News and Media

The plain truth about virtual site visits for commercial real estate

Monday, May 03, 2021

There's a lot of talk and excitement among economic developers about using virtual tours to profile commercial real estate to potential investors and site selectors who may not be able to visit in person because of the pandemic. We get that - it IS genuinely exciting. There are so many compelling new ways to let people see a property - inside and out - from the comfort and safety of their offices. Even after the pandemic recedes, this will remain an excellent way to engage and inform businesses making location decisions. Unfortunately, there's also a lot of miscommunication and misinformation about what virtua...

During Economic Development Week Carlsbad, NM Celebrates Its Growth During the Pandemic

Friday, April 30, 2021

The sixth annual National Economic Development Week is May 9-15, 2021. National Economic Development Week was created in 2016 by the International Economic Development Council — the largest professional membership organization for economic developers — to recognize the unique role that economic development has in creating flourishing communities with strong economies. The Carlsbad New Mexico Department of Development is doing the work every day to support its business owners and residents. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a trying time, but through it all, Carlsbad’s diversified and robust economy continued its trajectory of growth. With so many companies succeeding, Carlsbad’s well-paid workforc...

State Approves Job Training Funds for 575 Trainees

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

SANTA FE, N.M. – The Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) board approved $2.8 million in funding to 15 companies to train and upskill a total of 575 employees, Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes announced. This tranche of companies approved at the April JTIP board meeting included three that have never applied for JTIP funding before, DeeDee’s Finest Beef Jerky in Española and Pronto Signs and Solstar Space Company in Santa Fe. Additionally, of the 15 awarded companies, six of them have received JTIP funding only once before. “JTIP is a proven tool to help businesses create jobs and keep them in Ne...

Airports in Eddy and Lincoln Counties Receive Nearly $1M for Improvements

Monday, April 19, 2021

Nine airports in New Mexico, including those in Eddy and Lincoln counties, received $1.7 million in federal grants for various improvements, U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM) announced. She said the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the funds to airports in the Second Congressional District. Sierra Blanca Regional Airport was awarded $600,000, the most of any airport in the district, to reconstruct 6,300 feet of taxiway and 6,300 feet of runway, read the press release. Read full article.

EDD Announces New Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Coordinator

Monday, April 19, 2021

SANTA FE, N.M. – The Economic Development Department (EDD) is excited to announce that Shani Harvie will be stepping into a newly created position as Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Coordinator (JEDI Coordinator), EDD Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes announced today. Harvie will be responsible for connecting minorityowned businesses and community organizations in underserved communities with economic development programs, resources, and opportunities. The position, approved through Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office, will work to address systemic inequities and create equitable representation for all New Mexico businesses, while ensuring diversity and inclusion are prioritized moving forward. Read full article.

Adventure Vision Brings Eye Care to Children in Rural New Mexico

Friday, April 16, 2021

CARLSBAD, N.M., April 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In just five counties of rural New Mexico, more than 16,000 children are insured by Medicaid, but only 3% of these children have had an eye exam in the past year because, in these areas, there are not enough providers who offer appointments for children on Medicaid. At Adventure Vision, we are committed to making an impact on the access to care issue. Our mission is to provide vision care to children in underserved areas. This year, Adventure Vision is setting out to bring vision care to children in the more rural area...

How To Be Creative As An Entrepreneur

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

You might think that creativity requires the antithesis of rules and regulation. Even the thought of being creative conjures up images of disorder. Messy rooms, paint everywhere, scraps of paper with ideas scrawled across them. The frantic creative genius works away, oblivious to the world around them. Chaos. Method in madness. Flashes of brilliance among a cluttered existence. The best entrepreneurs are creative. They need to find ways of solving old and new problems. They picture a world that doesn’t yet exist, they bring products to life using only their imagination. They think of ways to move forward, grow bigger an...

In Focus: Driving Economic Prosperity Through Entrepreneurism

Monday, April 05, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic plunged the world into a deep health and economic crisis. The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine points to a “light at the end of the tunnel” for the country’s physical health, but as we collectively take stock for ways to rebuild our economy stronger and more resilient than before, we need to remember what works. Entrepreneurism has been, and will continue to be, a driver of long-term economic growth. The economic free fall brought about by the coronavirus was unexpected and unprecedented. Experts are still attempting to fully understand, quantify, and predict the full extent of the fallout...

The Secret To Business Survival In Today’s Tough Market

Sunday, April 04, 2021

As we were ringing in 2020, it’s safe to say that almost no one could have imagined the novel year that was virtually at our doorsteps. Like a monsoon, Covid-19 arrived, and with it a plethora of changes to not only how we live and work, but how business is conducted. Quarantines and lockdowns became a way of life, forcing companies to transform how they operate. Office staff, sales reps, and others who were considered non-essential workers began working from home. In-person meetings and sales calls became a thing of the past, replaced by collaboration tools to boost the efficiency o...

One Year After The First Wave Of Pandemic Jobs Losses, U.S. Adds Nearly A Million Jobs In March

Friday, April 02, 2021

A year after the devastating first wave of pandemic-related job losses came to light, the U.S. added 916,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department said. It’s an encouraging sign on the anniversary of what was an especially distressing week for the workforce. Weekly jobless claims surged to a staggering 6.65 million for the week ending March 28, 2020. At the time, it was the highest level ever recorded. That month, the U.S. economy lost a total of 701,000 jobs in the first payroll decline since 2010. This March, the unemployment rate fell slightly to 6%—down from 6.2% in February. It’s a stark difference from the unemployment rat...

Enjoy the Outdoors and Life on the Water in Carlsbad, NM

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

One reason the quality of life is superb in Carlsbad, NM is because the pioneers knew what they were doing when they settled along the Pecos River. When you think of Carlsbad, desert and caverns may come to mind, but right in town there are miles of riverfront walkways and trails, boating, fishing, and the popular Lake Carlsbad Beach Park. Travel a mere 12 miles north and the wide open spaces of Lake Brantley State Park are there to enjoy. In Carlsbad, it is easy to play as hard as you work. It is apparent why Carlsbad topped the lis...

Delta Constructors is happy to announce the opening of our new Carlsbad, New Mexico office.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Established in 2009, Delta delivers full-service Industrial Construction and Maintenance contracting, across three separate regions spanning from the Gulf Coast to Alaska’s North Slope. We strive to deliver the highest levels of performance in Safety, Quality, and Value to the clients and communities we serve. The Carlsbad regional office is our newest facility since Delta began support of the Delaware (Permian) Basin activities in 2015. Opened in the fall of 2020, our newly constructed 12,000 square foot facility on 10 acres features workspace for our administrative, procurement, engineering, and management staff, as well as a Fabrication and Maintenance shop space. Makin...

Ring Lights And Late Nights: How The Remote Revolution Has Changed The Workforce

Thursday, March 11, 2021

It’s been one year since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, forcing companies across the country to close their office doors. Today, nearly half (47%) of American employees are currently working from home at least part of the time, according to a study by Glassdoor. As vaccine production and distribution ramps up, some employers have announced definitive return-to-work dates. Others have committed to permanent remote-work arrangements, and freelance platform Upwork expects that 36.2 million Americans will be working from home by 2025, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels—and a sign that this grand experiment in telecommuting has done more than just make Zoo...

State Focuses on Rebuilding Industry Jobs

Tuesday, March 02, 2021

When the Great Recession ended in 2009, it took the United States five years to regain lost jobs. In New Mexico, recovery took twice that long, with the state surpassing its pre-recession employment levels just before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the economy to a halt. It was a lost decade of job growth that stalled upward mobility for workers and families and forced college graduates – New Mexico’s future – to leave the state for opportunities elsewhere. The reason it took twice as long to recover: New Mexico’s answer to tight budgets was to cut economic development investments in the LEDA fun...

Governor Lujan Grisham Applauds Economic Security Measures

Monday, March 01, 2021

SANTA FE, N.M. – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes applaud key legislative initiatives that will grow the economy, create jobs, and provide for a new layer of economic security for New Mexico families and businesses. The stimulus and relief measures are significant in reach, tackling all aspects of the pandemic-related economic emergency, including direct assistance to front-line workers, grants for small businesses, innovative licensing reforms, local purchasing initiatives, and long-term investments in early childhood education. Gov. Lujan Grisham's executive budget recommendation included almost half a billion dollars for pandemic relief. The governor pledged to wor...

Gov. Lujan Grisham signs House Bill 11, delivering $200M to N.M. businesses

Friday, February 26, 2021

SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 11 into law, delivering $200 million in grants to support New Mexico businesses to ease the hiring or rehiring of employees. “New Mexico will continue to get meaningful financial assistance out the door to businesses all across the state,” said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. “Our economy will bounce back. And businesses will get back on their feet.” “We are grateful to Governor Lujan Grisham for her support on House Bill 11, and for all of her leadership throughout this challenging year,” said Speaker of the House Brian Egolf. “We convened the 2021 sessio...

Marketing Tips For Early-Stage Startups

Friday, February 26, 2021

Every business needs a way to tell its customers about its products and services. Those marketing channels differ from one business to another and can change as the business grows. And just like everything else in business, marketing needs an investment. In the earliest stages of a startup, this investment is usually best spent developing a product customers need. Imagine that you have just developed two brand new products. Product one has great signs of possible product-market fit based on customer interviews and the validation experiments data. Yet, you have no marketing budget for it. Product two is not validated at all, but you hav...

How To Attract Remote Workers To Your Community

Monday, February 22, 2021

You know you need remote workers, now let's talk about how to attract remote workers to your community. REMOTE WORKERS bring an abundance of advantages to a local workforce, from growing the tax base to diversifying the labor pool. As remote work continues to grow, more communities will benefit from adding remote workers to their local workforce. WAYS TO ATTRACT REMOTE WORKERS TO YOUR COMMUNITY REMOTE WORK IS THE NEW NORM Nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers who have been working remotely during the pandemic want to continue to work from home, according to a GALLUP POLL. Between April and May 2020, the number of remote workers in the U.S. doubled, GALLUP REPORTS...

New Housing Options in Carlsbad, New Mexico

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Carlsbad, New Mexico is a desirable place to live with an enviable quality of life. With a population that has seen tremendous growth over the past 10 years, Carlsbad's cost of living is 23.9% lower than the U.S. average. Carlsbad has also seen its job market increase by 8.5% over the last year. Eddy County — home to Carlsbad, Loving, and Artesia — was assessed by financial consulting firm SmartAsset to be New Mexico’s leading county in terms of business growth with a seven percent business growth rate and an incoming investment index of 61.86. The study evaluated the number o...

How to Host Better Virtual Meetings

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

If you’re like most professionals, you spent a lot of time in virtual meetings in 2020 and will in 2021 — more than you ever thought possible in, say, 2015. And if you’re like most professionals meeting virtually, you’ve lamented the fact that they could be better. Virtual meetings suffer many of the same drawbacks as traditional meetings, including poor organization, bloated time slots and disinterested attendees. But they also suffer from a batch of problems uniquely their own, including intermittent delays, connectivity issues and the dreaded patterns of ongoing interruptions. And of course, virtual meetings aren’t going anywhere. Many businesses that transitioned t...

Lawmakers push bill to expand broadband in New Mexico

Tuesday, February 09, 2021

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- Lawmakers are proposing a bill that would help expand broadband to everyone in the state. Eight House Democrats are sponsoring the bill, also known as the Connect New Mexico Act. It would give $950,000 to the state Department of Information Technology to create a new broadband division. "And that division can coordinate state and local and federal resources to get every community in New Mexico connected," said Rep. Natalie Figueroa. Read full article.

New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division announces new toolkit to support rural outdoor economies

Thursday, February 04, 2021

Earlier this month the NM Outdoor Recreation Division announced the development of the Rural Economic Development Toolkit, an effort to help rural communities better their outdoor economies. The collection of best practices aims to provide such communities, as well as state and local officials, with information on how to build an effective outdoor recreation economy. According to a news release, it will offer opportunities for sustainable economic and community development, and provide a list of federal grants that can aid in lifting such economies off of the ground. The department plans to share the toolkit with state outdoor recreation office, industry businesse...

4 Keys To Startup Success In Crowded Markets

Monday, February 01, 2021

Many would-be entrepreneurs spend a lot of time trying to think of the next big thing. Most end up spinning their wheels and never getting a new venture off the ground. It’s hard to come up with an original business idea. However, if you look at some of the most successful businesses in the world, you'll find that they aren't based on new ideas at all. The truth is that you don't have to be original to start a successful business. Many startups succeed in crowded markets by doing their homework and executing their business plans. Nerd Wallet, for example, succeeded amon...

Paycheck Protection Program Round Two: What Carlsbad, New Mexico Businesses Need to Know

Monday, February 01, 2021

Further assistance for businesses is now available — the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has reopened the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). On December 27, 2020, the Economic Aid Act became law and extended the authority to make PPP loans through March 31, 2021. With an official title of the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Non-Profits, and Venues Act, the Economic Aid Act is part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. This $325 billion title would provide additional assistance to the hardest-hit small businesses, nonprofits, and venues that are struggling to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic...

$2.2B of New Private Investment and More Than 7,000 Jobs as Companies Move to NM

Monday, January 25, 2021

Over the past two years, private investment in New Mexico has blossomed. Thirty projects totaling nearly $2.2 billion of new monies has benefited a number of sectors and different parts of the state. Film, emerging technologies, aerospace and aviation, advanced manufacturing, energy and value-added agriculture are among the industries relocating or expanding their current capacities in New Mexico. Netflix, NBC Universal, SCEYE, Prent, NTx, LaSen, Kairos Power, Faneuil and Ganymede Games are just a few of the 30 companies investing in the state since 2019. New Mexico has also recently seen success in bringing in international companies to the state. Three ne...

Economic Security Bill Aims To Bring Back Employees Grants up to $100,000 awarded for job creation

Monday, January 25, 2021

SANTA FE, N.M. – A major economic recovery initiative, backed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, that would pump another $200 million into New Mexico small businesses to create jobs and rehire workers, was introduced today in the Legislature by Rep. Christine Chandler. House Bill 11 taps into the unused dollars set aside by the State Investment Council and the New Mexico Finance Authority for the Small Business Recovery Loan Fund, converting the funds into grants to assist business that have incurred steep revenue losses. “Supporting businesses that are struggling to rebuild and rehire employees is key to our economic recovery and ...

Entrepreneurs, Here's Why 2021 Is The Right Time To Start Your New Business

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

The year 2020 came with its own share of problems. If there is one thing to learn from living through pandemics and lockdowns, it’s that a lot can change in a year. Many entrepreneurs started last January with high hopes and expectations for their businesses. However, many of those expectations went downhill as the year progressed. As with human nature, life moves on no matter what, so even though we were stuck at home for most of 2020, many businesses found ways to stay afloat. As we move forward in this new year, entrepreneurs are looking to strategize and many ar...

Five Essential Elements Of A Marketing Plan For A Small Business

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

If you are planning to open your own small business, the first step is to develop a business plan. The next step is to develop a marketing plan, as all business plans should be paired with a strategy for marketing your products or services. Marketing strategies vary in format, but they all have the common goal of attracting and building relationships with customers. The style is up to you, but it should include the following elements. 1. Marketing Goals and Objectives You will need to develop realistic and measurable marketing goals that cover a full calendar year and are aligned with you...

State Focuses on Rebuilding Industry Jobs

Monday, January 11, 2021

Carlsbad, NM and Eddy County Work to Get CARES Act Grants to Struggling Businesses

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the country hard because of imposed shutdowns of businesses, and New Mexico is no exception. Small businesses, in particular, took a heavy hit during this ongoing public health emergency. The City of Carlsbad and Eddy County have been doing the best they can to provide assistance to businesses in distress using allotted CARES Act funds. This funding does not eradicate the crisis, but it provides some critical assistance to keep small businesses afloat. The CARES Act is a federal relief program which provided funds to states for distribution to communities. For business relief funds, local government...

How Businesses in Carlsbad, NM Can Encourage Residents to “Shop Small” this Holiday Season

Friday, November 13, 2020

Shop Small is a nationwide movement to celebrate small businesses each and every day and to help communities thrive and stay vibrant, but the Saturday after Thanksgiving is their Super Bowl: Small Business Saturday! This year’s event falls on November 28th, and Carlsbad, NM is rolling out the welcome mats, both at storefronts and virtually. Carlsbad MainStreet knows exactly how important supporting local businesses is because their mission is “to strengthen the MainStreet District as the center of our community through concentrated efforts in organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring.” "Our homegrown businesses need our community's help now more than ever,” sai...

News and Media

Our population is growing. Developers can benefit from an increased demand in housing, retail, and other amenities.

Carlsbad residents enjoy a low cost of living. At only 93% of the national average, our residents have more money to spend doing things they love.

We are an active community with immediate access to beautiful natural resources, hiking, boating, swimming, fishing, and more.

Carlsbad is the best emerging economy in New Mexico thanks to our diverse group of businesses and forward-thinking residents.

News and Media

Fast Facts

Our population is growing. Developers can benefit from an increased demand in housing, retail, and other amenities.

Carlsbad residents enjoy a low cost of living. At only 93% of the national average, our residents have more money to spend doing things they love.

We are an active community with immediate access to beautiful natural resources, hiking, boating, swimming, fishing, and more.

Carlsbad is the best emerging economy in New Mexico thanks to our diverse group of businesses and forward-thinking residents.