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Albuquerque Journal article about Owner Douglas Craft and Crystal Clear Maintenance

Crystal Clear Maintenance Service-Disabled Veteran owned small business Eagle
Service-Disabled Veteran owned small business
Crystal Clear Maintenance Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business

Gulf War Veteran Says State And Federal Programs Fueled His Company For Expansion

Crystal Clear Maintenance Inc. owns Craft a 50-employee company that specializes in providing janitorial and landscape services for commercial office buildings, medical buildings, factories, stores, schools, government offices large projects. Craft, who originally hails from Louisiana, played in the Canadian Football League and for a short stint with the Seattle Seahawks. Businessman Douglas Craft is reaping the benefits of both national and state efforts to support the country's veterans.

He served in the Army during the Gulf War. (His father served in Vietnam and his brother also served in the military.) A Friend invited him to visit angel Fire in northern New Mexico, and he decided to stay. 

He moved to Taos and opened his business there nine years ago. Later, he opened another office in Lawton, Okla., and a little more than a year ago, he opened an office in Albuquerque. 

 Once settled in Albuquerque, he visited the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services to see if there were benefits available that he could use for his business. "I didn't know anything about my benefits," Craft said in a recent interview. "I didn't know anything until I came to their office and they laid it out for me." 

 Now the Veterans Services people consider him their poster child, according to John Garcia, secretary of the N.M. Department of Veterans Services. "My business grew 400 percent since I was classified as a disabled vet," said Craft, who added that his feet were injured during his military service. 

 The state Department of Veterans Services, along with the Small Business Administration and other business organizations, worked together to make those programs available to veterans like Craft. "I don't want to have to happen (to today's veterans) what happened to Vietnam veterans when they came back," Garcia told the Journal. "We were no. 1 in suicides, unemployment, and divorce rates."
Garcia, a Vietnam veteran, was appointed secretary in 2004. He had owned his own business and had been the state secretary of Economic Development.

In 2005, the Department of Defense held a national conference for veterans who owned businesses to explain all the benefits available to boost their businesses.

"They expected 400 people to show up and they had 800 small-business (owning) veterans shown up," Garcia said. "I listened and I saw what they had to offer, but I wondered how are they going to implement it at the state level. It was great at the federal level."

He came back and decided to target veterans in business. His agency partnered with Development Centers and with the SBA and others to set up VETPro, the Veterans Enterprise Training Program. They held a state Veteran Business conference in 2005. They've held two more of the conferences since then, one each year.

During the gatherings, they have what Garcia called "matchmaking," where veterans vendors meet with the federal entities that need their goods and services.

In addition to the annual conferences, the N.M. Department of Veterans Services worked with the Small Business Development Centers to present entrepreneurial training to veterans at locations around the state.

Another recent benefit for veterans is the SBA's Patriot Express loan program. It offers a streamlined application process with a lower interest rate and a higher guarantee for the bank or financial institution lending the money. In additional, a couple of local financial institutions are offering even qualifying veterans.

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Keep up the outstanding work

Please keep up the outstanding work here in the NOLA area myself and GSA want to pass on a well deserved "Thank you to all of your staff".
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U.S. General Services Administration 

This service was great.

This service was great. I will use Crystal Clear Maintenance for all my building maintenance needs!!!
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8(a) Graduate
Small Disadvantaged Business
Minority Owned
Service Disabled Veteran
Veteran Owned Small Business
Office Buildings
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561720  115310
561740  423210
337211  238330
442210  562111
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