Rural Community Assistance Corporation, the nonprofit organization known as RCAC, offers small business loans to help businesses retain or create jobs and thus improve the economic condition of rural communities. Its Building Rural Economies Small Business Coaching team goes a step further by providing no-cost direct technical assistance to rural entrepreneurs and small businesses to launch or re-launch their business; operate, sustain, and grow their business; secure access to financing; and build networks.
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WESST Named NM Microlender of the Year
The small business development organization WESST was named the 2024 Small Business Administration’s New Mexico Microlender of the Year. The award was bestowed on May 1, 2024 at the SBA New Mexico Small Business Awards Breakfast. The SBA celebrates National Small Business Week by honoring outstanding entrepreneurs and resource providers while putting a spotlight on the people who run the 33 million small businesses in the country.
Continue readingNew Source for Business Start-Up Information
The New Mexico Economic Development Department has launched a new tool to connect New Mexicans to business, entrepreneurial, and community resources from across the state. The Business Resource Map is now live on the New Mexico EDD website.
Continue readingDreamSpring Expands Bi-Lingual Services
DreamSpring, known for providing small business loans and assistance to entrepreneurs in 27 states, is expanding its English-Spanish online technical assistance and training materials, as well as one-on-one technical assistance, thanks to more than $500,000 received from a Congressionally Directed Spending appropriation, part of the bipartisan Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Financial Services and General Government Bill. U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, helped secure the funds that are part of $28 million for 52 projects in New Mexico during the Senate’s passage of six bipartisan appropriations bills on March 23, 2024.
Continue readingWESST Helps Clients Help Others
Brenda Ramos Almeida helped her husband start J&B Gardens while working full time as an office manager for another contractor. In 2019, she turned to WESST, a nonprofit business development organization, for one-on-one counseling and workshops to help her manage the Northern New Mexico landscaping business as she maintained the company’s books. It wasn’t long before she spotted a need and decided to start a service to assist others with bookkeeping and acquiring permits and applications for their own small businesses.
Libelula Financial focuses on the Spanish-speaking small business community. Being bilingual, Ramos Almeida knew she could provide customers with the highest quality of service in both Spanish and English, offering bookkeeping and general business assistance.
Continue readingBusiness Finance Fairs Offer Insight
Entrepreneurs and business owners looking for money to start or grow a business can gain insight into how lenders make small business loan decisions by attending a business finance fair. Events are often hosted online, while others, such as the February 29, 2024, Business Finance Fair in Santa Fe, are in-person events that also serve to connect business owners with local lenders.
Continue readingEntrepreneur Responds to Market Needs
When Las Cruces resident Silvia Terrazas looked for videos to rent in Spanish, she found none so she created a store to fill that need. In 2000, she obtained financing to open Video Exitos, where she placed a freezer filled with ice cream and the Mexican-style popsicles known as paletas.
Terrazas noticed the ice cream treats were popular and she decided to learn how to make her own Michoacan-style ice cream and paletas, venturing to the Mexican state of Michoacan to attend an ice cream-making course. She learned how to incorporate the state’s fresh fruit into popsicles and ice cream.
In 2005, Terrazas was ready to expand her business. She went to the nonprofit lender, The Loan Fund, for a loan to construct a building for her new ice cream and treat shop, Paleteria La Reyna Michoacana where she could also sell pinatas, candy, and other Mexican specialty items.
Continue readingNo-Interest Loan for Manufacturers and Technology Companies
Applications for zero-interest business loans of up to $20,000 will be accepted starting February 15, 2024. The no-interest loans are offered to Northern New Mexico manufacturing and technology-based companies by the Regional Development Corporation as part of its TEAM Fund. Applications are due by March 17.
Continue readingStartup Loan Enables Construction Entrepreneur
Aaron Gutierrez, owner and president of Albuquerque Construction & Concrete, can do it all. That’s because he spent years building and supervising multimillion-dollar construction projects across New Mexico, although always for other people. “I’ve been with some great employers who were pretty well established and had a good system set up,” he said. “I was able to learn a lot from them and pick up what I needed.”
When he decided to strike out on his own, Gutierrez got his general contracting license and went to school for an associate degree in Construction Management. He had the technical skills, management experience, and rock-solid relationships with tradespeople and suppliers — not to mention clients who were eager to work with him. Now he just needed working capital to get started.
Continue readingNMSBA Program Accepting Applications for Leveraged Projects
The NMSBA program allows Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories to apply their unique expertise and capabilities to help for-profit, New Mexico small businesses solve critical challenges. Technical assistance is provided at no cost to the businesses and is rendered in the form of laboratory staff time and incidental materials.
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