 2016 study by the Manufacturing Institute, lends urgency to Manufacturing Day, an annual event designed to educate the public about modern U.S. manufacturing and to attract young people to this fundamental industry.

Manufacturing Day, or Mfg Day as it’s typically known, actually lasts more than a month in New Mexico. Sponsored by the nonprofit New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NM MEP), Manufacturing Day introduces students and job seekers to manufacturing careers by inviting them to tour factories and facilities where people make things. Continue reading →

Survival tactics help business owners stay on track

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Entrepreneurship is exhilarating and dynamic, especially in the beginning, as the business plan is set in motion and a product or service begins its path to market. The unpredictability of this journey is part of the reason it’s so stimulating to start and build a business, but maintaining that level of excitement and drive can be challenging when the business’s evolution doesn’t unfold according to plan.

When initial funding from family or an investor runs out before benchmarks are met, a startup owner can worry about his ability to repay investors and stay on track. Even businesses that reach the second stage of maturity can stumble — for example, when a large account goes to a competitor or a product doesn’t find traction. Continue reading →