Questions for Amalio Madueno, Small Business Development Center UNM-Gallup

Questions For: Questions For: Amalio Madueño, Business Advisor Amalio Madueño, Business Advisor Small Business Development Small Business Development Center UNM Gallup Center UNM Gallup

Question 1: Welcome to Gallup and

our Small Business Develop Center. What attracted you to Gallup and your new position?

a) Pandemic Circumstances: I have had my own private consulting business in New Mexico since 2001, specializing in community economic development and advising more than 1,000 small businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions and local government. My firm’s extensive services, including grant writing, strategic planning, program development, project engineering, fundraising, financial management, and legislative proposal development, were based on contracts with major intermediaries (LANL, PSP, RDC, Maddox Fdn) that would provide my services to their clients. Beginning in 2020, Covid19 negatively affected my contracting volume considerably. Reductions in economic development projects and programs were immediately made by local government, businesses and institutions and this reduced my consulting activity considerably. With all (most) efforts in the public and private sector focused on the pandemic my private consulting activity was near zero and I was bored. The Gallup SBDC opportunity came as I was looking for something to do that would involve skills, I had acquired over many years of community economic development work. b) My Background in SBDC Work: I came to New Mexico in 1991 to work in the Santa Fe SBDC office. Randy Grissom, state director at the time (later SFCC President), hired me to provide technical assistance out of Santa Fe Community College. Since I had been running multi-state federal grant programs out of Washington DC and Baltimore, Randy brought me in to assist the SBDC as well as the City of Santa Fe’s HUD-funded Small Business Development Program (SBDP). My contract involved both the SBDC and SBDP jobs. The SBDP was a $500k loan guarantee fund set up to assist local high risk small businesses with accessing bank loans. A consortium of local banks had an agreement with the City of Santa Fe to provide loans to high-risk small businesses provided that they received my SBDC technical assistance and were covered by the City’s HUD-funded 50% loan guarantee. I assisted many local restaurants, retailers, small manufacturers and service providers with guaranteed loans up to $50k. After completing that 2-year project in 1993, I moved on to work at SBDC offices in Espanola and Taos during the 1990’s. So, I owe my presence in NM to the SBDC network and continue to respect and admire its work to assist small businesses. c) Small Business Runs In My Family: Born in the USA, I am a child of parents and grandparents of Mexican and Native American descent who came first to Arizona and New Mexico in 1900-1905, later settling in southern California. On both sides of my family, they made their way in American society by establishing their own small businesses and succeeding. d) Curiosity: Over the years I have been to Gallup on various consulting visits, as well as exploring the area north to Farmington and Chaco and south to Zuni, Reserve, Apache Canyon and Silver City. I find the region interesting because of its Native American culture, because of its geographical beauty and there are some nice golf courses and I always have my clubs in the trunk.

Question 2: I understand that you are a Certified

Entrepreneur Trainer and Business Advisor. What does that training entail?

Yes, I am a certified NXLEVEL Entrepreneurship instructor. Since 2001 I have been teaching at least one 8-to-10-week NXLEVEL course with 10-20 students interested in starting or expanding their businesses. Types of businesses that have benefited from my NXLEVEL include: light manufacturing, food manufacturing, retail, human services, health, agriculture, construction, forestry, arts, livestock, janitorial, drilling and mining, etc. (this is only a partial list).

The NXLEVEL Entrepreneurship Training Program was made possible by the USWEST Foundation. USWEST created the Western Entrepreneurial Network at the University of Colorado, Denver, partnering with other state universities (Nebraska, Arizona, etc.) and small business centers to create the program.

NXLEVEL Entrepreneurship training entails providing start up or existing businesses with the information and resources needed to succeed at the small business of their choosing. I teach one class per week for eight (8) weeks on the following topics: 1. Taking Stock of Your Resources -- Keys to Business Success 2. (Or: Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself) 3. The Business Planning Process: Industry and Market analysis 4. Legal Issues and Bankruptcy: what is the right legal form 5. Management Issues and Human Resources 6. Marketing I: what is a market? 7. Marketing II: what is my market? 8. Finance I: overview of commercial finance & financial documents

8. Finance II: creating my own financial management system

Each participant gets a training manual to keep. During the NXLEVEL Entrepreneurship training process I provide not only the 3-hour class once per week to 12-20 students, but also any oneon-one technical assistance needed by each individual student.

Students receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

Question 3: Your degrees are in English, Poetry, and

History/Social Theory. How did you get interested in entrepreneurship and businesses development?

1. Life Happens: You are right, my degrees have no immediately discernable connection to business development and entrepreneurship. My early academic success had to do with my interests as a young adult minority. Two liberal arts degrees provided me with the ability to adapt to the course of my life and pursue interests as my circumstances changed both intellectually and in my work.

Poetry drove my undergraduate degree efforts and I published and won poetry competitions during my first graduate fellowship at UC Irvine. By luck & circumstance I was recruited Cesar Chavez to educate farmworkers in the new California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA) -- the first of its kind in US history. Teaching US labor history, labor relations and labor law was an eye-opener for me and changed the course of my work pursuits. My liberal arts education prepared me to adapt the course of my life to pursue my interests, which were turning to community social structure and labor relations. This experience drove me to seek a second graduate fellowship for a Ph.D. at UC Irvine- this time to pursue an understanding of and write about my experiences using social theory. My thesis was about social structures in the US labor and farm labor movement. 2. Opportunity Knocks: While a teaching assistant at UC Irvine I was urged to apply for a US Congressional Hispanic Caucus Fellowship. I won a 6-month congressional fellow staff position at the US Congress in Washington DC where I worked on econometrics for the Subcommittee on Census. As a congressional fellow I researched, wrote and delivered reports to the committee chairman for pending legislation. I prepared reports on the economies of eastern US cities seeking federal subsidies for facilities, housing, transportation, health, education, shipping, utilities, etc. Again, my liberal arts education provided me with the ability to adapt the course of my life to pursue interests as my circumstances changed, which because of the insights I derived from my congressional subcommittee work, were turning to community economic development. 3. NGO’s Happen: I left Capitol Hill to work for the National Urban Coalition (NUC) a national nonprofit community development organization (a non-governmental organization or NGO) with members throughout the country. Because of my econometrics work at the congressional subcommittee, NUC hired me to assist in development of the Community Information Exchange, an EDA-funded national database on community economic development. In that capacity I researched and developed briefs on 200+ community economic development projects nationwide. I first found out about the Dineh agricultural project then, when it was in its infancy. I went on to work for on community economic development for several other national NGOs with federal funding. I ran a number of multi-state economic development projects which included assisting New Mexico businesses and local governments. I came to NM to administer such a program and decided to move here.

That’s how I got involved in entrepreneurship and businesses development in NM. And, again, it was my liberal arts education that instilled the interest and provided the skills for me to continually re-direct my life effort to become a practitioner/ developer of actual community economic development projects.

Question 4: Gallup has many small local businesses. What

do you see as the largest role to play in relationship with these businesses?

Our largest role at the SBDC is providing a place where you know that you can get assistance from a trained professional to make an entrepreneurial idea a reality.

Question 5: What excites you the most about this position

and Gallup?

I have worked with entrepreneurs in north-central, southeast, northeast, and south-central New Mexico. I’ve been curious about the local economy as well as the demography and culture here in Gallup. As one with 50% Native American ancestry, I have also been interested to work historically with entrepreneurs from ten New Mexico Tribes and Pueblos over the years, but not much at all with the Navajo Nation. I am excited to engage with the fine people of Gallup and the many Native American entrepreneurs that live here.

Question 6: What is the best way to utilize your services? 1. Call us at 575-863-7538 2. Drop into our office in Gurley Hall at the UNM Gallup campus on College Road. 3. Inquire online at www.nmsbdc.org

Amalio Madueño, Business Advisor SBDC UNM Gallup Email address: maduenoa@unm.edu Office Phone Number: (505) 863-7538