Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect
When Scott Laidlaw and Jennifer Harris created Ko’s Journey, a game designed to teach math in middle schools, they weren’t sure how to get it into the marketplace. With help from MBA students participating in a summer internship program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, they are now better prepared. The students helped them target interested schools and made recommendations to market their product on the Internet.
Don Bustos, Director, NMSBDC at Luna Community College
Almost half of U.S. businesses are based in the business owner’s home, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and that number might grow as more people decide to go into business for themselves.
Those planning to launch a home-based business in New Mexico need to understand the zoning laws that apply in their area. Depending on where one lives in the state, zoning laws are enacted by city or county officials.
Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, created by the state Legislature in 2000 to provide technical help from Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories to small businesses throughout the state.
At the 2011 NMSBA Innovation Celebration, held April 7 at the Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque, laboratory officials recognized 12 small businesses that have participated in the program. The businesses are in both urban and rural communities of New Mexico, and include agricultural companies, medical technologies and an irrigation district.
Gena Wilimitis, Volunteer, NM Coalition for Financial Education
Too many New Mexicans are novices when it comes to handling their money, making them easy pickings for predatory lending companies, expensive check-cashing services and other scams that can easily be avoided.
The fifth annual Summit on Financial Education is set for 8 a.m.-3 p.m. April 15 at the Hotel Albuquerque, 800 Rio Grande Blvd. N.W. The free conference aims to increase the financial knowledge of New Mexicans so that they can make sound decisions about their money and avoid fraud and questionable investments.
John C. Woosley, District Director, SBA NM District Office
Merlin Herbert believes anyone can run a business if they have the right training. Herbert, the owner of a 19 year-old Bloomfield-based welding company, participated in the e200 Emerging Leaders training program in Gallup last year. “The training helped me become a better manager,” he says.
An initiative of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the e200 Emerging Leaders Program is a national curriculum that provides business owners in underserved markets with training, networking, resources and motivation to grow their business and create jobs. Now in its fourth year in Albuquerque, the program will be offered in Farmington this year for the first time. The training, which is valued at over $8,000, is free of charge and will be conducted from April through November, 2011, in both locations.
Jim and Gail Greenwood for Northern New Mexico Connect
The next-best thing to free money is available through two federal programs for small businesses involved in technology and innovation.
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program – the larger of the two – grants money to small and startup businesses to develop products, technology or services that solve pressing problems in agriculture, defense, education, energy, transportation, the environment, space exploration, health and other areas. The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program requires the business to collaborate with a nonprofit research laboratory or university that can share its technology or expertise with the innovator.
Winners Pete Smiley and Araña Schulke with EDD Cabinet Secretary Fred Mondragon
Two seniors from East Mountain High School in Sandia Park won the high-school division of the fourth annual New Mexico Youth Entrepreneurship Network’s 2010 Youth Business Plan Competition with their plan to run a hot dog stand at their school to make up for its lack of a lunch program. In the summary of their business plan submitted for the competition, seniors Pete Smiley and Araña Schulke proposed to establish a hot dog stand called Pete’s Wieners to provide hot lunches to classmates who hadn’t packed a lunch and didn’t want to eat vending machine fare.
Candice Lee of Sommer, Udall, Hardwick & Hyatt, P.A.
Many businesses new to the game choose to organize as a limited liability company, or LLC — a hybrid of a partnership and corporation that attempts to reap the benefits of both. The owners in an LLC are called members, and each member holds a membership interest — similar to stock or shares — in the company. These membership interests are sometimes broken down into units.
As with a corporation, an LLC can have classes of membership interests, each with varying rights and preferences. Most important to members of an LLC: They usually are not personally liable for the LLC’s obligations.
Candice Lee of Sommer, Udall, Hardwick & Hyatt, P.A.
Partnerships and corporations are two common forms a startup business can take. Forming a corporation requires the business to register its articles or certificate of organization with the governing state agency. Partnerships aren’t usually required to register – though it’s recommended they do – and can exist by default.
A partnership consists of two or more owners operating a business. It can be a general or a limited partnership. Most state laws consider two or more people who own a business partners by default, but many new owners don’t realize the implications of this. Because each partner is jointly and severally, or individually, liable for the partnership’s obligations, the action of any partner binds the partnership, even if agreements are made without the other partners’ knowledge or consent. Continue reading
Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect
In 2009, Scott Laidlaw and Jennifer Harris founded Imagine Education as a New Mexico-based startup company to develop and market educational games. Since then they’ve been assisted by numerous business and community resources, including a Las Vegas, N.M., charter school and other New Mexico educators, Los Alamos National Laboratory summer interns and LANL’s Northern New Mexico Connect.