Category Archives: Articles

Businesses Find the Evolutionary Path to Profitability

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By Claudia Infante, Projects Coordinator, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership

By Claudia Infante, Projects Coordinator, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership

One obstacle to improvement in a typical American company is the assumption that change requires months of planning, major expense and a work stoppage or slowdown. Then there’s the fear that old habits and practices will slowly return as people forget what they learned amid the pressures and demands of running a business.

Even when the need for change is obvious, such companies often resist fixing something until it’s utterly broken.

An alternative, nonreactive view embraces change as a continual process of incremental improvements and tweaks — not as an exercise in obsessive compulsion but as an adaptive approach to reducing waste-related costs, eliminating inefficiencies and optimizing competitiveness. Continue reading →

Understanding Accounting Basics Empowers Business Owners

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By Finance New Mexico

By Finance New Mexico

Accounting is the lingua franca, or common tongue, that allows business owners in multilingual New Mexico to communicate no matter what language they speak at home.

A basic understanding of accounting principles allows entrepreneurs to take batches of numbers and translate them into easily comprehensible statements of performance and profitability. It helps them keep track of money as it enters and exits their coffers and make reasoned decisions based on what the numbers say. Continue reading →

Incubators and Accelerators Nurture Entrepreneurs

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By Finance New Mexico

By Finance New Mexico

Isolation is the scourge of entrepreneurship — a dark echo chamber that amplifies setbacks and blocks critical feedback, encouragement, ideas and resources.

Business incubators and accelerators are the antithesis of that negative space, and New Mexico is home to about a dozen of these business-nurturing organizations. Both prepare businesses for growth, but they use different models and often intervene at different moments in the life of a company. Continue reading →

Loan Helps Couple Open Studio to Enrich Clients’ Physical, Spiritual Lives

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By Metta Smith, Vice President of Lending and Client Relations, Accion New Mexico

By Metta Smith, Vice President of Lending and Client Relations, Accion New Mexico

Empowerment is the core of Mira Rubiano’s mission-driven life. After graduating with a degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College, the Minnesota native worked at the State Department and the World Bank, specializing in efforts to reduce poverty and increase social inclusion.

Now she and her husband, freelance photographer Eduardo Rubiano, are taking charge of their own financial destiny by opening a yoga and fitness studio that helps clients build their energy and well-being. Santa Fe Thrive opened in the Solana Center at the end of May with a commitment “to providing inclusive, community-conscious empowerment in the spirit of holistic health and vitality.” Continue reading →

Industrial Revenue Bonds Offer Novel Approach to Economic Development

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By Harold W. Lavender, Jr., Of Counsel, Montgomery & Andrews, P.A.

By Harold W. Lavender, Jr.

Industrial revenue bonds are a form of public-private partnership — a tool that governments can use to stimulate economic development, allowing them to offer tax subsidies for new or expanding businesses that create jobs and improve communities. Subsidies may include a property tax exemption; a gross receipts tax deduction and compensating tax exemption if certain equipment is purchased with bond proceeds; an exemption for bond interest from New Mexico income tax; and in some cases, an exemption of bond interest from federal income tax.

These types of bond issues have been popular as a way to help New Mexico cities and towns compete — without assuming financial liability — for capital-intensive projects by extending tax subsidies to reduce the risks and costs for a company to move here. New Mexico cities and counties are authorized to issue IRBs. Continue reading →

Preparation Matters When Applying for a Business Loan

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By James A. McCormick, Senior Vice President Commercial Lending, Century Bank

By James A. McCormick, Senior Vice President Commercial Lending, Century Bank

Lenders let the documents do the talking when a business applies for a loan, which is why a well-prepared loan application articulates why the business needs the money, what it plans to do with it and what other obligations it has.

Most bank lenders have their own proprietary loan application paperwork for the borrower, but all lenders want the same basic information. While the lender will obtain credit reports and scores independently, documentation brought to the loan discussion will demonstrate the borrower’s ability to repay the loan. Continue reading →

Data-Rich Repositories Can Help State’s Businesses Research Their Markets

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graphs and charts

By Finance New Mexico

A business plan is incomplete without a financial section that forecasts how the owner expects the company to grow and how much revenue he believes the company will generate based on his reading of the market for its products or services.

But unless that projection is grounded in reality, it won’t make the desired impression on a lender or investor — or even on a landlord who wants some assurance the business will last as long as the commercial lease. Continue reading →

Business Tools Empower Owners to Shape Financial Future

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By Julianna Silva, Albuquerque Regional Director, WESST

By Julianna Silva, Albuquerque Regional Director, WESST

Entrepreneurs are naturally passionate about providing a service or product, but many avoid digging into the financial aspects of running a small business — perhaps because they don’t have simple tools that can help them understand their finances.

This avoidance can cost a business dearly, because financial success requires that the owner understand the target customer, how to price a product or service and how to keep track of cash flowing in and out of the business. Continue reading →

‘Lean Startup’ Turns Traditional Business Model on its Head

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By Sandy Nelson, Finance New Mexico team member

By Sandy Nelson, Finance New Mexico team member

Many innovators wouldn’t dream of launching a business without a plan and a pile of money, but that’s precisely the “lean startup” approach that advocates say is revolutionizing and democratizing entrepreneurship.

The methodology, introduced in 2011 by serial entrepreneur and startup coach Eric Ries, shuffles the traditional deck by putting the cart (the product or service idea) before the horse (the business organization), “selling” the wares before investing time and money building something that customers don’t really want.

If it sounds counterintuitive, it’s because the conventional business development template begins with a business plan, followed by a search for financial backing and recruitment of a core management team. Continue reading →

Small-Business Champion Brings Lessons From Her Own Business Experiences

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John Woosley

By John Woosley, New Mexico District Director, U.S. Small Business Administration

Julianna Silva was a small-business advocate well before she joined the staff of WESST and became the Albuquerque regional manager of the nonprofit business-development organization.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management, Silva worked in marketing for various nonprofits, including the Trust for Public Land in Santa Fe. In 1996, she left that job to help her husband with his handcrafted furniture venture. “I got my MBA by building that store,” she quipped.

On May 12, Silva will receive the Small Business Administration’s New Mexico Women in Business Champion of the Year award in recognition of her work at WESST helping other New Mexicans start and sustain businesses of their own. Continue reading →