New Mexico MEP Helps Company Go Lean

Largo Tank received assistance from NM MEP

In 2014, Adam Wagoner attended a Lean 101 workshop conducted by Denise Williams, Northwest Region Innovation Director for New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), when it hit him that lean strategies would be a good fit for Largo Tank’s longstanding company culture of promoting from within and encouraging professional development among workers.

Wagoner is an owner and vice president of Largo Tank and Equipment, a three-location manufacturing and service facility for truck-mounted equipment, fire equipment, truck tanks, and tank trailers in the Four Corners region.

Largo’s focus is welding and mechanical service work on all types of semi-trailers, tankers, and truck-mounted equipment. The company holds an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) U-stamp for pressure vessel manufacturing and an R-stamp for pressure vessel repairs.

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VAPG Grant Awards Up To $75,000 For Feasibility Studies

The portal to apply for a Value Added Producer Grant is open until April 17, 2025, but agriculture producers and food manufacturers should prepare now to apply. The VAPG program, funded and administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, awards up to $75,000 for feasibility research and planning and up to $250,000 for operating expenses to individual businesses and organizations engaged in adding value to agricultural products.

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Ski Lift Pitch Offers $10,000 Grant

Nine pre-seed and series-seed New Mexico startup businesses will compete for $10,000 at this year’s Ski Lift Pitch on February 4 at Taos Ski Valley. Organized by Activate NM and powered by CNM Ingenuity, the Ski Lift Pitch brings together New Mexico’s best startups and world-class VC funds for a fun-filled day on the slopes. The competitors have already been selected, but entrepreneurs can attend to learn what a successful pitch looks like.

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Nonprofits in Need: Borrowing Can Be Tool for Financial Stability

The Loan Fund at St. Elizabeth Shelter
The Loan Fund at St. Elizabeth Shelter

A nonprofit isn’t in business to enrich its shareholders, but it still needs revenues and incurs operating expenses while pursuing its community service mission. It, too, can experience cash flow problems or require considerable cash to fund a capital project or expanded services.

When that happens, the nonprofit faces many of the same choices a for-profit business does, though it draws from different funding sources.

While a for-profit business can offer investors a chance to share in the company’s fortunes by buying stocks, for example, a nonprofit relies on stakeholders who are motivated by public interest rather than self-interest.

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Military Entrepreneurship Summit

The Military Community Entrepreneurship Summit will take place in Las Cruces on Dec. 3, 2024. The full-day summit offers essential business resource information to military entrepreneurs. Participants can tap into expert-led breakout sessions, networking opportunities, and the experience of veteran business owners.

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Shop Local and Skip the Tax

November 30, 2024, is New Mexico’s Small Business Saturday Tax Holiday, when the state allows non-franchise, small businesses to deduct their sales of qualifying items from their gross receipts. The annual tax holiday, which coincides with Small Business Saturday nationwide, begins at 12:01 a.m. and ends at midnight the same day, giving shoppers an extra incentive to shop locally this holiday season.

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