Local incubators fuel the future of entrepreneurship in Taos
There was once a point where starting a business in Taos was just as risky as it is today, but was much less of a hassle; there were fewer permits and regulations standing in the way of a new enterprise. Still, these obstacles have not dampened Taos’ longstanding local entrepreneurial spirit in recent years.
It was with this observation the Taos County Economic Development Corporation (TCEDC) opened the first commercial kitchen “incubator” in the state 25 years ago for local entrepreneurs to utilize. With it, TCEDC sought to acknowledge the obstacles that lie in the way of the modern business pioneer and assist them in overcoming them.
From kitchen to business concept
According to Mercedes Rodriguez, executive director of TCEDC, the nonprofit assists nascent businesses with the many menial tasks required to start a business in Taos, especially the bureaucratic side of things. The permitting process in Taos County requires new business owners to navigate a 20-page packet of bureaucratic jargon, and this aspect alone, Rodriguez said, is a hang-up for many aspiring entrepreneurs.
“We provide a licensed, permitted kitchen under the standards of New Mexico to be able to sell your product commercially,” Rodriguez said. “We take people in through the door with grandma’s salsa recipe, and we help them scale the recipe, perfect the recipe, and most of all help them through the rigamarole of permitting.”
Aside from bureaucratic guidance, TCEDC also offers educational opportunities in marketing and website building and an in-person food-handling certification course.
“If it weren’t for some of the services we offer, like this hand-holding, we wouldn’t have these biscochitos still being sold,” Rodriguez said. “We have the locals come in and use this space to be able to create their biscochitos and tamales to then go out into [local] events and sell them. If we didn’t do that, then a lot of this cultural food