The Internet has linked New Mexico businesses with a worldwide web of customers, and it’s also provided a universe of cost-cutting and time-saving tools that are simplifying many aspects of running a business. Better yet, many of these tools are free or affordable.

Many businesses already use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to advertise products, offer discounts and interact with customers. Even critical comments from customers help businesses by pointing out correctable problems with service or products; they’re a cheap form of damage control and quality control. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

Business leaders are a hardy breed, loath to admit trouble and express anything but optimism and confidence. This tough façade is handy when applying for loans, seeking investment capital and competing in the rough and tumble marketplace.

But it’s hard to maintain when customers are drifting away, employees are quitting, cash flow is falling short and a new product is taking too long to reach market. It’s hard to stay externally cool when internal fears wear down nerves and mental stability.

Continue reading →

By Claudia Serrano, Projects Coordinator, New Mexico MEP

The New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership will celebrate the state’s manufacturers on Oct. 4 by leading facility tours in Deming, Albuquerque and Farmington.

Manufacturing Day in New Mexico is part of an effort by MEP organizations nationwide to show the American public that many products are still proudly and efficiently “made in the U.S.A.”

Local legislators, their field agents, customers, vendors and members of the general public are expected to spend the day visiting several New Mexico businesses that fabricate products used in major domestic industries.  Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

The dramatic increase in freelancers, especially technology industry soloists, is driving a new trend called “coworking” — the sharing of workspace on the basis of a desire for community that its proponents see as a basic human need.

“Never before have we been so isolated,” Convivium Coworking’s Deborah Reese said of the growing army of solo entrepreneurs and self-employed people who populate the U.S. work force — either because the recession undermined their faith in working for others or because the internet and other mobile technology freed them to work anywhere they wanted.

Continue reading →

Contributor Joy J. Forehand, MPA, deputy secretary of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions

By Finance New Mexico with assistance from Joy J. Forehand, MPA, deputy secretary of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions

A business owner might find the paperwork involved in hiring an employee to be intimidating, which is why many delegate those duties to a payroll service if they have enough workers to make the expenditure worthwhile.

According to Joy J. Forehand, deputy secretary of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, “entrepreneurs who do not outsource their payroll to an outside firm and choose to do it on their own need to know what state and federal laws apply to the employer-employee relationship.”

Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

Everyone who starts a business in New Mexico expects to fill out lots of forms. Besides the application for a Combined Reporting System, or CRS, the business owner might need special permits to handle food or alcohol sales or to operate in specific industries.

But other permissions are required for a range of business activities that might not be as obvious. And it’s the duty of the business owner to know what they are. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

People start businesses to make money, but that’s not enough motivation for growing numbers of entrepreneurs who want to make a positive impact while turning a profit.

These self-described social entrepreneurs feel constrained by traditional structures that put a company’s fiduciary responsibility to shareholders ahead of social or environmental considerations. But some also feel boxed in by the nonprofit approach to social change. Continue reading →

By Julianna Silva, Albuquerque Regional Manager, WESST

Many business owners feel a sense of urgency and peer pressure about creating a social media presence before they’re ready because they assume they’re losing business to more tech-savvy competitors.

But panic is a poor driver of decisions, and that’s why the entrepreneur needs to begin with a set of clear business objectives that will guide his use of these versatile tools.

When it comes to business and marketing planning, strategy comes first and tools second. Continue reading →

By Denise Williams, Innovation Director, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership

About 18 months ago, Aztec Machine and Repair of Bloomfield sent its management and supervisory personnel, as well as its production floor workers, to a class in the fundamentals of lean manufacturing given by the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership, or MEP – a nonprofit agency that helps small and midsized U.S. businesses create and preserve jobs by implementing money- and time-saving production and administration measures.

Aztec – which provides machining and fabrication services for the many oil, gas and mining industries in the Four Corners area – had two goals for the training: to increase the lean manufacturing literacy of its work force and to generate momentum toward its next goal of becoming ISO registered. Continue reading →

By now, most Americans have seen a QR code, even if they didn’t initially understand why these two-dimensional matrix bar codes were suddenly appearing on products, advertisements and business cards.

Called QR for “quick response,” the codes were created in 1994 by Japanese automakers to track parts. Now companies around the world use them to link consumers directly to their websites, where they can shop and find coupons, special offers and product information. Continue reading →