NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Adriene Gallegos, (505) 428-1624 or adriene.gallegos@sfcc.edu
SANTA FE, N.M. — March 6, 2015 — Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit and aiding in business growth and capacity in the state, the New Mexico Small Business Development Center Network (NMSBDC) will honor 16 successful New Mexico businesses March 8-9.
“Starting and developing a new business venture takes vision and determination. It also takes the know-how to do it right—unfortunately the answers are not always easy to find,” NMSBDC State Director Russell Wyrick said. “The NMSBDC provides no-cost assistance to hundreds of New Mexico’s existing small businesses with the technical management expertise needed to succeed and grow. When our small businesses grow, new jobs are created, jobs that are more likely to stay right here in New Mexico.”
This year’s client success stories include a fresh pet food retailer, a home décor company, an architecture and engineering firm, an online newspaper, and an entrepreneur who turned picking up cattle roadkill from the highway into a viable businesses after waiting eight years to obtain a license. The honorees include:
• Acosta Hides, Mesquite
• Bahama Buck’s, Albuquerque
• Cellular By All Wireless, Carlsbad
• Chaos Bistro, Alamogordo
• Cuatitas Physical & Sports Therapy, Las Vegas
• Divine Wireless Solutions, Hobbs
• Great Harvest Bread Co., Farmington
• Growing Opportunities, Alcalde
• Je L’adore!, Albuquerque
• Learning Ladder Early Childcare Education Center, Artesia
• The Los Alamos Daily Post, Los Alamos
• Marty’s Meals, Santa Fe
• Massage Envy, Rio Rancho
• Mona’s Salsa, Carlsbad
• Optical Source by Sunglass Source, Clovis
• Vigil Enterprises, Inc., Santa Fe
Businesses are selected as clients of the year based on a number of criteria, including past, present and future potential economic impact.
More than 3,000 New Mexicans turn to the NMSBDC and its programs, the International Business Accelerator and the New Mexico Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP), for the expertise and hands-on assistance needed to start and grow their dreams each year. The programs are funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration and an annual allocation from the state Legislature to provide no-cost, quality service to New Mexico entrepreneurs.
In other NMSBDC news, Wyrick announced that Interim PTAP Program Manager Richard Asenap has been selected as new PTAP Program Manager. Asenap was hired as an advisor a year after the program was created in 2009. Asenap, who has more than 40 years in business and economic development, has been a business owner and a commercial lender. He has also been the tribal administrator for the Comanche Tribe and is presently on the board of the Comanche Nation Enterprises, Inc. He holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Oklahoma and was an A.P. Sloan Fellow in the Graduate School of Business and Administrative Sciences at the University of New Mexico.
“We strongly feel that Richard will bring both his expertise and energy to this position and take the program where it needs to go to better serve the business community of the entire State of New Mexico,” Wyrick said.
Asenap said he appreciates the confidence that has been placed in him and will lead PTAP to the next level in terms of more government contracts going to local New Mexico businesses.
“The net effect will be added dollars and jobs to the state’s economy, which is the primary goal of the program,” he said.
Asenap and the 16 successful businesses owners will be introduced and honored during a reception at the Eldorado Hotel and Spa at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 8. The business owners will also be honored during NMSBDC Day at the New Mexico Legislature, and introduced at 1 p.m. in the Statehouse Rotunda on Monday, March 9.
For more information about the entrepreneurs and to read their success stories in the 2014 annual report, click here. For more information about NMSBDC and the network, go to www.nmsbdc.org. For more information about PTAP, go to www.nmptap.org.
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