Following the Signs to Small Business Success

March 22, 2019 | Reprint from Clovis Livestock Market News; by Jason Gibbs

You’ve seen the signs.

For nearly half a century, Phil Archuletta, the CEO of P&M Signs, has crafted signs for the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. He got his start in 1970 in Ojo Caliente before opening P&M Signs in Mountainair in 1991. He now employs a dozen people in the rural community in Central New Mexico.

If you’ve toured a national forest, Archuletta’s signs likely guided your way. If you’ve seen the ubiquitous Smokey Bear fire danger signs in New Mexico, that’s his handiwork. Stopped to read a historical marker in the state? Yup, that’s his too.

The signs are produced in an 11,000 square-foot, $1 million facility in Mountainair. He’s designed and manufactured Forest Service road signs all over the country, “coast to coast,” he said. Around 70 percent of the signs in New Mexico are churned out of the giant, blue building in Mountainair with “lots of cars parked around it,” Archuletta said. He also holds a patent for the road closure signs used in the national forest and BLM lands.

After meeting with then-president George W. Bush in 2007, doors were opened to allow him to sell to both the USFS and BLM. That spurred the expansion of the Mountainair facility, made possible with a loan from an Albuquerque bank. The original terms called for a balloon payment 10 years down the road to pay off the remainder of the $1 million loan, issued at “a little over 8 percent interest, about $95,000 a year,” Archuletta said.

“Little did I know the economy was going to tank in 2009, 2010 and forward,” he said. When he sought an extension, he was told the bank would no longer extend loans like his, despite his record of on-time payments.

“I was caught between a rock and a hard place,” Archuletta said. “They were going to pull the rug out from under me.”

So he turned to Leroy Pacheco, president and CEO of The Loan Fund, a nonprofit organization that provides loans and other forms of assistance to promote and improve small businesses in New Mexico. Archuletta, who helped bring the Small Business Development Center to New Mexico and remains a member of the statewide advisory board, knew Pacheco through their shared commitment to supporting small businesses in the state.

The Loan Fund purchased the mortgage from the original lender and “now I’m paying my mortgage payment to The Loan Fund,” Archuletta said.

“I’ve always created jobs in rural communities, that’s what I’m about,” Archuletta said. “Thank God The Loan Fund decided to save all those jobs here in Mountainair. Without The Loan Fund, I would have had to shut down.”

The Loan Fund is a community development financial institution (CFI) whose mission is to improve the economic and social conditions of New Mexicans. Since its inception in 1989, it has provided $81 million in loans to small businesses that have created 10,000 jobs. “I can’t give enough credit to The Loan Fund, not only Leroy, but the board,” said Archuletta.

To learn more about P&M Signs, go to http://www.pmsignsinc.com. For information about loans and lines of credit, visit The Loan Fund at https://www.loanfund.org.