By Jocelyn Barrett, Attorney at Law, Montgomery & Andrews, P.A.

There are many circumstances under which an employee and employer part ways. An employee can choose to leave a job, or the company may make a unilateral decision to end the employment relationship. Whatever the case, the separation should be documented in writing to protect both parties.

For the employee’s benefit, a separation agreement should detail in writing what the employer intends to provide at the parting. These might include the final paycheck, severance pay, pay-out of unused vacation or sick time and/or any continuation of coverage under the company’s health-care plan.

For the employer, an agreement can help protect against some potential lawsuits and clarify what the employee agreed to provide the company when hired. Continue reading →

By Karen Converse, New Mexico MEP

After 32 years as president of Jack’s Plastic Welding, Jack Kloepher wanted to see if his company was ready to begin exporting three of its most promising products: stand-up inflatable paddle boards and pontoon boats for recreationists, and rapid deployable spill containment units for the oil and gas industry.

So Kloepher and partner Errol Baade enrolled in the ExporTech class offered by New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership in collaboration with the New Mexico Economic Development Department and other partners.

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By Finance New Mexico

To stand out in a market saturated with consumer products and get the attention of consumers deluged with advertising appeals, an entrepreneur needs to offer a product or service with obvious benefits and unquestionable superiority over the competition.

That isn’t as easy as it sounds. The history of U.S. commerce is littered with countless products whose inventors misjudged the market’s appetite or need.

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By Scott Gray, D’Ann L. Brown Customs Broker

International trade supports about 218,000 jobs in New Mexico — about one in five jobs — at companies of all sizes, according to the New Mexico-based Business Roundtable. While exports bring money to New Mexico producers in an obvious way, imports also bring money to the state by supplying materials that keep the state’s manufacturers and retailers competitive.

In 2010, 1,056 New Mexico companies imported products to sell or use in manufacturing. Nearly 64 percent of these importers were small businesses with fewer than 20 employees. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

Businesses use many tools to keep projects and production on track, and most have used one or another of these with varying degrees of success.

The critical path method is the result of a mathematical approach to decision-making in project management, but it can be used to set deadlines for any business endeavor that includes multiple interdependent tasks. The critical path lists every task on a project trajectory and defines which are mandatory and which are more flexible.

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By Stacy Sacco, associate director, UNM Small Business Institute

When the time came for Albuquerque’s Bosque School to write a three- to five-year strategic plan, it was only natural that the progressive private school would choose to work with students from another innovative environment — the Small Business Institute of the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management.

“We’re an institution that focuses on thinking outside the norm,” said William Handmaker, head of school at Bosque, where students in grades 6 to 12 prepare for higher education. “Instead of going the regular route, here was the chance to work with UNM.”

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