The Collateral Assistance Program (CAP) helps creditworthy small businesses obtain a loan for which they might not otherwise qualify. To help banks and other financial institutions make loans to small businesses in underserved markets, the New Mexico Economic Development Department can pledge cash to cover a collateral shortfall of a loan to enable commercial financing. Business owners apply through a participating bank or financial institution that can initiate the loan.
Continue readingTag Archives: New Mexico business
Outdoor Recreation as Economic Development: New Toolkit Available
The Rural Economic Development Toolkit, created by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, outlines best practices for building an outdoor recreation economy. Outdoor recreation offers opportunities for sustainable economic and community development, and most communities need help implementing those ambitious plans. The toolkit contains a list of federal grants and technical assistance programs that can support communities in securing funding and services, along with many other resources.
Continue readingLender’s Loyalty Sustains Business Growth for Disabled Vet
Ron Edwards knew he would start his own business one day, but the path to launching Santa Fe’s Focus Advertising Specialties was paved with a variety of jobs and small-business ventures.
The most influential of his early occupations was his overseas service in the Marines, Edwards said. Thirteen weeks in basic training and four years in the military “challenged me in different ways,” he said. “I learned that I can go further than I think I can.”
Working within fixed budgets also taught Edwards how to keep operations tight.
Those lessons in endurance and efficiency prepared him for the challenges of civilian life. Edwards started a wood-finishing business and restaurant in Crested Butte, Colorado, and then moved to New Mexico. After suffering a debilitating back injury at a construction site in 2002, his days of working physically demanding jobs was over.
Continue readingNew Mexico Seeks Manufacturers for Mfg Day 2019
Students touring Insight Lighting in Rio Rancho. Article by Roger Makin.
Manufacturing is a key contributor to New Mexico’s economy, producing state-of-the-art electronics, industrial and residential building products, food and beverages, and a variety of everyday and seldom-seen components.
Economic developers are keen to attract manufacturers to the state because of the well-paying jobs that are created. Local leaders anticipate increased tax revenue, especially when local products are exported beyond city limits and bring new money into the community to enhance public services. Continue reading
Coworking Space Helps Vet Build Gourmet Popcorn Business
A decade ago, Roberto Mendez was broke, his real estate business wiped out by a devastating recession and his wife sidelined by a debilitating stroke. Today he runs a thriving family business built on his favorite snack food: popcorn.
“Ten years ago, life was hell,” said the owner of Albuquerque-based Cornivore. “We were trying to survive, so we would make a couple of hundred bucks here and there” selling homemade gourmet concoctions created in a kettle corn popper to friends and acquaintances.
Cornivore was a bootstrapped business, started with Mendez’s limited resources, as no one would lend to him at the time. First, he found a niche market—people willing to pay several dollars for a bag of fresh popcorn coated with natural flavors. Then he expanded his clientele beyond friends and family, experimenting with wholesaling and concession sales before landing a ready-made sales force in the fundraising market. Continue reading
New Mexico Communities Featured in Economic Development Course
By Paul Hamrick, Executive Director, CELab
The economic development field is rapidly changing and increasing in complexity. The New Mexico Basic Economic Development Course is designed to help community leaders understand legacy economic development approaches and become current with new program initiatives and best practices.
Held on the campus of Western New Mexico University in Silver City every July, the course is one of several offered by the New Mexico-based International Academy for Economic Development that prepares participants for professional certification by the International Economic Development Council.
The five-day course covers the core components of economic development, including business retention and expansion, recruitment, workforce development, real estate, finance, marketing, and ethics. Continue reading
Build a Business with Relationships
No one likes to feel hustled while shopping, whether it’s in a retail store or trade show booth.
To attract customers without brazen hawking or downright pushiness, businesses need to refine the art of the soft sell. That begins by making the store or trade show booth an intentional destination for people who are truly interested in what the business sells.
Create relationships
While any business would like to sell at least one product to every person who walks in the door, that’s the type of unrealistic goal that can turn sales reps into apex predators.
A long-term perspective toward potential customers focuses on developing a relationship that lasts longer than one transaction. It lays a foundation through attraction rather than persuasion. Continue reading
Value Proposition is First Step Toward Market Success
To stand out in a market saturated with consumer products and get the attention of consumers deluged with advertising appeals, an entrepreneur needs to offer a product or service with obvious benefits and unquestionable superiority over the competition.
That isn’t as easy as it sounds. The history of U.S. commerce is littered with countless products whose inventors misjudged the market’s appetite or need.
Getting a product or service to market begins with a value proposition: a sober evaluation of who the product is for, what need it will fulfill, what dissatisfies consumers about the products currently being used to fulfill that need and how the new product is a marked improvement. Continue reading
New Perspective Can Jump-Start a Business
Business leaders are a hardy breed, loath to admit trouble and express anything but optimism and confidence. This tough façade is handy when applying for loans, seeking investment capital and competing in the rough and tumble marketplace.
But it’s hard to maintain when customers are drifting away, employees are quitting, cash flow is falling short and a new product is taking too long to reach market. It’s hard to stay externally cool when internal fears wear down nerves and mental stability.
As tempting as it might be to turn inward and work even harder at such times, experts suggest a healthier approach is for the business owner to create some distance between her personal and professional lives. Continue reading
Distributors Expand Market for New Mexico Companies
Owners of The Bitter End found that distributors could increase revenue. Article by Sandy Nelson.
Bill York started making his own bitters nine years ago while bartending at a Santa Fe cigar bar, where he learned the alchemy of sophisticated cocktails. His small company, The Bitter End, now manufactures its distinctive handcrafted bitters at a Santa Fe facility and reaches consumers through distributors in New York, California, Chicago and Europe.
“This wasn’t the beginning of the craft cocktail movement,” York said, “but there weren’t that many bitters makers on the market, and when I got the idea for spicy, concentrated bitters, it seemed like a good idea to give it a go.”
York developed his initial five recipes while learning how to navigate the bureaucracy of marketing a food product. New Mexico requires alcoholic beverages to be marketed through a distributor, but mixers — classified as alcohol flavorings — are treated as food products.
“I set up a website to accept sales and started sending out samples to prominent bartenders and influencers,” he said. “We visited a lot of bars and gave out a lot of samples; we tweeted like crazy. We went to Tales of the Cocktail [the world’s largest cocktail trade show, which happens every July in New Orleans] and set up a booth to meet people and sell bottles.” Continue reading