Category Archives: Starting or Growing a Business

Coworking Space Helps Vet Build Gourmet Popcorn Business

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A decade ago, Roberto Mendez was broke, his real estate business wiped out by a devastating recession and his wife sidelined by a debilitating stroke. Today he runs a thriving family business built on his favorite snack food: popcorn.

“Ten years ago, life was hell,” said the owner of Albuquerque-based Cornivore. “We were trying to survive, so we would make a couple of hundred bucks here and there” selling homemade gourmet concoctions created in a kettle corn popper to friends and acquaintances.

Cornivore was a bootstrapped business, started with Mendez’s limited resources, as no one would lend to him at the time. First, he found a niche market—people willing to pay several dollars for a bag of fresh popcorn coated with natural flavors. Then he expanded his clientele beyond friends and family, experimenting with wholesaling and concession sales before landing a ready-made sales force in the fundraising market. Continue reading →

Market Data Available to Small Businesses

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Article by Sandy Nelson.

A business plan is incomplete without a financial section that forecasts how the owner expects the company to grow and how much revenue he believes the company will generate based on his reading of the market for its products or services.

But unless that projection is grounded in reality, it won’t make the desired impression on a lender or investor — or even on a landlord who wants some assurance the business will last as long as the commercial lease.

Lenders, venture capitalists and other investors who finance startups deal in concrete numbers, because they’re betting real money on a concept or enterprise that’s typically untested. If they’re presented with an educated guess about the market that exists for a given product or service, they expect it to be a well-educated one. Continue reading →

Startup Weekends Turbo-Charge Business Ideas

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Startup Weekend Albuquerque is Feb. 22 – 24, 2019 at WESST Enterprise Center.

Launching a business can take years — or it can take 54 hours of intense teamwork with experts and entrepreneurs who share a hunger to develop ideas into profitable enterprises.

Startup Weekends are just the place for such collaboration, and the next one planned for New Mexico happens Feb. 22-24 in Albuquerque.

Organized by small business development organization WESST, CNM Ingenuity, ABQid and with support from New Mexico Mutual Insurance, this Startup Weekend is a global project of Google for Entrepreneurs and Techstars. The goal is to create a supportive environment where budding entrepreneurs can pitch and fast-track a business idea through realistic feedback from peers and experts. Continue reading →

Funds aim to spur growth of six Native American ventures

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Bison Star Naturals owners Jacquelene and Angelo McHorse with daughter Judy. Article by Damon Scott.

(note from editor: The RDC now manages the Tribal Economic Diversity Fund, more information here )

Bison Star Naturals is one of six enterprises that shared $60,000 of investment in 2018 as part of the Native American Venture Acceleration Fund program administered by the Regional Development Corporation. NA VAF aims to create jobs by boosting revenue and advancing the business goals of Native American-owned Northern New Mexico companies.

Jacquelene and Angelo McHorse, owners of Bison Star Naturals, sought the funds to launch a line of liquid jojoba and yucca root soap to augment the bar soaps and lotions the business is known for.

“We also are expanding our line to include our unscented lotion,” Jacquelene said. “The funding allows us to release a new product line and expand our current offerings — which are great leaps for our small business.” Continue reading →

Innovation Vouchers help NM technology businesses thrive

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Image of Teeniors. Article by Jason Gibbs.

Early-stage science and technology companies in New Mexico occasionally need a little boost, and the state’s Innovation Vouchers program, first launched in 2017, is there to lend a hand.

Managed by the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s (EDD) Office of Science and Technology, the program offers competitive grants of small amounts — $2,000 per individual per award — to help a company during critical moments of growth and development.  According to Jessica Mraz, communications and marketing coordinator for the EDD, Innovation Vouchers build on the state’s history of successful research and development and help to commercialize innovative technologies from the state’s research universities and federal laboratories. Continue reading →

NMSBA Program Brings Small Businesses, National Laboratories Together

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Visit Honeymoon Brewery Dec. 8 for their grand opening in Santa Fe. Article by Jason Gibbs.

The crew from Santa Fe’s Honeymoon Brewery is raising a glass to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program and offering a hearty “salud” to David Fox of Los Alamos National Laboratories.

The cause for celebration? The successful pairing of a small-scale kombucha brewing business and a scientist at one of the nation’s premier research laboratories that was made possible through the NMSBA, a free program that gives small business owners in New Mexico access to the resources available at both LANL and Sandia National Laboratory.

For Honeymoon founders Ayla Bystrom-Williams and James Hill, working with LANL’s Fox allowed them to refine their brewing process and scientifically cut through a trial-and-error development process to better understand how to achieve the particular flavors they sought. Continue reading →

State Program Helps Businesses Clear Loan Collateral Gap

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Collateral support programBy Sandy Nelson, Finance New Mexico

Editor’s Note: This program is now known as the Collateral Assistance Program.

Joshua Grassham recognized a novel approach to supporting small business financing when he saw one. The vice president of commercial lending at Lea County State Bank in Hobbs was the first New Mexico banker to secure a client’s loan through a new state program to help collateral-poor businesses.

The New Mexico Economic Development Department (EDD) introduced the Credit Enhancement Program (CEP) earlier this year as a way to help businesses, especially startups, by purchasing short-term certificates of deposit that businesses can use as collateral for larger loans. Continue reading →

Patent Assistance Is Available for Low-Income New Mexico Inventors

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Patent pending stampBy Finance New Mexico

Inventors know that patents and trademarks offer protection against the theft of their ideas but hiring an attorney or agent to help prepare and submit the patent application can cost more than low-income applicants can afford.

To help inventors clear that hurdle, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Pro Se Assistance Program pairs qualified low-income inventors with patent attorneys willing to work for free. Patent applications submitted through the program are evaluated by a USPTO examination unit dedicated specifically to examining pro se patent applications. Continue reading →

Startup Success Begins With Team of Top Performers

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Startup journeyBy Paul Butler, Managing Partner, Azrael Partners and former Chief Operating Officer of Lumidigm, Inc.

Building a startup or creating a new line of business is hard work, and statistics show the odds of success are long ones. Beating the numbers comes down to a combination of experience, expertise, and commitment.

The last of these three traits is important, but experience and expertise can make or break your venture in three critical areas. Continue reading →

Experts Offer Advice on Entrepreneurship

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Expert adviceBy  Finance New Mexico

Peter Anselmo thinks New Mexico needs more ideas. Anselmo, executive director of the Office of Innovation Commercialization at New Mexico Tech, expressed that viewpoint while leading a panel discussion at the Innovators and Entrepreneurs Workshop in April at the college campus in Socorro before more than 100 students, entrepreneurs and investors. The annual event aims to nurture students — and their ideas — by connecting them with advice and experience. Continue reading →