Category Archives: Articles

Libraries Poised to Become Post-Pandemic Entrepreneurial Hubs

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Loma Colorado Library Rio Rancho NM
Rio Rancho’s Loma Colorado Public Library created a business hub where WESST offers workshops.

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.

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Manufacturers Open Their Doors Virtually for October Manufacturing Day Events

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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.

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Lender’s Loyalty Sustains Business Growth for Disabled Vet

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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.

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WESST and Client Navigate Pandemic Problems Together

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Amanda Davison, CEO of The Family Connection

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.

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DreamSpring Helps Salsa Manufacturer Meet Increased Demand During Pandemic

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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.

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2020 Economic Development Course Goes Online

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Participants in the 2019 NM Basic ED Course

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.”

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New Markets Tax Credits Boost Tucumcari Biofuel Project

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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.

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MEP Workshops Help New-Hires Learn Company Culture

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Process Equipment and Service Company, Inc. (PESCO) in Farmington believes in making an investment in people and relationships. That’s why the 50-year-old engineering, design and manufacturing company sends its newly-hired employees to workshops offered by New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). The investment has paid off; PESCO’s more than 400 employees understand that their input is valued and small changes they identify can make a big difference in customer service and employee satisfaction.

PESCO prefers New Mexico MEP’s lean manufacturing workshop, but that’s just one training offered to businesses every month.

The core of lean manufacturing management philosophy is the idea that resources not creating value for a customer in the form of a product or service are wasted. While the Toyota Production System (TPS) is a relatively modern example of lean management, improving efficiency in the production of goods and services is a centuries-old idea.

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Businesses, nonprofits and governments eligible for Family Friendly Business Award™

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The City of Farmington and the City of Albuquerque have joined the State of New Mexico in receiving the Family Friendly Business Award™ in recognition of their family friendly workplace policies. Farmington and the State of New Mexico received Platinum level recognition (the highest), while Albuquerque was recognized at the Gold level. The awards are bestowed by Family Friendly New Mexico, a nonprofit organization that recognizes New Mexico businesses, governments and organizations that implement policies deemed friendly to working families.

Offering flexible work schedules is one method employers can support working families. Other family friendly policies include employer sponsored healthcare and retirement plans. Policies like telecommuting and job sharing have also been shown to help working families while at the same time provide employers with cost savings through lower real estate costs and reduced turnover.

In fact, studies show that employers benefit significantly when they take a family friendly approach. A recent study by Microsoft Japan demonstrated that productivity increased 40 percent after employees took advantage of an offer to work their typical weekly hours over a four-day week while still earning their five-day pay. Other research indicates that increased productivity more than makes up for the costs associated with implementing family friendly policies.

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Opportunity Zones are new tool in NM EDD’s tool chest

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Municipalities, businesses, tribes and economic development and other community organizations eager to attract capital investment to economically distressed areas of New Mexico have another avenue to do so.

One provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 law allowed governors to nominate qualified census tracts in their states as Opportunity Zones (OZs). That designation offers tax incentives for individual entrepreneurs, partnerships and corporations to invest in communities where unemployment and poverty are high. New Mexico has 63 such zones scattered among 22 of the state’s diverse counties and tribal lands.

To sweeten the offer, the state is providing $1 million OZ Jobs Bonus to investments that meet certain OZ project benchmarks and help the state’s economy diversify.

The federal tax initiative is tantalizing in New Mexico, where outside financing can be hard to attract. Investors can defer, reduce or even remove certain capital gains taxes from OZ real estate and business investments made through a qualified Opportunity Fund that benefits affected communities.

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