Post by Moon Seeker on Sept 10, 2007 10:10:05 GMT -5
Centers pushes Native American business beyond gaming
Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 9, 2007 09:07 PM
As a Native American woman who had never thought of owning her own business, Margaret Rodriguez needed a lot of help when she set out to start a construction company 15 years ago.
She was allowed to use a tiny "incubator" office at the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development in Mesa for two years while she learned how to get permits and insurance, prepare a business plan, and learn how to market and all the other details it takes to be an entrepreneur.
"They answered the phones for me to make it sound professional. That really was a lot of help," said Rodriguez, 57, a member and resident of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
Today, she works out of 10,000-square-foot building that her company, Au' Authum Ki, built in Chandler six years ago, and her business is worth more than $20 million.
For almost four decades, the center has been working to promote economic development and business ownership among Native Americans.
It started in Los Angeles in 1969 as the Urban Indian Development Association, and after several name changes and moves, ended up in its own building in Mesa about 20 years ago.
It has helped more than 25,000 companies land more than $4.5 billion in contracts and now has 11 centers around the country.
When it started it received about two-thirds of its funds from the federal government and now only depends on federal funds for half. It has about 1,400 clients representing 80 percent of the tribes in the country.
The center has an annual golf tournament and awards banquet but its biggest event is the annual Reservation Economic Summit convention and trade show, which attracts more than 2,500 delegates and families and has outgrown every hotel in Las Vegas.
"One of our missions is to be at the forefront of developing Indian economies throughout the United States," said Kenneth Robbins, chief executive officer and president of the center.
He is from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
Gala Becerra, co-owner of Aztec Printing Solutions in Tempe, said the center has provided a lot of business for the company and helped it grow. All seven of their employees and 90 percent of their clients are Native Americans. She is Hispanic and her husband, Catarino Becerra, is a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation in southern Arizona.
She said they attend all the center's events they can.
"Networking has really helped. First it was kind of quiet, and now it has really opened some doors for us," she said.
Robbins has been with the group 17 years and has seen what a dramatic difference casinos have made to some communities, especially those close to urban areas like the Gila River Indian Community, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.
He also said gaming revenues have given integrity back to Indians by making them less dependent on the federal government.
"Gaming has been really good for Indian country as far as generating capital," he said.
"And that has always been the biggest stumbling block for economic development. No nation can survive without the use of its own tax base. But if you don't have an economy, you really can't do much."
And when Indian communities benefit, so do neighboring communities, he said.
"A flourishing, healthy Indian economy is a lot better neighbor than a stagnant, depleted one."
www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0909biz-mr-indian0910.html
Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 9, 2007 09:07 PM
As a Native American woman who had never thought of owning her own business, Margaret Rodriguez needed a lot of help when she set out to start a construction company 15 years ago.
She was allowed to use a tiny "incubator" office at the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development in Mesa for two years while she learned how to get permits and insurance, prepare a business plan, and learn how to market and all the other details it takes to be an entrepreneur.
"They answered the phones for me to make it sound professional. That really was a lot of help," said Rodriguez, 57, a member and resident of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
Today, she works out of 10,000-square-foot building that her company, Au' Authum Ki, built in Chandler six years ago, and her business is worth more than $20 million.
For almost four decades, the center has been working to promote economic development and business ownership among Native Americans.
It started in Los Angeles in 1969 as the Urban Indian Development Association, and after several name changes and moves, ended up in its own building in Mesa about 20 years ago.
It has helped more than 25,000 companies land more than $4.5 billion in contracts and now has 11 centers around the country.
When it started it received about two-thirds of its funds from the federal government and now only depends on federal funds for half. It has about 1,400 clients representing 80 percent of the tribes in the country.
The center has an annual golf tournament and awards banquet but its biggest event is the annual Reservation Economic Summit convention and trade show, which attracts more than 2,500 delegates and families and has outgrown every hotel in Las Vegas.
"One of our missions is to be at the forefront of developing Indian economies throughout the United States," said Kenneth Robbins, chief executive officer and president of the center.
He is from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
Gala Becerra, co-owner of Aztec Printing Solutions in Tempe, said the center has provided a lot of business for the company and helped it grow. All seven of their employees and 90 percent of their clients are Native Americans. She is Hispanic and her husband, Catarino Becerra, is a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation in southern Arizona.
She said they attend all the center's events they can.
"Networking has really helped. First it was kind of quiet, and now it has really opened some doors for us," she said.
Robbins has been with the group 17 years and has seen what a dramatic difference casinos have made to some communities, especially those close to urban areas like the Gila River Indian Community, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.
He also said gaming revenues have given integrity back to Indians by making them less dependent on the federal government.
"Gaming has been really good for Indian country as far as generating capital," he said.
"And that has always been the biggest stumbling block for economic development. No nation can survive without the use of its own tax base. But if you don't have an economy, you really can't do much."
And when Indian communities benefit, so do neighboring communities, he said.
"A flourishing, healthy Indian economy is a lot better neighbor than a stagnant, depleted one."
www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0909biz-mr-indian0910.html