RDC to host free Business Booster workshop for Los Alamos businesses

By lunch, Los Alamos business owners can sit down with the people who help move grant requests, technical help and financing questions forward. The Regional Development Corporation will bring its free Business Booster workshop to the SALA Event Center, 2551 Central Avenue, on Tuesday, April 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with limited seats and a networking lunch built into the program.

The session is set up as a quick, practical run through three core topics: getting seen, business chops and success stories, followed by a networking lunch with key resource partners. RDC says the workshop is designed to help small businesses with marketing, operations and access to capital, and Richard Lavallée, RDC’s director of operations, is the contact for details. SALA’s listing points attendees to RDC’s registration page and says questions can go to 505-412-6030 or sala@losalamos.com.

The event lands in a county where small firms often have to serve both local households and the larger laboratory economy. Los Alamos National Laboratory says RDC is its primary economic development partner in Northern New Mexico, and RDC’s current funders include Triad National Security, LLC, Los Alamos County and the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership. RDC serves seven counties, Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, northern Sandoval, San Miguel, Santa Fe and Taos, along with municipalities and 10 Native American pueblos, which helps explain why the workshop format leans so hard on direct connections rather than a lecture hall full of theory.

The numbers behind RDC’s business support work show why local owners may want to show up early. In an update to county leaders, RDC said it logged 199 business retention and expansion visits in the previous calendar year, including 25 in Los Alamos, and awarded 71 grants totaling $409,000. Awardees reported about $1.7 million in revenue increases tied to RDC programs. RDC also said a 2024 microgrant cycle drew 161 applications and funded 58 businesses, including Dragonfly Family Services, Emadams and Los Alamos STEAM Lab in Los Alamos County.

For businesses planning to use the lunch to make real contacts, the smartest move is to bring a short pitch, a capability statement and any certifications or licensing documents that help prove they are ready to bid or partner. That kind of paperwork can speed conversations with the grant administrators, technical assistance providers and financing contacts who will be in the room, turning a two-and-a-half-hour workshop into a direct route to the next step.