NEW MEXICO
In New Mexico, small businesses are vital to the financial well-being of the state’s economy. Their contribution is
essential for economic growth since they make up almost all employer firms in the state. As entrepreneurs and innovators,
small business owners represented a diverse group in 2004 and continued to keep the state’s economy productive. The Small
Business Profile provides information on the performance of small businesses in the state using the most current federal
data available.
Number of Businesses
There were an estimated 143,909 small businesses in New Mexico in 2004.1 Of the 42,241 firms with
employees, an estimated 96.1 percent, or 40,611, were small firms. In 2004, the estimated number of employer businesses
increased by 1.2 percent. The number of selfemployed persons (including incorporated) increased overall by 7.8 percent,
from 103,299 in 2003 to 111,370 in 2004. Non-employer businesses numbered 103,298 in 2002, an increase of 2.8 percent
since 2001, based on the most recent data available. (Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employment and Training Administration;
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau; U.S. Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Women-Owned Businesses
In 2002 women-owned firms totaled 42,272, an increase of 9 percent from 1997, and generated $4.7
billion in revenues. Firms owned jointly by women and men numbered 20,450 with revenues of $5.2 billion. Women represented
40.9 percent of the selfemployed persons in the state. (Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics; U.S. Dept.
of Commerce, Census Bureau.)
Minority-Owned Businesses
In 2002, Hispanic-owned firms numbered 29,716, an increase of 5 percent from 1997. Black-owned
firms numbered 1,541, an increase of 36 percent; Asian-owned firms numbered 2,370, a decrease of 1 percent; American Indian
and Alaska Native-owned firms numbered 6,819, an increase of 0.3 percent; and the number of Native Hawaiian and other
Pacific Islander-owned businesses was unavailable.2 (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau.)
Business Turnover
There were an estimated 5,683 new employer businesses in 2004, 3.2 percent more than the
previous year. Business terminations numbered 5,592 in 2004, a decrease of 3.1 percent. Business bankruptcies decreased by
6.1 percent and totaled 727 in 2004. (Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employment and Training Administration; Administrative
Office of the U.S. Courts; U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau.)
Employment
Small firms with fewer than 500 employees numbered 34,223 in 2002 and employed 319,416 individuals, or 57.6
percent of the state’s non-farm private sector (Table 1).3 Net job gains among firms with fewer than 20 employees totaled
7,105, while large firms with 500 or more employees lost 3,710 jobs between 2001 and 2002 (Table 2). (Source: U.S. Dept. of
Commerce, Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses.)
Small Business Income
Non-farm proprietors’ income, a partial measure of small business income, increased by 6.3 percent,
from $3.9 billion in 2002 to $4.1 billion in 2003. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce.)
Finance
Commercial bank lenders are an important source of small business loans, and small firms usually rely on them for
financing. Over the last 10 years the number of banks in New Mexico has declined (Table 3). The Office of Advocacy has
identified banks in each state that make the most loans to small businesses. This information is available in its banking
studies at www.sba.gov/advo/research/lending.html.
1 The Office of Advocacy’s estimate of the total number of state small
businesses is based on the percent of small businesses (2002 Census Bureau firm size data) multiplied by the total number of
employer businesses in 2004 (Employment and Training Administration). To this total is added the 2002 number of non-employer
firms (Census Bureau). See Business Estimates from the Office of Advocacy, www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs258tot.pdf.
2 Minority owners may be in more than one minority group.
3 The number of employers in Table 1 is not directly comparable to the figures in the Number of Businesses section due to
different data sources.
