Tag Archives: New Mexico business

NMSBA Program Brings Small Businesses, National Laboratories Together

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Honeymoon Brewery hosted its grand opening in Santa Fe in 2018. Article by Jason Gibbs.

The crew from Santa Fe’s Honeymoon Brewery is raising a glass to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program and offering a hearty “salud” to David Fox of Los Alamos National Laboratories.

The cause for celebration? The successful pairing of a small-scale kombucha brewing business and a scientist at one of the nation’s premier research laboratories that was made possible through the NMSBA, a free program that gives small business owners in New Mexico access to the resources available at both LANL and Sandia National Laboratory.

For Honeymoon founders Ayla Bystrom-Williams and James Hill, working with LANL’s Fox allowed them to refine their brewing process and scientifically cut through a trial-and-error development process to better understand how to achieve the particular flavors they sought. Continue reading →

Startup Resources Intrinsic to Business Success

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With help from Accion, ‘magic,’ passion, comfort with risk are other key ingredients.

Daven Lee, Owner of Love+Leche; Article by Sandy Nelson

Borrowing money to start or build a business entails taking risk — not just for the lender but also the borrower. But unless the entrepreneur has rich relatives or massive savings to draw on, securing capital usually requires multiple loans over many years to start and expand a business.

Daven Lee has tapped into New Mexico’s many small-business resources over nearly two decades to turn Love + Leche from a home-based maker of handmade soaps and lotion bars — made with milk from her own goat herd and other natural products — for retail sale into a viable year-round business that gets about half its revenue from wholesale markets throughout the U.S. and in Mexico, England and Australia. Continue reading →

Historic Farm Pursues Innovation with Help from NM MEP

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Los Poblanos’ Lavender Hand Salve; Article by Jason Gibbs

With a history of agricultural experimentation dating back to the 1930s and a storied tradition reaching into the depths of New Mexico’s territorial history, Los Poblanos has bridged the centuries and now, with the assistance of New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NM MEP), continues to preserve the past and pursue innovation.

The land surrounding Los Poblanos was, sometime around 1716, made a part of the Elena Gallegos Land Grant which surrounded and shaped what is now Albuquerque and was first mentioned in the 1790 Census as one of six settlements in Albuquerque’s North Valley. Continue reading →

SEC rules allow everyone to invest in small businesses

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By Karl Dakin, Owner, Dakin Capital Guild LLC

Owners of startups and early-stage businesses can now look beyond traditional financing and equity sources when searching for growth capital. Federal and state laws make it possible for everyone — not just the top three percent of income earners known as accredited investors — to invest in small businesses.

Crowdfunding is the activity of raising money from everyone. Organizations have used it since the late 1990s to obtain a large number of small donations for art and philanthropic projects. Rules adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2015 allow the general public to participate in securities-based crowdfunding. Instead of receiving a tee shirt or other gift of appreciation for a donation, crowdfunding investors get equity in the company they help fund.

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Define Need Before Applying for Business Loan

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Cabra Coffee in Cedar Crest, New Mexico

Cabra Coffee in Cedar Crest financed growth through The Loan Fund

Most New Mexico entrepreneurs can’t start or operate a small business without occasionally borrowing money. And that requires preparation and a methodical approach.

It begins by identifying why the money is needed and the most appropriate loan to fulfill that need. It continues with finding a lender that offers optimal terms and fees for clients with the borrower’s credit score and financial resources and gathering documents the lender needs to review.

Define the need: Businesses may need loans for daily operating expenses or to build reserves, renovate a commercial building or buy equipment. The specific need typically drives the decision about what type of loan to shop for. Continue reading →

New Mexico Set to Celebrate Manufacturing Sector

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Technology Leadership High School students during the Sandia Science and Technology Park Manufacturing Day 2015 tour

More than a third of young people studying for vocational and technical careers have no contact with potential future employers before they graduate, and only 12 percent have seen the inside of a manufacturing facility.

That conclusion, from a 2016 study by the Manufacturing Institute, lends urgency to Manufacturing Day, an annual event designed to educate the public about modern U.S. manufacturing and to attract young people to this fundamental industry.

Manufacturing Day, or Mfg Day as it’s typically known, actually lasts more than a month in New Mexico. Sponsored by the nonprofit New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NM MEP), Manufacturing Day introduces students and job seekers to manufacturing careers by inviting them to tour factories and facilities where people make things. Continue reading →

Economic development bonds let governments help businesses

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Toby Rittner wants to help communities leverage their limited financial resources to solve the needs of business, industry, developers and investors.

Rittner is CEO of the Council of Development Finance Agencies, a nonprofit organization that provides research, training and technical assistance to government entities that want to explore how bonds and other development financing tools can support and encourage public and private investment in infrastructure, redevelopment and other projects that benefit a community’s economy. Continue reading →

New Mexico Communities Building On-Ramps to Information Superhighway

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New Mexico broadband; photo illustration by Taura Costidis/FNMBy Finance New Mexico

Just as public utilities and the interstate highway system made New Mexico more accessible and habitable over the past century, the internet — today’s information superhighway — is what links the state’s entrepreneurs with potential customers and partners around the world.

In a state with far-flung rural villages and growing urban hubs, such infrastructure enhancements as fast and reliable internet service determine whether residents are isolated or engaged and whether enough taxable revenue can be generated through economic development to improve public safety and community amenities. Continue reading →

New Mexico Film Conference Sheds Light on Entrepreneurial Opportunities

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By Belle Allen

The film industry in New Mexico offers numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to get in on the “lights, camera, action!”

To share information about state resources and growing industry trends with filmmakers, producers, accountants, studios, vendors, crew, actors and emerging media innovators, the New Mexico State Film Office hosts the New Mexico Film and Media Industry Conference.

Established players in the state’s vibrant film industry aren’t the only ones who could benefit from the workshops and sessions: The event is a setting for savvy creatives and go-getters to find a niche in established service areas and to learn about unmet needs their products, properties and talents might fill. Continue reading →

Los Alamos National Lab Program Shares Cutting Edge Technologies

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Marianne Johnston

By Mariann Johnston, Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation

Los Alamos National Laboratory has a stockpile of patents covering technologies with untapped commercial potential, and it wants to simplify the process of sharing these innovations — as well as its portfolio of copyright-protected software — with businesses that can translate this wealth into private-sector jobs.

The lab’s Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation (FCI) in August launched the Express Licensing program to fast-track the licensing of technologies and software with a simple online application. The application template standardizes licensing terms and makes it possible for LANL to share inventions on a broader scale without making potential partners and customers undergo exhaustive individualized negotiations. Continue reading →