Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corporation

Small businesses in need of technical assistance they can’t get from private providers at a reasonable cost can apply for free help from the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) Program — a joint project of Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories and the state of New Mexico. Qualifying businesses can get assistance from scientists or engineers at these two facilities — usually in the form of testing, design consultation and access to special equipment or facilities — and thus increase efficiencies and capabilities in their businesses. The labs cannot provide cash or equipment, only expertise.

Requests for help with individual projects — in the form of researcher hours valued between $10,000 and $20,000 — are accepted year round. But proposals for leveraged projects are reviewed once a year, and the deadline for 2010 pre-proposals is 8 a.m. Aug. 3, 2009.  Leveraged projects allow a group of small businesses that share technical challenges to request assistance collectively for problems that are too large or complex to solve through an individual project.

NMSBA clients include businesses throughout New Mexico that work in diverse industries.

Ffhoenix Cuivre is a copper fabrication and insulating business in Santa Teresa whose power problems were affecting product pricing and the company’s ability to meet production deadlines. Technical assistance from Los Alamos National Laboratory on altering power-use patterns is saving the company $5,000 per month in energy costs, with potential additional savings of $40,000 to $60,000 per year if all recommendations are implemented.

Giggling Springs, a therapeutic soaking pool on the Jémez River, reduced its energy costs and carbon footprint by working with NMSBA. Sandia National Laboratories developed a heating-exchange system to heat the pool and on-site buildings with the hot water from an underground geothermal spring. In one peak-heating winter month, the new system saved Giggling Springs $1,700 in propane costs. As a result of the cost savings and increase in customers, Giggling Springs hopes to hire two more employees.

NMSBA also partners with the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and the University of New Mexico Anderson Schools of Management to assist businesses with manufacturing processes and business issues. Santa Fe’s La Puerta Originals, a company that salvages and restores doors and woodwork for custom homes, received training in lean manufacturing from MEP. The training allowed the company to increase its production time and improve capacity without compromising its commitments to sustainability and original craftsmanship. With construction slowed by the economic downturn, La Puerta experienced a 10 percent drop in sales but it maintained a gross profit margin of 49 percent due to increased efficiencies.

In the Four Corners area, both Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories are helping a group of companies as part of a leveraged project to evaluate and improve a pretreatment and reverse-osmosis system to decontaminate and desalinate water produced from oil and natural gas wells. As part of this project, NMSBA partnered with the New Mexico State University Agricultural Extension Service to test the effectiveness of the treated water on improving rangeland and riparian vegetation. The gas and oil companies are saving money once spent transporting and disposing untreated water and providing significant environmental benefits at the same time.

Businesses interested in a leveraged project should visit the NM Small Business Assistance program Web site and follow application instructions. They will be expected to describe the problem faced by the small businesses, what expertise they seek from the lab but can’t find in the private sector at a reasonable cost and the expected economic benefit to the participating small businesses. Successful pre-proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal. For more information, contact Lisa Henne by phone at 505-667-1710.

Learn more about NNM Connect programs.

Download 95_New Mexico’s National Labs Help Small Businesses PDF

Betsy Gillette, Director of Market Research and Planning, TVC

Market research can sound intimidating to anyone embarking on a new business venture, especially those technical wizards who understand science but not the art of building a science-based business.

As tempting as it might be to hire someone else to do this job, it’s probably beyond the reach of most new businesses, which typically operate on a shoestring and — until they secure capital or other funding — consist of the founder and perhaps one or two part-time technical professionals. Most new ventures can’t afford to pay a consultant to research the industry in which they plan to work or to delegate the task to an employee.

That might be all for the better, however. Besides cost savings, there are other compelling reasons for the entrepreneur to consider this job a do-it-yourselfer.

No substitute for experience

Industry knowledge is critical for starting and building a successful business —and for obtaining capital funding. Market size, trends and competitors need to be researched, and paying someone else to do it means that nuances that could affect the product might be overlooked.
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John Chavez, President, New Mexico Angels, at time of writing

The first investor in any new business is usually the entrepreneur — with help from friends and relatives whose motivation is often more personal than financial. But once the market research is done and the idea is patented, it’s time for the entrepreneur to begin the second round of financing.

Startups typically find traditional lenders wary of lending money at this stage to small, risky ventures with no track record. They’re better off looking for an “angel” investor — a wealthy individual or group of individuals willing to put their own money on the line for a business venture in hopes of reaping substantial returns in a short period.

A niche in the financial ecosystem

Unlike venture capitalists, who invest other peoples’ money from a professionally managed pool or fund, angels dig into their own pockets. Where a venture capitalist typically invests more than $1 million and seeks an annual return of 25 to 30 percent, an angel investor typically gives between $25,000 and $250,000 in expectation of a payback of 10 times that amount over three to five years.

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Betsy Gillette, Director of Market Research and Planning, TVC

The first step for an aspiring entrepreneur is to determine who the competition is. There are several categories to consider: companies with similar technology, companies with different technology and companies that represent indirect competition because they solve problems in a novel way. Companies in each of these categories have products that promise to solve or address the same customer problem. Another form of competition comes from the customer, who can decide to live without a product or service.

After collecting the names of competitors, an entrepreneur needs to investigate each and consider how his or her company compares with these rivals in the following ways:

Product features: How similar are products offered by these competitors? Does the competition offer some features and benefits that are better than the prospective newcomer’s?

Competitor size: Who’s the biggest competitor and how does its size impact its market position? If it’s a big company, is it focused solely on one industry, or has it branched out into others as well? Who are the smaller rivals? What is the mix of large vs. small companies? How can the new company position itself against big and small rivals?
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