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Libraries Poised to Become Post-Pandemic Entrepreneurial Hubs
When New Mexico libraries finally return to pre-pandemic hours and services, many will offer even more resources than they did in the past, especially to entrepreneurs.
Public libraries are ideal places to nurture people who want to start their own businesses: They are community hubs with deep roots, and local librarians are portals to knowledge, tools, and ideas that can create jobs, build the local work force, and drive development. Libraries are trusted, safe and welcoming spaces that offer culturally and economically diverse patrons free access to computers with internet access, meeting rooms, and other spaces where entrepreneurs can meet and brainstorm.
Libraries can be entrepreneurial centers in some of the same ways business incubators are, because they provide networking opportunities, vast resources and a platform for information sharing. And they can support the next generation of entrepreneurs without the expense of building, maintaining and managing a separate, limited-use facility.
Continue readingManufacturers Open Their Doors Virtually for October Manufacturing Day Events
When students from University High and Early College High schools toured Roswell manufacturer AerSale in October 2019, it was the first time many of them had seen an Airbus jetliner, let alone boarded an aircraft.
Students viewed the jet’s cockpit, talked with maintenance professionals and learned about careers in the aviation industry, including high-paying jobs then available at AerSale, which specializes in the sale, lease and exchange of used aircraft, engines and components and offers a broad range of engineering services to commercial aircraft companies.
The students’ visit was part of Manufacturing Day, a monthlong national effort to introduce teenagers and young adults to careers in manufacturing.
Continue readingLender’s Loyalty Sustains Business Growth for Disabled Vet
Ron Edwards knew he would start his own business one day, but the path to launching Santa Fe’s Focus Advertising Specialties was paved with a variety of jobs and small-business ventures.
The most influential of his early occupations was his overseas service in the Marines, Edwards said. Thirteen weeks in basic training and four years in the military “challenged me in different ways,” he said. “I learned that I can go further than I think I can.”
Working within fixed budgets also taught Edwards how to keep operations tight.
Those lessons in endurance and efficiency prepared him for the challenges of civilian life. Edwards started a wood-finishing business and restaurant in Crested Butte, Colorado, and then moved to New Mexico. After suffering a debilitating back injury at a construction site in 2002, his days of working physically demanding jobs was over.
Continue readingWESST and Client Navigate Pandemic Problems Together
When the novel coronavirus pandemic reached the U.S. early this year, many patients stopped seeking in-person treatment at The Family Connection, a mental-health provider with offices in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Los Lunas and Santa Fe. Even though the business was considered essential and thus permitted to operate during statewide shutdowns, cancellations escalated.
“Initially we were unsure of what it was going to look like,” said Amanda Davison, a licensed marriage and family therapist and company CEO. She and her 32 employees developed a hybrid approach, treating some patients in traditional settings and counseling others using online telemedicine platforms.
Continue readingDreamSpring Helps Salsa Manufacturer Meet Increased Demand During Pandemic
When the first wave of coronavirus hit the United States in early 2020, Arian Gonzales and her husband, Richard, didn’t know how the pandemic would affect their 20-year-old Albuquerque company and the employees who produce its award-winning salsas.
Fearful that Cervantes Food Products Inc. would be forced to halt production for two months and that they would lose their five employees, the couple contacted DreamSpring—a multi-state community development financial institution (CDFI) based in New Mexico—to apply for a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan.
The emergency loan allowed the Gonzaleses to keep paying their employees while the company spent available cash stocking up on jars, lids and other packaging that was expected to become scarce. And it’s a good thing they did, because the company was deemed “essential manufacturing” under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order, and demand for its products quickly skyrocketed.
Continue readingLIBOR
LIBOR, which stands for London Inter-bank Offered Rate, is a trademarked term that refers to benchmark short-term interest rates. It is a daily average derived from the interest rates international banks charge one another, and it is used to establish retail lending interest rates. The Wall Street Journal is a good source of current LIBOR rates.
2020 Economic Development Course Goes Online
Rather than cancel the annual New Mexico Economic Development Course in the face of COVID-19, organizers are pleased to announce the “Basic Course,” as it’s colloquially known, will be delivered online in 2020.
Students will begin the six-week course in mid-July via Zoom. Lectures, discussions and case studies will be conducted remotely and over a longer time frame than in previous years, allowing people who couldn’t attend in person in the past to participate from their office or home.
“We wish we were convening the course at Western New Mexico University this year, as we’ve done for decades,” course director Noreen Scott said. “With COVID-19 still such a looming threat, that’s just not possible; but we’re as resolved as ever to teach community leaders how to marshal their economies to recovery.”
Continue readingNew Markets Tax Credits Boost Tucumcari Biofuel Project
The men behind Tucumcari Bio-Energy Company are retooling an abandoned ethanol plant in this rural New Mexico town to turn manure from nearby dairies into methane for compressed natural gas vehicle fuel, food-grade carbon dioxide, and sterilized solid and liquid fertilizer.
After several years of foundational work, the startup owns the plant property. It has a business plan, engineering design, and environmental impact statement. It also qualified for $1.8 million in federal funds through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, but company vice president Steve Morgan and president Robert Hockaday haven’t heard when they will receive that money.
Continue readingLiftFund
LiftFund transforms lives by opening doors, leveling the financial playing field in
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