Administrator

The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce has added a new online tool set to help new and existing small businesses access the resources they need to succeed called Tools for Business Success.
"This is a community of small businesses, and we wanted to be of service to those small businesses," said Jim Berry, Chamber President/CEO. "It is the vision of our Board of Directors to find ways to help small businesses, and the Tools for Business Success will help them grow and get established in our community."
The Tools for Business Success link is located on the lower right-hand corner of the Chamber website at www.lascruces.org. The site contains everything to help entrepreneurs choose the type of business entity that meets their needs: a business start-up kit, sample business plans and small business certification information. The business start-up kit includes the forms needed to establish a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company or corporation.
Tools for Business Success also contains:
• Information on training provided by the regional Small Business Development Center and others, and more than 75 online classes available to help start and grow your business.
• The Government Requirements kit has forms and simplified instructions that businesses need throughout the year.
• A link to the Employer Assistance site for the free Employer's Kit and to see hourly pay information for more than 850 different positions. Site users can also provide new employees with a "new hire" email that includes all the forms and required compliance notices.
• A Business funding section which includes where to find local lenders that participate in SBA loan programs. The loan payment calculator will help users quickly determine their payments for the loans they are requesting.
There also are tools throughout the site to help people better manage their business, including a business report card, financial calculators, a website grader, payroll tax calculator and much more.
All of these features are available free to any business owner, including Chamber non-members.
"Small businesses are the source of thousands of current jobs and thousands of future jobs," Berry said. "This will be a tool for the Chamber to get to know the needs of small businesses to better serve them in other ways down the road."
Tools for Business Success is another piece of the Chamber's Year of the Small Business campaign, with numerous new programs created to help small businesses survive in the economic turbulence. The Chamber also has begun affordable Small Business Workshops with local experts and public Economic Update Forums in partnership with New Mexico State University's College of Business to help Las Cruces stay successful in 2009.
Tools for Business Success is sponsored by Memorial Medical Center.
"The Chamber would like to send a ‘thank you' to Paul Herzog (CEO of Memorial Medical Center) for making this site possible," Berry said.
For more information on Tools for Business Success, contact the Chamber office at 524-1968 or visit www.lascruces.org.