Business Banking Christian Isaacson

You have an idea. Maybe you have a knack for baking the best cinnamon rolls this side of the Mississippi or finally finished the schooling required to get licensed as barber. Or maybe you’ve worked in an industry for some time and being your own boss sounds more and more inviting. So, you start speaking with people about it. You might talk to someone who owns their own business, a CPA, an attorney, maybe you take to the internet and start strategizing. Most of these will point you towards establishing the required credentials, registering for a business license with a local governing body, possibly the health department, or perhaps establishing tax identification numbers at the state and federal level.

Taxes. Taxes are the primary reason why one of the stops on your journey to starting a new business should be a bank or financial institution. While it might seem simpler to maintain a startup out of an existing account, a couple hours of your time can help set new business owners on their way to developing the healthy separation of business and personal finances. In the event of an audit, this separation will ease the burden on the business owner to demonstrate what is and is not a business expense. A trip to purchase office supplies might look frighteningly similar to a trip to the same store to buy groceries a year from now. Separate accounts eliminate the guesswork.

Gallup has a wide range of resources available to an aspiring business owner from local attorneys, CPAs, bankers, and bookkeepers to the folks at the Gallup McKinley County Chamber of Commerce and the Gallup Small Business Development Center. https://www.nmsbdc.org/locations/gallup/ provides links to many entities in the surrounding areas that may provide more specialized advice, direction, and training. In 2020, while our community started moving into our first pandemic related lockdowns, many of us at Pinnacle Bank started learning about the Small Business Administration and the Paycheck Protection Program Loans. During the course of the next two years, we came in to contact with business owners, managers, and agents from the full spectrum of our economy in Gallup. It was an amazing experience to partner with so many wonderfully diverse people in our area. The Paycheck Protection Program and the SBA both had growing pains in disbursing funds to small businesses and many stories of fraudulent uses of these funds have

sense come to light. My experience was far from what makes headlines. I saw businesses adapt to a rapidly changing market environments, overcome a lot of adversity and continue offering employment opportunities in our area. The opportunity to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program has passed, but the SBA still exists and maintains pre-pandemic programs to educate, inform and sometimes provide financial support in the form of grants, loans, or other options. https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/10-steps-start-your-business might be a worthwhile website to visit for an aspiring business owner.

There are opportunities for growth in Gallup. Growth can be uncomfortable. It’s rarely linear. It might not happen as you plan or how you expect. Lou Holtz is quoted as saying, “In this world you’re either growing or you’re dying so get in motion and grow.” The only way to realize your business idea is to act. Know that there are people who will be grateful for an opportunity to help, you just might have to knock on more doors and different doors to get there. Best Wishes.

Christian Isaacson

Pinnacle Bank Loan Officer 107 E. Aztec Ave Gallup, NM 87301 505-722-4411