Category Archives: News

Mentors Increase Small Business Success

Business Advice Featured News Comments
Paola Carmona photographs her favorite clientele. (Courtesy)

January is National Mentor Month, a perfect time to connect with a counselor/mentor at the U.S. Small Business Administration. Lower Rio Grande Valley District partners provided counseling and training to 9,094 small businesses in 2017, and helped create or retain about 481 jobs. These partners also helped start 111 new businesses. Mentors can be invaluable to small businesses. After all, it can be overwhelming to juggle dozens of responsibilities and…

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BBQ Joints Listed Among Best in Texas

Featured Food & Entertainment News Comments
January 2018 cover

Texans love their barbecue. Whether grilling or smoking meat in the back yard, or visiting a favorite eatery, barbecue aficionados’ varied tastes and favorite cooking methods can spark lively debates as to what makes the best of the best. They may even argue about the correct spelling: barbecue, bar-b-que or simply BBQ. In the Rio Grande Valley, where dozens of restaurants large and small specialize in classic Texas barbecue, only…

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Exporting Basics for Small Businesses

Business Advice Events News Comments
Alberto Rodriguez-Baez with the Minority Business Development Center offered guidance on how American companies can become exporters. (VBR)

U.S. companies exporting to other countries is big business and small entrepreneurs can get in on the action if they can navigate a sometimes complex process to identify international markets and promote their products. “Size doesn’t matter. Small business imports are growing all the time,” Alberto Rodriguez-Baez, senior export manager for the U.S. Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency, said during a presentation in Weslaco hosted by the Small Business…

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Latina Hope Encourages Women Entrepreneurs

Featured News Non-Profit Retail Comments
Businesswoman Elizabeth Aguilera Davis, left, and Laura Robles of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce at a recent meeting of Latina Hope. (Courtesy)

The spark of an idea to start a business can come from anywhere. It can be an example someone has demonstrated in inspiring budding entrepreneurs to set off on their own, or turning a passion and love of a hobby into a business. The seed of a business may even come from a dream. Rosie Castillo dreamt of bright angels fluttering all around her, with one brighter than the others.…

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SBA Loans Pump Cash into Economy

Business Advice News Comments
SBA loans

The Small Business Administration’s Lower Rio Grande Valley District saw an increase in the amount of money loaned to businesses in fiscal year 2017, even though there was a slight decrease in the number of loans approved. The LRGV district guaranteed 191 loans in the 7(a) and 504 loan programs. These programs combined provided more than $71 million to small businesses that created 633 jobs and retained 984. The loans…

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Texas Regional Breaks Ground on Corporate HQ

e-Brief Features Events Finance/Banking News Comments
Texas Regional Bank President and CEO Paul Moxley gestures during his remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the bank’s new corporate headquarters.

As Rio Grande Valley temperatures plunged with a blast of winter weather, members of the Harlingen business community huddled together under a tent for a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of Texas Regional Bank’s corporate headquarters. Just a few days earlier the bank opened its newest Harlingen branch in a temporary building at Stuart Place Road and Expressway 83, right next door to where the new banking…

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Business Buzz: A Man and His Bees

Agriculture Featured News Professional Services Comments
Bee Strong Honey owner Luis Slayton with a bee hive.

Not only are honey bees important pollinators and producers of one of nature’s great sweeteners, they can also be therapeutic, at least for people like beekeeper and Bee Strong Honey owner Luis Slayton. “When I go out and work with the bees it’s like the rest of the world slows down,” he said. “Everything seems so calm to me.” Bee Strong Honey is a family business owned and operated by…

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A Case for Immigration Reform

e-Brief Features News Comments
immigration

Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are a crucial source of labor, and it is well past time for immigration reform. Moreover, it needs to be framed in a way that addresses the reality of the situation rather than popular myths. In addition to the important human aspect of the issue, there is also a clear economic incentive. Change is coming for the U.S. workforce, with the retiring of baby boomers…

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The Contagious Nature of Synergy

Business Advice News Comments
synergy

Flu shots are big right now. An inevitable wave of symptoms is expected to hit the workplace, and your managers are understandably concerned. One well-situated sneeze and an entire work team could be calling in sick by the end of the week. One thing you DON’T want to inoculate your staff from, however, is the persistently contagious bug of good synergy. Wait, you say. Is synergy contagious? Yes, say the…

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CARDONE Distribution Center Breaks Ground

Events Featured Manufacturing/Industrial News Comments
CARDONE Industries owner and executive vice chairman Michael Cardone

New center to create more than 1,000 jobs Construction on the largest industrial project in Harlingen history will begin soon following a groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 4. The 920,000-square-foot CARDONE Industries distribution center is expected to be completed by December 2018, with some operations to start as early as the summer of 2018. With a core processing facility in Harlingen for the past 10 years, CARDONE is the largest privately held…

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