Creative Entreprenuer Training

While many entrepreneurs start businesses, many fail within a very short period. Indigenous entrepreneurs struggle to find culturally relevant business resources. 

We are proposing an online training course for Indigenous creative entrepreneurs that will address their unique needs. Indigenous business owners face all the usual hurdles such as funding, time management, work/life balance along with more unique considerations such as balancing cultural values of humility with the commercial necessity of marketing. We will also address online selling options for  Our format will include videos of Indigenous artists and business owners visiting, laughing, and sharing stories of their business experiences.

Our solution will give artists the tools to navigate the nitty-gritty details of business, helping them stay in business, and increasing their financial well-being and stability long-term.

The SBA reports that about 20% of new businesses close within their first year and only about half make to the five-year mark (SBA Office of Advocacy FAQ 2019). When asked "[w]here do you turn to when you need business advice?" 25.79% of respondents said they go to the internet and 19.32% said they ask other business owners (TSheets by QuickBooks 2019). 

However, online entrepreneurial resources are usually geared toward a non-Indigenous audience. Such resources are not culturally relevant and fail to address common problems faced by Indigenous business owners. Tribal government run economic development centers typically focus on large enterprises and not on small businesses. So Indigenous small business owners are left without culturally appropriate guidance on the hurdles they face. Further compounding these issues, COVID-19 has forced the cancellation of powwows, art markets, and community gatherings, which provide a marketplace for Indigenous art.

Our solution is an online training course for Indigenous creative entrepreneurs. It will be hosted on an online platform, and utilize common online course technology. While the medium will be a newer technology, the content will be an old Indigenous practice. We will use videos of establish artists and business owners visiting, laughing, and discussing their experiences. Within Anishinaabe culture, as in other Indigenous cultures, knowledge is shared through stories and metaphor, instead of a lecture of do's and don'ts. Our teachers do not tell us what to do; their teachings show us the ramifications of various choices. Likewise, this training would explore options and ways of dealing with common hurdles, and allow the trainees to find the best option for them. We plan to also develop sample documents such as contracts, order forms, artist bio prompts that can be downloaded and customized for use.

This solution benefits Indigenous entrepreneurs from communities across Mshiikenh-mnising (Turtle Island/North America). Many Indigenous people sell their art to supplement their incomes. While trainings for artists exist, they tend to focus on bigger picture issues such as mission statements and longterm goals but often neglect more nuanced issues like customer relations and aspects of selling online. While seemingly minor, those are the hurdles that can pile up and ultimately overwhelm entrepreneurs, causing them to walk away from otherwise promising endeavors. 

I founded Bead & Powwow Supply in 2011 and have interacted with beadworkers and artists from across Mshiikenh-mnising. While many Bead & Powwow Supply customers sell their art, most tend to be women, ranging in age from teens to elders. Some are full-time caretakers and some are undergraduate or graduate students and others are professionals who work full-time in other areas. This solution targets those sellers who hustle on their social media pages and/or occasionally sell at powwows and community gatherings.

I can draw from Bead & Powwow Supply customer base in order to best address the needs of creative entrepreneurs. Our solution will involve research into what our target population needs to help their businesses survive. For the course content, we will collaborate with established artists from various communities in North America.

This solution addresses the need for professional skill development and access to jobs in Indian Country. It also relates to cultural revitalization since art and material culture are a significant component of Indigenous cultures. Giving artists the tools to maintain creative businesses means that they're more likely to spend time developing their craft and helping revitalize cultural identities. The target population is intertribal and beyond a single community or region. This solution has the potential to impact thousands across communities and transcends settler-colonial borders.

The core technology combines an online with video. Online courses have become ubiquitous and several hosting platforms are available. Quality video is easy to create with basic household technology.

Online trainings have become more and more common in today's society.

Online courses were already common in K-12 and higher education, when
COVID-19 forced the entire education system to go virtual. Many companies rely on virtual onboarding and training for employees. Virtual seminars, courses, and trainings are ubiquitous in the professional world. In fact, I took an online course hosted by Solve in the process of filling out this application.