KYLE, S.D. – The National Indian Business Association has named Pine Ridge native Karlene Hunter “Indian Businesswoman of the Year.” She received the award on Sept. 9 in Washington, D.C. where she unveiled a bold plan to bring jobs to Pine Ridge and other Indian communities throughout the nation. She is looking at inbound call centers (where you call to pay bills, order merchandise, or for tech support or customer service) as a basis for Native American economic development. She notes that the entire industry is “distance neutral,” meaning that it doesn’t matter where the call center is located, and she sees the possibility of thousands of job openings.
Hunter is Oglala-Sioux and comes from one of the poorest areas in the country. Seven years ago she quit her job and founded Lakota Express, a direct marketing firm, in her basement. Within a year the company had grown so much that Hunter had to move to a larger office in the Lakota Trade Center. “We started doing direct mail and direct marketing for non-profit groups, mailing out letters for donations and that sort of thing,” Hunter told Indian Country Today. “Our mission has always been to create employment opportunities and to help empower our people. We have some dynamic non-profit groups on our reservation who are doing tremendous work, but we were missing the private sector, which is what we need to turn those dollars over more than once on our reservation.”
Hunter notes that her company first got involved with direct marketing as the result of doing direct mailings. She realized that telemarketing could create jobs on the reservations from entry level to highly technical positions. “Three years ago we built a new building that was technologically equipped,” Hunter said. “We’ve got systems that are unsurpassed internationally. We have joined forces with Lakota Technologies Inc. in Cheyenne River and the Winnebago tribe’s Ho-Chunk Inc. We’re creating a top-notch Indian call center. A lot of the private sector is taking their call work to India, but within the U.S. we can offer a much higher level of customer service and quality control. We’re joining three tribes together to provide us with the impact that we need. This is our chance to really shine.”
The major benefit Hunter sees in marketing is that the company can be based anywhere in the world, including tribal property. “If you have trained agents and quality control it’s a good employment opportunity,” Hunter said.
“We are working with Oglala Lakota College (which was both Hunter’s alma mater and first client) to help train our people. It’s a win-win situation; we can offer top-notch quality care below the national prices, but with all of the checks and balances involved. We have a 76 percent unemployment rate here and we have to change that statistic. We have a new Pine Ridge Chamber of Commerce with over 100 businesses, so we are coming along, but we really need to make an impact, and this is a way to do it. We’re a certified, woman-owned, empowerment zoned, HUBZoned, disadvantaged minority-owned business. We are looking toward government contracts for inbound call work and customer help work. There are some major contracts out there, and just to carve a piece out of one of those contacts for our network would make a huge impact on our reservations.”
Hunter said that the “National Do Not Call Registry” would have little impact on her plan, as she is looking at contracting for inbound calls. “These would be people calling in for inbound help or for information. The ‘Do Not Call’ list has hurt the call center industry in many ways, but that isn’t the kind of contracts we are after. We have the capability of creating 3,000 seats and going after government contracts. There is Native American set aside money, there’s empowerment zone credit, there’s Indian tax credit, so we can make it very attractive for a business to want to do business with us.
“I’m very honored and humble that I was recognized because I know all of the business owners on our reservation work just as hard to try to make an impact,” Hunter said. “It would be just as easy to pack up and go to an urban area and not have the constant battle, but that’s not what Indian people are about. Every one of us are in there fighting and working toward the same purpose. We’re looking at creating a healthy environment for our people.”
For more information on Lakota Express, visit www.lakotamall.com.