{"id":8044,"date":"2015-06-28T18:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=8044"},"modified":"2017-05-05T17:22:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T23:22:00","slug":"office-of-business-advocacy-a-one-stop-shop-for-clearing-bureaucratic-roadblocks-will-now-help-entrepreneurs-launch-and-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/starting-or-growing-a-business\/office-of-business-advocacy-a-one-stop-shop-for-clearing-bureaucratic-roadblocks-will-now-help-entrepreneurs-launch-and-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Office of Business Advocacy \u2014 a One-Stop Shop for Clearing Bureaucratic Roadblocks \u2014 Will Now Help Entrepreneurs Launch and Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"By<\/a>

By Angela Heisel, New Mexico Economic Development Department<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Secretary Barela said. \u201cAs a\u00a0result of regulatory reforms, leading\u00a0to less bureaucratic red tape than when\u00a0the governor\u00a0first took office four and half years ago,\u00a0we\u2019re expanding the OBA\u2019s role to include proactively helping entrepreneurs start businesses and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie Porter, the director of the OBA, is moving the office in that direction.\u00a0\u201cOBA will take a more inclusive approach and will also function as the Business Resource Center (BRC) instead of just focusing solely on\u00a0resolving unnecessary delays in permitting and licensing,\u201d\u00a0Porter said. \u201cThis will streamline the process and achieve the goal of making both OBA and BRC more approachable.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the OBA is evolving, it won\u2019t lose sight of its original mission\u00a0and\u00a0will\u00a0continue\u00a0to reach out to businesses. \u201cI will increase exposure and communicate that OBA is a resource for small-business owners that will not only work to resolve\u00a0red tape barriers but will also\u00a0help guide\u00a0entrepreneurs\u00a0through the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency also cultivates strategic partnerships with the New Mexico Small Business Development Center, the U.S. Small Business Administration\u00a0and other service providers. The New Mexico Economic Development Department\u2019s regional representatives work with local chambers of commerce, economic development organizations\u00a0and small businesses to increase OBA\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

OBA advocates have firsthand knowledge of intergovernmental affairs and know decision makers in all agencies that intersect with the business community. These relationships make it easier to solve conflicts \u2014 sometimes by doing something as simple as making a phone call to set up a meeting with the right person. Advocates operate as caseworkers to facilitate movement of paperwork through the system, and they don\u2019t close cases until they\u2019re resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will travel the state, introducing the office to areas where either owners may not have been aware of this resource or may not have access to it,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cWe are continuing to increase office exposure and let small-business owners know that OBA is open for business \u2014 that the state is open for business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit the Office of Business Advocacy at\u00a0www.NMforBusiness.com<\/a>. To initiate a case, call\u00a0505-827-2486<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0business.advocacy@state.nm.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download 404_Office of Business Advocacy_a One-Stop Shop for Clearing Bureaucratic Roadblocks<\/a>\u00a0PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9196,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044\/revisions\/9196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}