Keeping Your Eye on the Ball: How to Build a Successful New Business in Gallup-McKinley County
May 13, 2023
In the spirit of baseball season, take time to show some team spirit to our local small businesses. This is key to relationship-building, success in building our local economy and creating jobs. It’s difficult to understate all the changes the business landscape has seen in the past few years, yet entrepreneurs have responded with incredible adaptability. It’s impossible to predict exactly what will happen in 2023; however, having well-informed expectations can help you stay ahead of the game.
National Economic Development Week is a Gallup-McKinley County effort led by a great team of local players. The movement is made stronger by a robust network of resource partners who take the initiative to collaborate, coordinate, and create their own activities and engagement events. Focused on small business, we invite you to network to make those positive connections. By “USING OUR HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE TO GROW THE GALLUP-MCKINLEY COUNTY ECONOMY,” we want to build relationships by engaging through connection platforms such as social media, network events or patronizing a local small business.
During May 8- 13, 2023, we hope to create an economic home run. Every year since I can remember, the Small Business Development Center at The University of New Mexico-Gallup has participated in the Greater Gallup Economic Development Corporation’s Economic Development Week in Gallup & McKinley County, recognizing the critical contributions of our local entrepreneurs and small business owners. More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, creating about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.
As part of the community resource team, the SBDC at UNM-Gallup takes the opportunity to highlight the impact of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and other resource partners across New Mexico. In every inning, we are all working to grow small businesses, create 21st century jobs, drive innovation, and increase our home field advantage to grow the Gallup McKinley County competitiveness. We do this by answering the questions that entrepreneurs have about starting and growing a small business, covering topics such as business plan development, pricing, marketing, insurance, hiring, bank accounts, capital and an array of select topics of interest so we can either match them with the right resources or bring in the subject matter experts from America’s SBDC Network.
This is a great time to think about the valuable marketing relationships you can build for your business all year long. Your marketing partners are allies to your business. Having a successful business isn’t something any of us can do alone. It takes outside validation. It takes clients. It takes recommendations. It takes funding. It takes a community. The people who are lending us a hand are enabling us to succeed. No matter what obligations and deadlines are colliding with you, fostering these marketing partners may be one of the greatest contacts you can make for your business for the future. John C. Maxwell’s quote, “Teamwork makes the dream work,” seems fitting in this case of individuals working together who collaborate to achieve a common goal. Creating an environment where teamwork can thrive means forging valuable relationships.
The New Mexico Small Business Development Center Network (NMSBDC) was established in 1989 through a partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the State of New Mexico, the New Mexico Association of Community Colleges, and the New Mexico Association of Independent Community Colleges. The NMSDC Network State Office is located on the campus of the Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe. The program provides no-cost business consulting and low-cost business training to entrepreneurs throughout the state.
Strategically located in 20 communities throughout New Mexico, NMSBDC’s consultants bring more than 773 years of combined small business management and ownership expertise and have helped to create more than 21,000 jobs in the state since NMSBDC’s inception. Entrepreneurs have access to subject matter experts in everything from accounting to social media and franchising to e-commerce.
For more information, visit www.nmsmdc.org.
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If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Cyndi Jarvison at 505-863- 7637 or email her at cjarvison@unm.edu.
Cyndi Jarvison has served as Director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UNM-Gallup since 2015. She provides direction to clients of the SBDC and ensures they receive the direction, leadership, counseling and technical support that they have requested to help them start new businesses.