Tag Archives: business assistance

Lunches Give Businesswomen a Chance to Find Clients, Make Contacts

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Jennifer Craig

Jennifer Craig, Regional Manager, WESST Las Cruces

Networking is a form of marketing that exponentially increases the influence that a professional or business owner can have when searching for new markets or clients. WESST, a nonprofit that helps build small businesses in New Mexico, used the occasion of Women’s History Month in March to teach women entrepreneurs how to use this powerful tool: The organization’s Las Cruces enterprise center started an Empowering Women in Business Networking lunch meeting so clients and other women could mingle, share ideas, get acquainted and help one another.

The gatherings started small — about three dozen women — but that number nearly doubled by June, suggesting that WESST had tapped into an unmet need.

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Employers Who Mislabel Employees Risk Penalties

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Suzanne C. Odom

Suzanne C. Odom, Attorney at Law, Montgomery & Andrews, P.A.

Under competitive pressures, some employers are tempted to label workers “independent contractors” rather than employees so they can avoid paying benefits, matching Social Security and Medicare taxes, paying federal and state unemployment taxes and following employment laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act. This practice of misclassification has created substantial problems for affected employees and for the United States Treasury, the Social Security and Medicare funds, and state unemployment and workers’ compensation funds.

As a result, the U.S. Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2011 so the agencies could work together and share information to reduce employee misclassification, close the tax gap and improve compliance with federal labor laws.  Continue reading →

Workshops Aim to Teach Principles of Lean Manufacturing

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Jennifer Sinsabaugh

Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Operations Director, NM MEP

Michael Tso was 10 months into his job running a high-tech envelope-making machine at Desert Paper and Envelope in Albuquerque when his employer sent him to the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s lean-manufacturing workshop this summer. There with other representatives of New Mexico companies he learned fundamentals of the lean manufacturing philosophy, which aims to improve business operations – and enhance competitiveness – from the shop floor to the front office.

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Lender-Client Relationship Built on Trust, Mutual Benefits

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Jordan van Rijn, NM Loan Officer, Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

By Jordan van Rijn, NM Loan Officer, Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

Mauro Nava’s seven-year relationship with microlender Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado paid off when the Mexico City native and his Ukrainian-born business partner, Olena Dziuba, decided to open a health clinic to serve residents of Albuquerque’s underserved South Valley. Clínica la Esperanza opened in October 2011 at Bridge and Isleta boulevards with seed money from the two partners to remodel the building and a line of credit from Accion to pay bills until the business started generating revenue.

Nava first contacted Accion in 2005 for funds to start a mobile radiography business called On-Site Radiography. Nava’s perfect payment history on past Accion loans made him a good candidate for the most recent investment. Continue reading →

TED Conference is Incubator for Innovative Ideas

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Tim Nisly

Tim Nisly, Founder, TEDxABQ

The adage that business success is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration hit home for me through TED, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the spread of inspiring ideas. Established in 1996 by magazine publishing entrepreneur Chris Anderson on the basis of a 1984 gathering of leaders in the fields of design, technology and entertainment, TED aims to provide a platform for the world’s most innovative thinkers, visionaries and teachers to help people gain a better understanding of the world’s most serious problems and hear some ideas about how to solve them. The Sapling Foundation, TED’s parent organization since 2001, has supported projects that use these tools to create sustainable change in areas such as global public health, poverty alleviation and biodiversity through such organizations as the Acumen Fund, OneWorld Health, and PATH.

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Outside Capital Helps Aerial Photography Company Take Off

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F. Leroy Pacheco

F. Leroy Pacheco, CEO, The Loan Fund

Blue Skies Consulting knows a lot about building a business through strategic growth funded by outside capital. The Belen-based aerial photography company is a client of The Loan Fund, a top-ranked community development financial institution that provides loans and other banking services to underserved markets in New Mexico.

Blue Skies began its relationship with The Loan Fund in 2009 when it sought funding to buy aerial camera system components in preparation for the purchase of a digital aerial camera designed for high-resolution photography. Two loans in 2011 made it possible for the company to buy the Microsoft Vexcel UltraCam Lp, the only photogrammetric digital mapping camera in New Mexico. Continue reading →

Program Offers NM Herbalist Free Technical Help

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Monica Abeita

Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for NNM Connect

In the 29 years since he bought Santa Fe-based Herbs, Etc. from its founder, herbalist Daniel Gagnon has worked hard to meet demand from the more than 2,000 U.S. retailers that carry the liquid herbal extracts and herbal medicines he manufactures.

Because quality control was critical to establishing and maintaining the company’s reputation, Gagnon imposed rigorous anti-microbial standards for his potions. Traditionally, Gagnon eliminated unwanted microbes by processing his herbs with water and alcohol. But in 2000, he developed a way to remove the alcohol to produce an alcohol-free product using olive oil and soft gel encapsulation.

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Collaboration is Ingredient for Success of Culinary Business Incubator

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Tony Gallegos

Tony Gallegos, CEO, Rio Grande Community Development Corporation

New Mexico is home to delicious and distinctive foods and to one of the largest commercial kitchen incubators in the country.

Albuquerque’s South Valley Economic Development Center— a collaborative effort of Bernalillo County and the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation — houses a 3,500-square-foot commercial kitchen that’s available to entrepreneurs who want to turn their cooking skills into money-making ventures. More than 60 small businesses share the nonprofit Mixing Bowl Community Kitchen at any given time, and 200 potential entrepreneurs hatch their food-based businesses at the incubator every year.

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Energy Efficient Lighting Slashes Costs for Deming Manufacturer

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Terry Brunner

Terry Brunner, State Director, USDA Rural Development Agency

A new energy-efficient system installed at Compass Components Incorporated (CCI) is expected to save the Deming company more than 50 percent on its lighting bill. A $48,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America (REAP) made the upgrade possible in late 2011.

Lighting is critical at the company’s high-ceiling plant, where electrical components and wiring harness assemblies for buses are manufactured. CCI replaced the plant’s 630 fluorescent tube lights and fixtures with 48 T-8 Hi-Bay lights. In doing so, it removed and safely disposed of old ballasts containing liquid polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); these highly toxic materials haven’t been produced in the United States since 1979 due to their classification as persistent organic pollutants.

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State Helps Businesses Obtain Certification That Puts Major Contracts Within Reach

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Jeff Abrams

Jeff Abrams, Innovation Director, New Mexico MEP

Winning government contracts can enrich a business and workers in the community where the business is based. But getting contracts from government agencies and private industries that value quality-management certification can seem daunting at first.

To simplify the process for eligible businesses, the state Economic Development Department, in partnership with New Mexico MEP, created New Mexico 9000, or ISO 9000 — a class that trains businesses to procure the ISO 9001:2008 certification that is critical to winning big contracts and doing business with privately held national and international companies.

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