Native American Small Business Owners

My friend Susan Hanks sent this.. I thought it might benefit some of our tribal members.


New Online Course Introduced for Native American Small Business Owners WASHINGTON - Native American entrepreneurs have a new tool to helpdetermine if they're ready for business ownership and to help them getstarted. Native American Small Business Primer: Strategies for Successis a free, self-paced online business course developed for NativeAmerican business owners. The course provides an overview of basicbusiness principles and makes them aware of the programs and servicesavailable from the U.S. Small Business Administration. "Native American Small Business Primer: Strategies for Success willenhance the agency's effort to provide important resources for emergingNative American entrepreneurs," said SBA Administrator Karen Mills."Our ultimate goal is to help create jobs and stimulate economic andbusiness development in our Native American communities. This course isan essential business development tool for the entrepreneur's toolbox." The new online course: emphasizes business planning and market researchas essential steps to take before going into business; informs NativeAmerican entrepreneurs about the legal aspects of starting a business,including the type of ownership (legal structure) and licensing; andprovides key information on seed money for starting up, raising capital,and borrowing money. In addition, there is a section on how to estimatebusiness start-up costs that can help assess the financial needs ofgoing into business. The course is available from the SBA's Online Small Business Trainingweb page under Online Courses for Starting Your Business athttp://www.sba.gov/content/online-courses-starting-your-business. SBA's Office of Native American Affairs works to ensure that AmericanIndian, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiian communities have full accessto all SBA programs and services. Each year, more than 200,000 AmericanIndian and Alaska Native and 29,000 Native Hawaiian-owned businesses addbillions to the American economy. Course participants completing the online training programs can earn acertificate of completion from the SBA, with their name, date and coursetitle. The Native American Small Business Primer course is one ofnearly 30 online tutorials offered by the SBA's Online Business Training(www.sba.gov/training). Free courses are offered on Starting aBusiness, Managing a Business, Financing a Business, and Contracting. SBA can also help pair new business owners with expert advisers,counseling and mentoring services through an SBA representative orresource partner about management assistance, financing options, orparticipating local SBA lenders.