News Release
Change Labs
Change Labs, an award-winning Native American-led organization, is now accepting applications from Native American business owners, nonprofit leaders, and entrepreneurs to their business incubation program.
A first-of-its-kind program for Native American entrepreneurs, Change Labs’ incubator is led by and for Native people and the curriculum is designed for the unique challenges of operating a business on Native land.
“Our Native economies are currently built on principles that are foreign to our ways of thinking and the lives that we want to live,” says Jessica Stago, Director of Business Incubation for Change Labs in Tuba City, Arizona. “We need to build our economies based on our own ways of knowing our world, and it starts with how we train and support our entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders.”
Business owners enrolled in the Change Labs Incubator get access to business coaching, peer mentorship, and potential financial investment in their business ideas.
Selected applicants are paired with professional business coaches who help strengthen and develop their entrepreneurial infrastructure. The other program benefits include:
- One-on-one training in business registration, tax preparation, and financial reporting.
- Virtual classroom with like-minded peers to build networks of support and get input on business model, marketing and brand strategy, and bookkeeping systems.
- $2,000 in cash services, such as branding development, legal support, and bookkeeping assistance.
- Automatic eligibility for a $10,000 loan upon graduation from the program.
Change Labs has successfully graduated 34 Native-owned businesses from its incubator with 9 more scheduled to graduate this Spring. Alumni are now creating economic opportunities in their tribal communities. For example, Germaine Simonson, owner of Rocky Ridge Gas & Market and a 2019 graduate, currently collaborates with Carlos Deal of AlterNativEats, also a 2019 graduate, and Tryone Thompson, founder of Chi’shie Farms and a 2020 graduate. Through their collaboration, Deal uses produce from Thompason to create an array of fresh food options such as veggie and fruit bento boxes and organic salads to sell in Simonson’s store.
“You’re looking at Navajo-owned businesses in rural parts of the Navajo Nation trying to support each other and help each other out,” says Simonson.
The online application to the Change Labs Business Incubator opened on January 31, 2022 and closes on February 20, 2022. Apply now at: http://nativestartup.org/incubator
Change Labs is a Native-led organization supporting Native American entrepreneurs across the Southwest.
