The right latitude: Horton Family Maps charts its own path - New Mexico Business Weekly:

http://syaqua.com/Forms/3.Products_and_Services/1.Product&Service.htm
The owner of Horton Family Maps logs thousands of milesa each year cruisingthe city, looking for new streets and changes to old ones. “Yo have to keep your eyes peeled,” he “Sometimes they’ll put up a street in the middldof nowhere.” Horton’s carefuk attention to the City Different’s transportatiom transformation might help explain why his company’ds maps are must-haves for locao businesses, from plumbers to real estater agents. Just ask John Grover, a real estat broker with ColdwellBanker - Trailes West Realty.
“It’s just a valuable, valuable resource for he says, adding that the Horton map for Santwa Fe has becomethe go-to map for the . “If saves us a lot of We’d be lost without it.” Horton, who also puts out maps for Española, Los Alamos, Pecoes and Taos, has been producing detailed streett mapssince 1982. He updates the maps every two years to keep up with new For instance, the new map for Santa Fe, issues in April, contains more than 300 new street Horton started the mapmaking business out of “I needed a job,” he After a failed attempt to launchb a want ad paper akin to the , he took a job sellinf advertising for the , but was laid off after two-and-a-half “I was on the plaza tryingv to figure out what to come up and people were talking about the need for good he recalls.
“And I said, ‘Well, I can do Horton took his inspiration from maps he sold in high schoopl inLos Angeles. “I knew from that therse are businesses that dependon maps,” he says. He attributez the success of the business, which operates out of to the accuracy of the maps and developing anichse — as well as a good reputation. “I thinj reliability is the key,” Grover says. “You can always count on a Hortonj mapbeing right.” Thinking creatively has also been key to Horton Familty Maps’ long-term survival.
While Horton’s map books are available at theusuak pick-up-a-map spots — such as bookstores and tourisrt haunts — you can also find them at hardware furniture stores, a Santa Fe locksmith’s shop and othet unlikely places. “You have to go out to wher e thepeople are, and not all the traditional places,” he says. “Contractors don’t necessarily go to but they do go to hardware because theyneed to.” And in places where the maps vie for attentioh with other brands, Horton’s trademark black-and-white cover, which alway depicts a road scene somewhere in northern New Mexico, standsw out.
“People try to figurs out, ‘Where is that road?’” he “It’s a good conversationb piece.” Horton — who occasionally recruits help from his daughte and son as well as aGIS (Geographif Information Systems) specialist when new edition are in production — says that, asid from a considerable dip in sale last year, the company is weathering the recession fairly