Education Turns Real for Tech School Students

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Interim State Director, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Technology Leadership High School students during the Sandia Science and Technology Park Manufacturing Day 2015 tour

Like her classmates at Technology Leadership High School in Albuquerque, Paola Rodriguez always wondered what went on behind the doors of neighboring businesses in the Sandia Science and Technology Park. On Oct. 30, the 16-year-old freshman and about 60 other students and six teachers satisfied that curiosity on a tour organized by the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership as part of Manufacturing Day — a national celebration of American manufacturing.

“These buildings are all around you — businesses with names like ‘Air Products’ — and you wonder what they do,” Rodriguez said. “I was very curious.” Continue reading →

New Companies Added to List of Growth Leaders

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Val Alonzo, Interim Executive Director, Regional Development Corporation

The staff of Santa Fe-based Mesa Photonics, which was recognized as a 20/20 company in 2013. Santa Fe Mayor Pro Tem Peter Ives is seated. Photo by Jane Phillips.

The Regional Development Corporation of Española is adding to its growing list of businesses it considers likely to add jobs and dynamism to the region’s economy by 2020. The economic development organization is hosting a reception Nov. 12 at the Santa Fe Hilton Historic Plaza Hotel to honor a select group of companies that are receiving its 2015 Northern New Mexico 20/20 Campaign Award.

Award-winners receive operational, financial and technical advice from nonprofit business-service providers that share RDC’s goal of identifying and nurturing robust companies with the potential to double their workforce and revenues by the end of the decade. Continue reading →

Students Get Small-Business Experience

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Carole Rutten, Deputy Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory Community Programs Office

Highlands University natural resources management professor Edward Martínez, right, talks with Eliza Montoya about her research poster at Research Day 2015; photo by Margaret McKinney/Highlands University

New Mexico Highlands University natural resources management professor Edward Martínez, right, talks with Eliza Montoya about her research poster at Research Day 2015; photo by Margaret McKinney/courtesy NMHU

Preparing college students for a career involves more than just filling their heads with knowledge. It includes giving them a realistic idea of what employers will expect from them once they graduate.

Several students at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) are getting this well-rounded perspective as part of a workforce development initiative of the university’s Achieving in Research, Math & Science (ARMAS) Center, the Las Vegas/San Miguel Entrepreneurial Network and Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Community Programs Office.

The collaboration supports small businesses in San Miguel County by providing meaningful work experiences for undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees at NMHU. Continue reading →

New Mexico Film Conference Sheds Light on Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Belle Allen, State Outreach Coordinator, New Mexico Film Office of the New Mexico Economic Development Department

The film industry in New Mexico offers numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to get in on the “lights, camera, action!”

To share information about state resources and growing industry trends with filmmakers, producers, accountants, studios, vendors, crew, actors and emerging media innovators, the New Mexico State Film Office is hosting the 2015 New Mexico Film and Media Industry Conference Oct. 29-31 at the Isleta Casino & Resort in Albuquerque.

Established players in the state’s vibrant film industry aren’t the only ones who could benefit from the workshops and sessions being planned: The event is a setting for savvy creatives and go-getters to find a niche in established service areas and to learn about unmet needs their products, properties and talents might fill. Continue reading →

New Mexico to Join National Celebration of Manufacturing

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Claudia Infante, Projects Coordinator, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership

While emerging economies get a lot of buzz for their growing role in manufacturing, America remains a global leader in product innovation and fabrication. To draw attention to the industry’s continuing contributions to the domestic and world economies, the nation’s manufacturers invite the public once a year inside the 21st century “factory.”

Manufacturing Day began in 2012 as a coordinated industry effort to generate interest in manufacturing careers. At the time, U.S. manufacturing was in the second year of record job growth — a pace last seen in the 1990s — that added more than 700,000 jobs by 2015.

In nationwide events planned on and around the first Friday of October, manufacturers and their advocates get a chance to raise concerns about the shortage of skilled labor and to excite young people about engineering, design and production jobs. Continue reading →

Demo Day Gives Startups a Platform for New Products

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Kathleen Gardenswartz, marketing and curriculum director, ABQid

Trish Lopez is restless, and she has every reason to be. She has spent the last three months in the ABQid accelerator program, testing assumptions, talking to hundreds of users and customers, building a website and logo — all while tenaciously driving her startup, Teeniors, forward.

Lopez’s natural charisma makes the program’s required networking effortless, but it’s Teeniors’ mission — to match tech-savvy teens with seniors who need help using technology to connect with loved ones — that is motivating this intergenerational solution. Continue reading →

Federal Programs Can Help Beekeepers Build Habitat, Create Products

Posted on August 9, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Finance New Mexico (reviewed by Terry Brunner, state director of USDA Rural Development)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has lots of resources for New Mexicans who keep bees for profit — and those who have lost hives to colony collapse.

The federal programs aren’t designed for hobbyists who want to help a critical species, but even small-scale beekeeping operations can qualify for assistance building and protecting their businesses. Terry Brunner, state director of USDA Rural Development, urged beekeepers to research the following programs: Continue reading →

Los Alamos National Laboratory Programs Help Española Company Become Regional Job Creator

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Carole Rutten, Acting Director of LANL’s Community Programs Office

When Eric and Celina Quintana started their residential and commercial cleaning service in 1994, their goal was to dominate the janitorial services market in Northern New Mexico. Two decades later, Performance Maintenance Inc. provides janitorial equipment and supplies to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and sells environmentally certified cleaning products nationwide. Continue reading →

Office of Business Advocacy — a One-Stop Shop for Clearing Bureaucratic Roadblocks — Will Now Help Entrepreneurs Launch and Grow

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Angela Heisel, New Mexico Economic Development Department

Governor Susana Martinez and Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela established the Office of Business Advocacy (OBA) in January 2011, and have been extremely pleased with its success. Since then, the OBA has saved or created more than 2,000 jobs by helping businesses navigate the sometimes complicated processes of permitting and licensing that can slow job creation and business growth. Now the OBA is expanding its mission.

“The Office of Business Advocacy has done remarkably well helping small businesses that may not have the time or resources to sift through the regulatory, licensing and permitting process or address policy issues affecting their operations,” Secretary Barela said. “As a result of regulatory reforms, leading to less bureaucratic red tape than when the governor first took office four and half years ago, we’re expanding the OBA’s role to include proactively helping entrepreneurs start businesses and grow.” Continue reading →

Industrial Revenue Bonds Offer Novel Approach to Economic Development

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Taura Costidis

By Harold W. Lavender, Jr., Of Counsel, Montgomery & Andrews, P.A.

Industrial revenue bonds are a form of public-private partnership — a tool that governments can use to stimulate economic development, allowing them to offer tax subsidies for new or expanding businesses that create jobs and improve communities. Subsidies may include a property tax exemption; a gross receipts tax deduction and compensating tax exemption if certain equipment is purchased with bond proceeds; an exemption for bond interest from New Mexico income tax; and in some cases, an exemption of bond interest from federal income tax.

These types of bond issues have been popular as a way to help New Mexico cities and towns compete — without assuming financial liability — for capital-intensive projects by extending tax subsidies to reduce the risks and costs for a company to move here. New Mexico cities and counties are authorized to issue IRBs. Continue reading →

Resource Tool for Start-up and Small Businesses in New Mexico