Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corporation for Los Alamos Connect

The work of artist and Santa Fe native Nicola López explores how human-built constructions like cities, buildings and technologies grow organically and become increasingly complex over time.

“Like the biblical Tower of Babel, the complexity is an immense opportunity that becomes more and more difficult to manage,” López said. “There is an element of destruction here, which gave me the idea to use explosives in my works.”

To express this idea artistically, López wanted to explore a new printmaking technique that used explosives to etch metal. She appealed to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program, through which the state’s small businesses can tap into the scientific expertise of the two national laboratories based here — Los Alamos and Sandia — to overcome a technical challenge at no cost to the business. Help includes testing, design consultation and access to special equipment or facilities.

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Rich Williams, NM MainStreet Director and Arts and Cultural District Coordinator, NM Economic Development Dept.

Artesia is a southeastern New Mexico town named for the artesian aquifer on which the area’s early agricultural industry was based. Today Artesia’s 10,700 residents are drawing on the city’s history as they work with the Artesia MainStreet program to remake the town’s downtown.

Artesia MainStreet is part of the New Mexico MainStreet Program, a grassroots economic development program of the New Mexico Economic Development Department. The state Legislature launched the program in 1985 to help communities remake older commercial neighborhoods as economically viable business environments while preserving local cultural and historical resources.

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Paul F. Goblet, Investment Advisor, NMSBIC

One job may not be all that important in New Mexico, and one small business may not solve the economic challenges facing the state. But the collective power of multiple jobs and businesses saved and created by investment through the New Mexico Small Business Investment Corp. — especially when nationwide unemployment hovers at 9.7 percent – makes a significant difference in the lives of people and the strength of communities.

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Leslie Hoffman, V.P. of Lending and Client Service, ACCIÓN New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

ACCION New Mexico · Arizona · Colorado reached a major milestone in its 16-year history this fall by surpassing the $30 million mark in loans disbursed to small businesses in the three-state area. The event was a milestone as well in the life of borrower Jammie Ross, who is using an ACCION loan to open Caked, a dessert and cupcake bakery, in northwest Albuquerque in early 2011 with her husband, Shane. It was Ross’s loan that pushed ACCION’s lending history past the $30 million milestone.

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John C. Woosley, District Director, SBA NM District Office

The New Mexico District of the U.S. Small Business Administration is soliciting nominations for several awards that aim to highlight the achievements and entrepreneurial spirit of the state’s small business owners and supporters. Awards will be presented next spring at the annual New Mexico Small Business Week event, and winners may advance to regional and then national competitions and be recognized at the agency’s national Small Business Week celebration in May 2011.

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Davin Lopez, President & CEO, MVEDA

A recent Business on the Border luncheon in Las Cruces illustrated that the Mesilla Valley has fared better with job generation than both the national average and New Mexico as a whole — though it’s still behind the peak employment growth numbers of the mid-2000s.

At that luncheon, Christopher Erickson, Ph.D., from New Mexico State University’s College of Business, provided data that the current recession has lasted a staggering 20 months – twice as long as the average for past recessions – and still might not be over. Although it appears the country as a whole is recovering from the current recession, economists predict it will take approximately three years to catch up to pre-recession employment levels.

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John Woosley, SBA New Mexico District Director

Albuquerque entrepreneur Tamara Marquez-Nugent is New Mexico’s Small Business Person of the Year and that puts her in the running for national recognition by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) at the National Small Business Week celebration May 23-25 in Washington, D.C.

Marquez-Nugent is president & CEO of Moving Solutions Inc. of Albuquerque, a wholly woman-owned company founded in 2006.  The company assists companies in developing comprehensive relocation plans to minimize downtime and get on their feet quickly and efficiently in new surroundings. In four years, Moving Solutions has grown from a one-woman venture to an enterprise with 30 employees. 

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