27 students going up to the NxLeveL

The Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Nevada Small Business Development Center, graduated 27 students from its Money Smart/Como Empezar un Negocio (How to Start a Business) Saturday class.

The students had to attend six weekend sessions to qualify for the diploma. Graduates are able to proceed to NxLeveL, an intensive multisession program delivering the knowledge needed to launch a new business or expand a current business, for free.

Since 1994, NxLeveL has helped entrepreneurs nationwide launch and increase thriving small businesses. NxLeveL is the nation’s largest and most effective entrepreneurial training network, with more than 300,000 graduates and more than 7,500 certified instructors.

NxLeveL is Nevada’s most popular entrepreneurial curriculum. In both Las Vegas and Reno, the NxLeveL program has been offered twice each year since 2000. More than 20 rural Nevada communities have provided the NxLeveL course to their local businesspeople. The NxLeveL for Entrepreneurs curriculum has also been one of the most popular business management classes at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas since 2007.

The Latin Chamber of Commerce has 80 students enrolled in that class next year. This program helps students who want to start a business get some basic concepts around becoming future Hispanic entrepreneurs — such as commercial vs. regular insurance needs and how to handle a business bank account.

For further information on Nevada’s NxLeveL Network, contact Kathy Carrico, NxLeveL state administrator, at kcarrico@unr.edu.

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Booking.com opens shop

Booking.com has come to Nevada. The European reservation service just opened its first permanent Las Vegas office, which will house a local sales team and support staff.

Booking.com hosts a database of more than 549,260 hotel and accommodation properties, covering more than 71,000 destinations in 208 countries worldwide. It lists more than 25 property types — including hotels, apartments, villas, hostels, farm stays, bungalows and boats. The company’s team of 8,300 employees in more than 135 offices worldwide includes its 24/7 Booking.com customer service team available to assist travelers in 42 languages 365 days a year. Honolulu is just one of the many U.S. offices, including approximately 1,500 of the company’s overall employees.

Booking.com provides an online platform where hotels and other types of accommodations make their rooms available to prospective guests and facilitates the resulting reservations. Booking.com sends the guest’s reservation to the accommodation and the confirmation back to the guest. Furthermore, Booking.com does not buy or sell any rooms, and guests do not pay Booking.com; the guest pays the accommodation directly, after their stay. Accommodations pay a commission (a small percentage of the room price) to Booking.com after the guest has checked in, paid the property and checked out.

Booking.com is owned and operated by Booking.com B.V., part of the Priceline Group, and is headquartered in Amsterdam.

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Dry cleaner changes model

Mint Locker, a new Las Vegas-area startup, aims to take the hassle out of laundry day and make the trip to the dry cleaner’s a faster, more convenient experience.

Mint Locker, headquartered in Henderson, sets up lockers at designated locations across the valley where customers can drop off dirty clothing and secure an empty locker using a unique four-digit code. Users place their laundry order with Mint Locker online or via text message and receive an email or text response with retrieval instructions when their laundry is clean and ready to be picked up.

Mint Locker is offering one-to-two-day turnaround. The pickup and drop-off spot can be located within the customers’ office or somewhere else convenient to their daily schedule. The company has lockers in hotels, residential properties, office buildings and other locations across the valley.

The convenience factor, Mint Locker CEO Robert Sanchez said, is why partnerships with bigger businesses such as CenturyLink really drive the success of the startup.

“We wanted to eliminate that extra step in our customers’ day and to provide a high-quality and efficient cleaning service, without forcing our customers outside of their routine,” Sanchez said.

It was this innovative approach to combat the traditional dry cleaning model that led CenturyLink to install six of the company’s lockers in its main offices in Las Vegas.

“We love that the Mint Locker team is also passionate about bringing a faster, more efficient service to our community,” said Lindsay Williams, market development manager for CenturyLink. “The service itself is a great amenity for any office, and our staff loves the convenient and easy-to-use system.”