Category Archives: Starting or Growing a Business

Funds Connect Growers to Burgeoning Industry

Posted on by
Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for NNM Connect

Economic developers Robert Naranjo and Lucia Sanchez were pleased to see boutique wineries spring up along the high road to Taos. But when they discovered that grapes were being sourced from outside the immediate area, they jumped into action. With funding from Northern New Mexico Connect and the county of Rio Arriba, Naranjo and Sanchez helped organize local micro-growers – those with one quarter- to two-acre plots – into a grape growers association. Barely a year later, the group has received advice from multiple experts, pooled funds to order root stock in bulk and planted thousands of vines. In two years, when the vines reach maturity, the association plans to begin selling their combined harvest to local wineries.

Continue reading →

Names Matter to Business Identity

Posted on by

 

Mike Mykris

Mike Mykris, Director, NMSBDC at Santa Fe Community College

A business’s legal name is usually that of its owner, though businesses often assume a made-up moniker that says more about what the business does than who runs it.

When the business is a sole proprietorship, its legal name is the owner’s full name, even if it does business under something else. A partnership’s legal name consists of the partners’ surnames or whatever name is assumed in the partnership agreement. Corporations and limited liability companies have a little more latitude to register a legal name with the state; their legal name doesn’t need to mention the individual owners’ names.

Continue reading →

Veterans Get Help in Business

Posted on by

 

Lloyd Calderon, Director, New Mexico Veterans’ Business Resource Center, and Director, VBOC

When Freedom Construction of Edgewood was hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade the electrical system at Conchas Dam, the job was the first federal contract the company had been awarded. One of the reasons Freedom’s owners, Mark Beasley and Steven Tenorio, got the $1.1 million job is because they know what many veteran-owners of businesses do not: Federal laws set aside 3 percent of federal contracts for businesses owned by veterans who were disabled during the course of their military service.

Continue reading →

Grant Expands New Mexico Education Success

Posted on by

 

Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for NNM Connect

When Taos-based Imagine Education received a Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates and William and Flora Hewlett Foundations this summer, the award was not just a triumph for middle-school students struggling to learn math. It also marked an achievement for theNew Mexico programs that grow the state’s economy by helping small New Mexico businesses.

Imagine Education’s founders credit economic development initiatives with helping them win the grant, one of nineteen awarded nationwide for innovations in teaching literacy and mathematics. The grant will allow Imagine Education to pilot its educational math game, Ko’s Journey, in ten middle schools nationwide.

Continue reading →

Candy Company is Sweet and Lean

Posted on by

 

Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Operations Director, NM MEP

When Clovis-based Leslie Candy Company was purchased by Greg Southard in 2002, the 50-year-old company was using trusted manufacturing processes and recipes to create peanut patties, brittles and haystacks for distribution to supermarkets, convenience stores and specialty boutiques throughout theUnited States.  Southard invited New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership into the organization to review how things were flowing on the manufacturing floor.

Today, Southard still uses the company’s savory recipes and traditional cooking methods, but he now runs a lean shop with streamlined operations. “New Mexico MEP came in, watched our processes and provided feedback and solutions,” said Southard. “Based on their recommendation, we implemented an incentive program for our frontline employees, which resulted in a production increase of 25 percent, while lowering overall operating costs. New Mexico MEP helped us to look at our processes in a new way,” he said.

Continue reading →

Investors Bring Benefits Beyond Capital

Posted on by

 

Les Mathews

Les Mathews, Mesa Capital Partners

Business owners who obtain outside equity – whether from family, friends or institutional investors – quickly learn money has strings attached.

Most outside equity providers want to get repaid over a reasonable period of time and at a very good rate of return. In exchange for providing capital, they obtain a piece of the company, thereby becoming business partners.

Continue reading →

LANL Puts Students to Work for New Mexico Businesses

Posted on by
Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect

When Scott Laidlaw and Jennifer Harris created Ko’s Journey, a game designed to teach math in middle schools, they weren’t sure how to get it into the marketplace. With help from MBA students participating in a summer internship program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, they are now better prepared. The students helped them target interested schools and made recommendations to market their product on the Internet.

Continue reading →

In the Zone: Know the Laws About Home-Based Businesses

Posted on by

 

Don Bustos

Don Bustos, Director, NMSBDC at Luna Community College

Almost half of U.S. businesses are based in the business owner’s home, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and that number might grow as more people decide to go into business for themselves.

Those planning to launch a home-based business in New Mexico need to understand the zoning laws that apply in their area. Depending on where one lives in the state, zoning laws are enacted by city or county officials.

Continue reading →

Small Businesses, Labs Celebrate Collaboration

Posted on by

 

Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, created by the state Legislature in 2000 to provide technical help from Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories to small businesses throughout the state.

At the 2011 NMSBA Innovation Celebration, held April 7 at the Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque, laboratory officials recognized 12 small businesses that have participated in the program. The businesses are in both urban and rural communities of New Mexico, and include agricultural companies, medical technologies and an irrigation district.

Continue reading →

Financial Education Summit Seeks to Build Wealth

Posted on by

 

Gena Wilimitis

Gena Wilimitis, Volunteer, NM Coalition for Financial Education

Too many New Mexicans are novices when it comes to handling their money, making them easy pickings for predatory lending companies, expensive check-cashing services and other scams that can easily be avoided.

The fifth annual Summit on Financial Education is set for 8 a.m.-3 p.m. April 15 at the Hotel Albuquerque, 800 Rio Grande Blvd. N.W. The free conference aims to increase the financial knowledge of New Mexicans so that they can make sound decisions about their money and avoid fraud and questionable investments.

Continue reading →