Category Archives: Articles

NM MEP Helps Entrepreneur Prepare Revolutionary Product

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Matt Moser

Matt Moser, Innovation Director, NM Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Most entrepreneurs who approach the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership are well along in production of an invention or commodity. Some operate decades-old businesses but need help identifying and overcoming production bottlenecks and instituting lean processes that can increase their profitability and competitiveness.

Vince DiGregory tapped into the talent at MEP before he had even built a prototype for the folding flat-pack modules he hopes will revolutionize the temporary shelter industry for military and disaster relief operations.

DiGregory’s invention is an 8-by-8-foot folding structure that can interlock with other modules to create larger enclosures. The lightweight structure can be rapidly assembled and taken apart, making it ideal for small-scale, temporary operations. Continue reading →

State’s Investment Funds Help Baker Continue Mexican Traditions

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F. Leroy Pacheco

F. Leroy Pacheco, CEO, The Loan Fund

“GOOD! GOOD! and more GOOD!” exults an online review from a satisfied customer of Albuquerque’s El Dorado Bakery. “This little gem of a bakery is probably one of the finest things in Albuquerque’s South East ‘San Jose’ neighborhood. …  People are lined up out the door on a Saturday and Sunday morning.”

Many of those early birds are Mexican immigrants and neighborhood residents who hunger for the traditional Mexican breads and pastries that make El Dorado unlike any other bakery anywhere near the intersection of Broadway and Gibson boulevards Southeast. The bakery also serves breakfast and lunch all week and features menudo on weekends. Continue reading →

Deduction Lifts Gross Receipts Tax Burden For Businesses That Sell Out of State

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Carolyn A. Wolf

Carolyn A. Wolf, Attorney at Law, Montgomery & Andrews P.A.

New Mexico’s gross receipts tax might make many business owners grumble, but the tax code contains provisions to help entrepreneurs compete with out-of-state rivals who aren’t subject to the tax. Taxpayers that sell services to out-of-state buyers when the product of the service is initially used outside the state and the product is delivered to the buyer outside New Mexico may be eligible for a deduction.

For transactions to be deductible, certain guidelines must be met.

Continue reading →

NMSU Harnesses Intellectual Capital to Drive Economic Growth

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Kevin Boberg

By Kevin Boberg, director and CEO of New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center; photo by Darren Phillips

Entrepreneurs don’t have to live in or near Las Cruces to take advantage of the many services offered by Arrowhead Center – a business development hub launched in 2004 by New Mexico State University to stimulate economic development for the betterment of all New Mexicans.

The center’s resources are open to any state resident who needs help turning an idea into a commercial venture or taking an existing business to the next stage.

The Enterprise Research service draws on students, business mentors, entrepreneurs, faculty researchers and research partners to create and validate research studies for startups and existing businesses. And the Arrowhead Technology Incubator links technology-based firms with the resources they need.

Continue reading →

SBA Changes Intensify Business Lending Surge

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John Woosley

By John Woosley, District Director, SBA New Mexico District

2013 article describes opportunities enabled by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.

Jerome Garcia completed 23 years of military service, multiple overseas tours and one combat deployment before retiring in Las Cruces just before the economy collapsed in late 2008. Garcia and his wife, Michele, proceeded with plans to start their own business and launched Southwest General Construction in February 2009.

SGC is a service disabled veteran-owned small contracting business that builds and maintains airfields, railroads, roads and buildings in New Mexico and the Southwest. It also builds fences, drills wells, maintains grounds and conducts environmental remediation. Continue reading →

Simple Ratios Offer Symptoms of Financial Health or Malaise

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Gary Lenzo

Gary Lenzo, Las Cruces Market President, Century Bank

Operating a successful business requires attention to numbers — especially to basic financial ratios derived from the business’s financial statements.

The current and quick ratios calculate a company’s liquidity, while the debt ratio evaluates its long-term solvency. The gross profit margin shows if sales revenue covers the expenses incurred in making those sales.

Lenders and investors use business health assessments like these to determine if a company qualifies for a loan or is a good candidate for venture capital. Business owners should use them to regularly evaluate their business’s financial standing.

Continue reading →

Mentors Help Small-Business Owners Develop Leadership Skills

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Paul Choman

By Paul Choman, Regional Manager, WESST Enterprise Center in Farmington

Deciding what direction to take a business is isolating for the owner of a small business — especially a sole proprietor. Relatives and friends can offer advice and opinions, but they often lack the expertise to provide the informed, objective counsel the entrepreneur needs.

That’s when a mentor is handy. A mentor is both coach and sage — someone who’s versed in the challenges of running a company and ready to share knowledge with others who need help with business strategies, resources and goals. The best mentors empathize with the people they’re helping and aim to empower them to anticipate and overcome obstacles.

The junior partner in this arrangement isn’t a passive disciple, and the mentor’s word isn’t gospel. Continue reading →

Obsession With Sales Can Blind a Business

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Lou Wolter PhD

By Lou Wolter PhD, Integrated Thinking

An observer can always tell a sales-driven business by what its owner thinks and talks about the most. If his chief concerns are cost, price and profit, his is a sales-driven business, not a market-driven one.

Not that cost, price and profit aren’t important to a market-driven business, but they’re not the sole basis for the business decisions of a market-driven venture.

It boils down to the term “driven.” To the degree that an entrepreneur is too focused on how much she makes and what it costs her, her thinking will be too limited to consider all the important things that really determine costs and profits — and the more limited her choice of alternatives and actions when the inevitable challenges arise. Continue reading →

Crooks Target Businesses with Creative Scams

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Fidel Gutierrez

By Fidel Gutierrez, Sr. VP, Los Alamos National Bank

In an age when many products sell in cyberspace and the buyer and seller never meet, creative crooks are finding new ways to defraud businesses — especially web-based businesses and individuals selling items through online platforms.

One scheme involves counterfeit versions of a time-honored currency – the cashier’s check.

Scammers commit cashier’s check fraud using an authentic-looking cashier’s check to buy a product. The seller deposits the check and her account is charged for the amount when the check bounces back to the bank as a fake. Continue reading →

The Loan Fund Helps Launch In-Home Care Service

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Joe Justice

Joe Justice, Community Development Officer, The Loan Fund

Leslie Van Pelt knew she wanted to do some type of work that improved people’s lives when she visited the Albuquerque offices of Comfort Keepers, a national for-profit company that provides in-home nonmedical care to the elderly and other adults recovering from illness and injuries. What she saw persuaded Van Pelt, co-owner of Cutlery of Santa Fe, to begin searching for funding to open a Santa Fe franchise.

Van Pelt already had a home equity line of credit, but she needed more money to launch the franchise. Her inquiries led her to The Loan Fund, an alternative lender that provides capital to businesses and nonprofits in New Mexico.

Continue reading →