WESST is conveniently located in the heart of Downtown Las Cruces in the US Bank building and is committed to serving emerging and existing small business owners (men and women) in seven counties in southwest New Mexico, including Doña Ana, Luna, Hidalgo, Grant, Catron, Sierra, and Otero counties. WESST Las Cruces features a computer lab available to all WESST clients and is collaborating with the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce to offer Lunch ‘n Learns on a variety of topics the first Friday of each month beginning May 1st, 2015.
Established in 1995, the Las Cruces office is one of six WESST offices housing a Women’s Business Center Program (WBC), funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The WBC program was founded to foster the growth of woman-owned businesses by providing access to education, training, mentoring, business development and financing opportunities to women throughout the United States and its territories. The Women’s Business Center Program at WESST’s Las Cruces regional office offers a variety of training and consulting services geared to, but not limited to women. We understand the unique opportunities and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and have designed special programs accordingly. Visit our Women’s Business Center Program page for more information about the resources available for female entrepreneurs.
We work with businesses in all market sectors including service, technology, retail, manufacturing, and wholesale sectors — in any phase of development. We’re here to provide guidance through all aspects of planning, operating and growing a successful business. Visit our Client Profile page to read about some of the entrepreneurs in our service area who have benefited from our small business assistance programs. If loans are needed, we assist clients with their loan packages including financial projections and provide information about various loan sources within the community including our small business loan program.
In addition to having our own loan program to help entrepreneurs finance a startup or grow an existing business, WESST is also a participant in the SBA’s microloan program. The Microloan Program provides small short-term loans to help eligible borrowers start or grow a business. WESST is one of two SBA-approved microlenders in the state of New Mexico with loans ranging from $200–$10,000 for start-up businesses and up to $50,000 for existing businesses.
