Category Archives: Articles

Lenders Tailor Credit to Specific Needs

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David Valdez, Vice President Small Business Lending, Century Bank

One loan isn’t the same as another when borrowing money to build or sustain a business. Lenders act as matchmakers, fitting business owners with the type of credit they need for specific business needs.

Most traditional and nonprofit lenders offer a menu of loan options tailored to an entrepreneur’s individual circumstances — his or her credit history, cash flow, collateral, capacity, and capital. The loans can be conventional, or they can be guaranteed with backing from the U.S. Small Business Administration if the business would otherwise have a hard time qualifying for a conventional loan and the owner needs more flexible loan terms, such as a longer repayment schedule and less stringent collateral requirements. When a bank is unable to lend to a business, loan officers typically refer the business to a nonprofit lender that offers business consulting as part of the loan package.

If a business needs money for working capital, an ideal product is a revolving line of credit, said David Valdez, a small business/commercial lender at Century Bank’s Santa Fe office. “The business uses the line when cash coming in is slow and pays it down when the cash is flush.”

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Customer Service and MEP Support Growth of Farmington Engraving Business

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Bonnie Cummings sees similarities in the health care she provides as a registered nurse and the customer care she offers as the owner of Third Axis Custom Engraving. The Farmington business owner imparts knowledge and creativity to help customers — and patients — achieve their goals.

Cummings spent 13 years working full time at a local hospital before transitioning to part-time and starting the engraving business in late 2011 from a kiosk at the Animas Valley Mall. Four months later she rented a building nearby and added a second laser engraving machine, expanding her engraving and cutting capabilities to wood, aluminum, leather, cork, and granite. Another move took the business downtown, where Cummings had space for additional machines and three employees to help operate them.

With expansion, Cummings was able to do what she likes most:  provide creative ideas for awards and recognition for schools, businesses, events, memorials, and special occasions.

Cummings sought help navigating the rapid growth of her business from the Business Enterprise Center at San Juan College. An advisor there introduced her to New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nonprofit organization that helps businesses transform their operations to increase productivity and profit through lean manufacturing concepts.

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Technical Assistance Advisors Offer More Than a Loan

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Joaquin Amador, Technical Assistance Advisor at The Loan Fund

Matilda Scheurer purchased Teresa’s Tamales in January of 2021, and she did it with help from The Loan Fund, a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). In addition to obtaining a loan to purchase the long-time Cleveland, New Mexico restaurant, Scheurer got access to a technical advisor she can call when she needs business advice, feedback, or an answer to a question.

Joaquin Amador is The Loan Fund’s Technical Assistance Advisor in the northern part of the state*. Based in Santa Fe, Amador helps provide loans and lines of credit to small businesses and nonprofits and then offers technical support to ensure those businesses thrive.

Amador is well-positioned to offer assistance. With more than 20 years of management and marketing experience ranging from tech startup to multibillion-dollar global businesses, he is equipped to offer advice on strategic issues like business improvements, as well tactical challenges such as online marketing and search engine optimization. Two advanced degrees – an MBA from the University of New Mexico and a Master of Science from the University of Chicago – give Amador a wide range of business knowledge he can share with The Loan Fund’s clients.

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Gas Service Company Grows with Help from LiftFund

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After years of working for a large corporation in the gas & propane industry, Randy Peralta decided to pursue his own entrepreneurial project that would allow him to draw on his experience and be his own boss. In 2021, Peralta launched Gas Register Specialty Services, known as GRS Services, a mobile gas meter calibration company. Peralta’s specialty business serves commercial clients from Lea to San Juan counties.

While 28 years of technical experience in the propane industry were imperative for the nature of work that GRS Services set out to offer, operating a sole proprietorship did not come without its challenges.

“Having experience in the propane industry did not necessarily prepare me to handle all of the business and operational aspects,” said Peralta, adding that while he learned a lot in the field during his years in the industry, financial reporting and project management were new to him. He also needed to attend what he calls ‘meter school’ to be able to legally calibrate both electronic and mechanical meters.

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Homewise Partners with The Life Link

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One of the toughest challenges that cities face is navigating how to best help people who are struggling with homelessness and mental health challenges.

The Life Link is a remarkable organization that provides Santa Fe with the services needed to help people at critical transition points – whether it be recovery from addiction or adjusting to life outside of incarceration.

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DreamSpring Helps Restaurant Launch – and Recover from Setbacks

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Twenty-two years after moving to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico on a basketball scholarship, Frank Willis and his sister Tiffany moved their home-based catering operation, Frank’s Famous Chicken and Waffles, to a building on San Mateo Boulevard. The siblings did so with a $1,500 starter loan from the microlender DreamSpring and business advice from their mother Lola Beavers.

The Willises moved to New Mexico from California, where Frank grew up eating his signature dish and other traditional soul food at the Los Angeles eatery Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. Finding no such cuisine in New Mexico, Frank and Tiffany started cooking dishes in their shared apartment and selling them via Facebook orders.

In 2019, their first restaurant moved to a larger facility at 400 Washington St. SE. “It’s a much bigger, nicer restaurant,” said Beavers, who moved to Albuquerque in 2016 after retiring from her state government job in California. “The décor is similar, in that it has a music theme with photos of musicians on the walls, but it’s a little more classy.”

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Expansion Has Pet Accessory Company Ready for Holiday Sales

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For nearly 15 years, Amanda and Dan Jackson-Miller created custom-made designer dog collars, leashes, and other pet accessories from a 5,000-square-foot building in downtown Albuquerque. With demand outpacing their building’s storage capacity, the couple moved in early 2022 into a 9,000-square-foot building near the Albuquerque Sunport.

They did so with the help of experts from New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (New Mexico MEP), a nonprofit that helps manufacturers streamline workflow and improve competitiveness.

The Jackson-Millers met New Mexico MEP adviser Scott Bryant several years ago, when Bryant stopped by Mimi Green, which was named for a pug Amanda adopted in 2007 just as the business was launching. Bryant introduced himself and asked if the couple could use MEP’s assistance.

The entrepreneurs did some training with Bryant about five years ago, and that relationship continued through the move.

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FCI Offers Technology – And Help to Develop It

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Los Alamos National Laboratory has a stockpile of patents covering technologies with untapped commercial potential, as well as a portfolio of copyright-protected software it wants to share with businesses that can translate these assets into private-sector jobs.

LANL’s Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation is tasked with moving Los Alamos technology to the marketplace to stimulate private sector growth. Although the Laboratory’s primary mission is national security, its technologies often have multiple applications in industrial and consumer markets. Los Alamos issues licenses to various entities ranging from start-ups to multinational companies.

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Mfg Day Engages Next Generation Workers

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Technology Leadership High School students tour MediNatura in Albuquerque

Young people don’t have to leave New Mexico or assume significant college loan debt to find good-paying, skilled jobs in cutting-edge industries.

New Mexico’s manufacturers want students and those new to the workforce to consider fulfilling and challenging careers in their critical industry, which contributes $4.62 billion to the state’s economy and employs 26,000 people.

To that end, dozens of businesses are inviting students and young people to tour manufacturing facilities and attend presentations as part of Manufacturing Day (aka Mfg Day) — a nationwide celebration that begins Oct. 7 and stretches through October in New Mexico.

Mfg Day NM events organized by New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (New Mexico MEP) include facility tours that demonstrate how modern manufacturing jobs are nothing like the monotonous, dead-end factory jobs of the last century. On these tours, students and the public can see how products are made or repurposed using advanced technology, artificial intelligence, and 3-D imaging.

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The Loan Fund Fuels Adobe Tradition

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Albuquerque Joinery is a small design-build company that specializes in new home construction using traditional adobe building techniques and fine carpentry.

Kenny DeLapp and Esther Fredrickson launched the business in February 2020 after building their own adobe home in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Built under an owner-builder permit, their 1,600 square foot home is a showcase of modern construction and traditional materials with brick floors, exposed vigas, adobe mud plaster walls, and site-built solid wood doors.

DeLapp, who is skilled in masonry and fine carpentry, learned traditional building techniques while working with his uncle Win, a long-time adobe builder known for custom furniture, cabinets, and museum exhibits.

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