Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect
When Scott Laidlaw and Jennifer Harris created Ko’s Journey, a game designed to teach math in middle schools, they weren’t sure how to get it into the marketplace. With help from MBA students participating in a summer internship program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, they are now better prepared. The students helped them target interested schools and made recommendations to market their product on the Internet.
Stacy Sacco, MBA, VP Marketing at WESST
Small-business owners focused on increasing sales sometimes turn to prospect lists – names of potential customers researched on the internet or purchased from a marketing firm. Even if the selection criteria are finely targeted, “cold calls” made from these lists result in fewer sales than calls made to people with whom there is a personal relationship. The key is to turn unknown potential customers into personal connections.
One approach is to generate an ongoing prospect list from public announcements about people who have won industry awards or reached achievements of note, and use the announcement to make a personal connection by sending a letter of congratulations. The letter should be written and addressed by hand, and suggest how doing business together can make the award-winner become even more successful.
Don Bustos, Director, NMSBDC at Luna Community College
Almost half of U.S. businesses are based in the business owner’s home, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and that number might grow as more people decide to go into business for themselves.
Those planning to launch a home-based business in New Mexico need to understand the zoning laws that apply in their area. Depending on where one lives in the state, zoning laws are enacted by city or county officials.
Monica Abeita, Regional Development Corp. for Northern NM Connect
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, created by the state Legislature in 2000 to provide technical help from Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories to small businesses throughout the state.
At the 2011 NMSBA Innovation Celebration, held April 7 at the Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque, laboratory officials recognized 12 small businesses that have participated in the program. The businesses are in both urban and rural communities of New Mexico, and include agricultural companies, medical technologies and an irrigation district.
Tom Stephenson, Managing General Partner, Verge Fund
Specialization is common within the equity investment world, with investors generally focused on specific stages of business development. A “seed” stage investor, for example, has a different specialty than a firm that provides expansion capital.
An entrepreneur who knows the terms used to describe development-related types of equity financing is more likely to seek the investor right for her venture and increase the chance of obtaining funds.
Most investor specialization terms fall close to the following:
Seed-stage venture capital refers to investments made in firms with products under development or recently introduced to the market. Continue reading
Tom Stephenson, Managing General Partner, Verge Fund
Anyone looking for a business investor must examine their personal goals before looking for funding – different reasons for starting a business mean different ways of finding money.
Venture capitalists classify entrepreneurial businesses into two groups: growth businesses and lifestyle, or legacy, businesses. Only growth businesses will be attractive to venture-capital firms.
Lifestyle businesses are those started by people who want to have control over what they do and how they spend their time. These businesses tend to be focused on a local market, and entrepreneurs expect to own and run the business indefinitely. Continue reading
Stephanie Spong, Principal, Epic Ventures
Entrepreneurs looking for additional funding to launch or build a business have numerous options in New Mexico. Those with experience, skills and passion can choose from a number of potential sources of private-equity capital, whether they are “angel” or institutional equity investors. Determining which source to pursue depends largely on industry focus, business stage and the amount of money needed.
Tatjana Rosev, Los Alamos Nat’l Lab Communications Office
The most successful entrepreneurs recognize the benefits of networking with external experts — service providers, industry consultants, venture capitalists, business coaches and successful CEOs — when starting or building a company, especially when the economic forecast is uncertain and entrepreneurial confidence is at an ebb.
But there’s more to effective networking than passing out business cards and attending seminars to meet and interact with influential others. It also requires connecting with individuals locally and nationally who have a vested interest in helping entrepreneurs take their companies to the next stage.
Wise Counsel
Business coaching is a powerful, collaborative relationship between an entrepreneur and a coach/consultant who is more versed and better established in a particular industry or discipline than the business owner and has better access to human and financial resources. Being trained by a coach how to identify, evaluate and overcome obstacles to growth can help the entrepreneur achieve his or her goals faster and more effectively. Northern New Mexico Connect’s Springboard program offers free coaching to technology entrepreneurs in Northern New Mexico whose companies are at various stages of development.
Continue reading
Looking for additional funding to launch or grow your business? If you have the experience, skills and passion, there are some potential sources of private equity capital available in New Mexico. Equity capital sources can be broadly placed into two categories: Angel investors and institutional equity investors. Determining which source to pursue is largely a function of three key factors: 1) industry focus, 2) business stage, and 3) amount of money you are raising.
Keep in mind that private and institutional investors back rapid-growth and scalable businesses in exchange for an equity position in the company. Companies must demonstrate high returns to their investors.
Angel Investors
An angel is an accredited investor who invests his or her own, personal capital in early-stage business ventures. Angels are often the bridge from the self-funded stage of the business to the point where a venture capitalist would be interested in investing. An increasing number of angel investors are organizing themselves into angel networks or angel groups.
The New Mexico Angels prefer seed and early-stage investments. They consider themselves generalists and will consider investing in a wide range of industries. Initially, they were focused on technology but they now consider non-technology ventures. Initial investment amount ranges from $100,000 to $500,000.
Institutional Equity Investors
Institutional equity investors, known as venture capitalists, are not listed here because they can be transitory. For example, when a fund is fully deployed, it transitions into maintenance mode in which the VC investors shift their focus from seeking new opportunities to maximizing the potential of the company that received its investment.
The New Mexico Finance Authority Venture Capital Program Fund was created by the New Mexico Legislature in 2022 to advance the economic development objectives of the state by making investments for start-up, expansion, product or market developments, recapitalization, or early-stage development. The New Mexico Legislature appropriated $35 million in 2022 and $15 million in 2023 to the NMFA Venture Capital program.
NMFA maintains a list of the venture private equity funds that it has invested in and updates the list when new funds are added.
Check the list and contact the funds if your venture meets fund guidelines.
For definitions of the various stages of business development, see the glossary on the Finance New Mexico website.
The following article offers a historical perspective on the Finance New Mexico project.
As New Mexico’s lieutenant governor, one of my highest priorities has been to support small businesses throughout the state. I’ve owned a small business and know the challenges that confront people like me – particularly in finding the money and getting well-founded advice on how to start and maintain a business. The largest chunk of the business community is businesses that have fewer than 25 workers. While major employers like state, federal and local government, the military, financial service industry and health care providers provide a large number of jobs, small businesses are the ones creating new jobs and providing stability to smaller communities around the state.
In addition to an improved business environment and tax structure, providing investment capital has been a priority of our administration. Investments in large projects like Eclipse Aviation capture the headlines, but they’re not the only ones. Statewide, money to small businesses has been increasing. Private equity capital has been flowing into New Mexico at an accelerated pace, much of it aimed at the vast pool of technology developed at the national research labs and universities.
The State Investment Council has played a leading role in attracting venture capital funds. Since 1996, it has given money to funds that agree to set up shop in the state and invest in New Mexico companies. Those investments have increased over the past years and have helped New Mexico businesses. One of them helped Aridien, Inc., a Belen company that makes the desiccant products you find in packaging.