The first week of May is Small Business Week, a great opportunity to recognize the accomplishments and contributions women small business owners have made to our communities.
Women small business owners have strong networks within their towns and cities. They support their families and bolster the health and wellbeing of entire communities. They have the power to influence decision-makers and shape how we understand our economy. And small businesses owned and operated by women in Montana are growing.
While there is much to celebrate, there continue to be challenges specific to women-owned businesses. Indigenous women looking to establish and maintain small businesses face some of the greatest barriers. Traditional banks and credit unions rarely step in to provide financial products to tribal communities, meaning that Indigenous women have limited access to capital to start new businesses.
Tonya Plummer, executive director of the Montana Native Growth Fund (MNGF) in Fort Belknap, is working to address those barriers. MNGF is building opportunities to improve the economic outlook for Native Americans by offering access to credit and capital blended with culturally empowered education.
A few weeks ago, I attended the Indigenous Business Symposium in Billings, hosted by MNGF. The Business Symposium was a companion event of the Big Sky Indigenous Women in Art and Fashion Symposium and Gala and provided a fantastic series of business workshops offered for all Indigenous designers, artists, creators, supporters, and attendees of the Big Sky Indigenous Women Fashion Gala and Art Market. The workshops were filled with valuable business content and were designed to give business savvy to creators and makers to establish, monetize, grow, scale, and market their creations as a business.
Sincerely,