Small Business Resource Fair

Update

After convening the City's first Small Business Resource Fair on April 6, 2019, City Council staff compiled the following report highlighting the process for convening the fair, outcomes of the fair, and recommendations for holding future fairs. 

• Report
• Appendices

Background

R-18-82 was enacted by the Albuquerque City Council on December 3, 2018, calling for the convening of a Micro-Enterprise Development Fair (which the City of Albuquerque is now calling a Small Business Resource Fair).  The Resolution called for four actions to come out of the Fair:

1. City Council and Economic Development Department staff will convene the first Micro-Enterprises Development Fair before the end of April 2019.
2. City Council and Economic Development Department staff will collect all of the input received during the Micro-Enterprise Development Fair to create a long term plan for supporting the City’s emerging micro-enterprise community and convening subsequent Micro-Enterprise Development Fairs in low-income neighborhoods throughout the City.
3. City Council and Economic Development Department staff will assess which neighborhoods throughout the City of Albuquerque would most benefit from convening subsequent Micro-Enterprise Development Fairs. This will include identifying commercial districts that contain vacant buildings and spaces for encouraging business-within-a-business lease agreements to be established.
4. The Economic Development Department will assess its business registration and solicitation permitting processes and explore opportunities for collecting a more comprehensive set of data related to applicants’ business types, sizes, and needs. The goal of expanding upon these data sets is to strengthen the City’s ability to connect brick and mortar businesses with micro-enterprise vendors in a way that supports business-within-a-business practices. This is also intended to help identify opportunities for business clustering and the expansion of the City of Albuquerque’s continuum of commerce.

Community Navigators

While there are a lot of resources in Albuquerque for business owners and entrepreneurs, the pathway to that support isn’t always clear.  In response, City Alive has partnered with the City of Albuquerque to create the Community Navigator program (from both a programmatic and funding perspective). Community Navigators offer direct and personalized resources and support to remove barriers to starting or growing a successful business.  To get a better sense of how Community Navigators are already supporting our community, please check out this short video: http://cityalive.org/community-navigators/.

• City Navigators is a City of Albuquerque initiative aimed to provide local businesses the means to shore up their operations, enhance their customer and financial markets, and connect them to the existing resources in their communities. City Navigators want to open doors for our local entrepreneurs and meet them exactly where they are.
• City Navigators are committed to serving overlooked entrepreneurs that face barriers of culture, language and geography by bringing their tools and resources to businesses owners at their place of business.

Resources

City Council and Economic Development staff have compiled the following list of resources valuable for both existing and aspiring business owners:

• Buy Local Events: Find events and other resources below - and let us know if you have a special Buy Local event to add. https://www.cabq.gov/economicdevelopment/buy-local
• Small Business Support: Information about the City of Albuquerque's support for small business. https://www.cabq.gov/economicdevelopment/business-owners/small-business-support
• How to Start a Business: Follow these steps to start your business and get it registered with the City of Albuquerque. https://www.cabq.gov/economicdevelopment/business-owners/how-to-start-a-business
• New Mexico Department of Tax and Revenue Workshops: The New Mexico Department of Tax and Revenue offers a variety of workshops to support aspiring small business owners with their taxes. http://www.tax.newmexico.gov/workshop-schedule.aspx
• Small Business Regulatory Commission: Want to get involved with the City of Albuquerque’s local advisory board supporting small businesses? Check out their webpage to see if there are any open positions on the Commission: http://www.cabq.gov/albuquerque-small-business-regulatory-advisory-commission
• One Albuquerque Engage: Elevating public experiences while increasing public safety throughout Albuquerque. http://www.cabq.gov/engage
• Economic Development Department Powerpoint Presentation - Building An Economy That Works For Everyone: https://www.cabq.gov/economicdevelopment/documents/edd-rollout-presentation-rm-for-website.pdf
• Economic Development Department Small Business Resource Guide - *Still under construction by Economic Development staff