- Many people put all minorities
and even small businesses in the same category
and that's just simply not true.
All of those demographics have their own unique needs,
particularly Indian country.
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So from a historic perspective,
Native Americans have a bit of a distrust
for mainstream society and traditional systems.
So if you're not familiar with basic banking,
going to a bank and asking for a loan is unheard of.
There's not a resource to teach you how to
rebuild your credit or how to apply for a loan.
It's a lack of everything that's truly needed
for an entrepreneur who's in need of funding to excel.
Obviously there are individuals who
bootstrap their business
and those are some of my favorite stories to tell.
But often in Native communities,
there's not someone being your cheerleader.
There's not someone ready to write a check
and so you really have to learn how to overcome the distrust
associated with traditional banking systems.
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Another unique aspect of Native entrepreneurs
is how they define success.
For a native entrepreneur success can be as simple as
making sure that your bills are paid from week to week
or that your children have the opportunities
that you would want them to have.
We work with a family in North Carolina,
and it's a family of artisans.
And in our last trip,
the family had purchased a home and turned the home
into an art gallery that housed all of
the family members' art.
They have a room set aside for teaching basket weaving,
and then they have a space outside that enables interested
individuals to come and dye the wood to make a true basket.
And so those individuals are not looking to be what
mainstream society would define as wealthy.
They're simply pursuing their business dreams
because it's an inherent piece of who they are
as an individual.
And they're working really hard to keep their culture alive.
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Often in Native communities,
there is a lack of small businesses,
particularly what mainstream society would consider to be
a successful small business.
And so I think that when you're looking
to create mentorships,
it's challenging because there's not always someone there
in a community to mentor after.
Without mentorships or workforce development opportunities,
how are we really going to create a change?
And so I think creating more programs where there is an
opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to partner
in some capacity with an existing business owner,
it's really just about partnering locally
with larger companies who have an interest in creating
a pipeline of future prospects for their own company.
That's why I think it's important to focus on
youth initiatives so that you're instilling
that spirit early on.
So entrepreneurship can be a career path versus maybe going
to work at the nearest factory or something to that effect.
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Policymakers throughout the United States should really make
an effort to consider Native America,
create policies that are Native specific,
creating initiatives that are a little different
than a 30 page application for smaller amounts of money
because it's not unusual in a Native community
for those needs to be, you know, less than 50,
sometimes less than $25,000
to really get a business up and running.
And I hope that going forward initiatives are created
to help Native communities really grow the economies
so that those individuals who reside in those communities
can continue to live there and to keep a culture alive.
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