The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is hosting the 2022 Veteran Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm (MST) on Wednesday, November 30, 2022.
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Business Support for Veterans
New Mexico is home to more than 135,000 veterans, and almost half of them are under the age of 65. For those former service members interested in operating businesses, nonprofit organizations and state and federal agencies can help with business formation, certification, and contract acquisition that levels the playing field for vets that have spent their careers out of the private sector.
Veterans come to the private-sector workforce with a lot to offer, including advanced training in specialized fields such as logistics, security, information technology, personnel management and administration. They understand the complexities of doing business with the U.S. government and the importance of following instructions and protocol. They appreciate the need for teamwork and leadership, and they work well under pressure. In other words, veterans have the skills needed to start and manage a business.
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 readingCoworking 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
Businesses Shift Focus to Veterans’ Needs
Christy Valdez, President and CEO, ReForm Spine & Injury Care Center
As U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, the military’s focus is moving from international hot spots to hospitals and veterans centers at home. Images of service men and women striving to function with the loss of limbs stir compassion, but no images adequately portray the pain of those struggling to reintegrate into families and communities or those suffering from the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Nearly one of five recently returning veterans describes symptoms of PTSD. For Vietnam vets, the statistics are more alarming; 25 years after a 1988 study of Vietnam Continue reading