University launching effort for Native small biz, focused on ‘Indianpreneurship,’ resilience

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LAWRENCE, Kansas — A Kansas university is looking forward to developing indigenous and minority entrepreneurs through a new program funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence has landed a significant SBA grant, allowing it to offer in-person and virtual startup programs.

The SBA is expected to provide $250,000 per year for up to five years, allowing the university to establish the Center of Entrepreneurial Indigenous Prosperity small business resource center on campus this year.

The grant enables the university to build on the momentum it has generated for startups, said Jessica Burghart, a professor at the Haskell School of Business. Haskell is rolling out an associate’s degree in entrepreneurship, she said, and the first entrepreneurship class begins this spring semester. 

The school also is planning its second BIPOC Entrepreneurial Summit Feb. 21-22 on campus.

With the grant funding, the resource center will provide free training to help new businesses get off the ground, Burghart said. It will be open to Haskell students, alumni, community members and even Native entrepreneurs who can’t visit Haskell in person.

“We’re looking at getting online capabilities on this so that anybody, especially for our students who may have a relative or someone back home who wants to start a business, they have the ability to get this training online,” she said. “It’s completely free because of the grant, and that’s how we like it. We like to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to succeed.”

Haskell will develop training and incubators and has partnered with Onaben, a nonprofit promoting “Indianpreneurship,” to help provide the programming. Burghart said the center also plans to create a YouTube channel to broadcast training sessions.

Two specific incubators the center intends to offer are for food businesses and arts businesses, which Burghart said are common industries for Native startups. But she said the goal is to remain responsive to community feedback.

“Our focus is helping them out at the beginning here, and then of course expanding whatever the program needs after we take off a little bit,” she said.

Burghart’s research provides valuable lessons she can share with entrepreneurs. Her dissertation is a study of strategies for Native American businesses. She put together a panel of Native business owners and asked them to discuss both challenges and solutions. One response stood out, she said.

Jessica Burghart, Haskell Indian Nations University

“The key strategy with Native Americans is resilience. No matter what you do, don’t ever give up and always be inquiring and take the opportunity of training and stuff like that,” she said. “What I liked about (the responses) was that it was basic business strategies at their finest that they used. They didn’t go into complex planning or anything to overcome something. They just used basic skills, basic strategies, business strategies to overcome these problems.”

She’s sometimes guilty of overthinking, Burghart said, so she can relate to the temptation.

“I always think the worst enemy is overthinking,” she said. “What my experts in my study relayed was: Don’t overthink it, and use the resources that are in front of you to attack.”

A key goal for the program is to share entrepreneurial skills and trainings beyond the center’s local footprint, Burghart said. Many Haskell students intend to return to their home states or reservations, she said, so she hopes they can bring the lessons and access to the program with them.

“Our mission has been to create students that can go back and be leaders in their community,” she said. “I hope that we can have somebody in California that can take our training and be successful and start a business.”

Burghart said the resource center would be happy to partner with other entrepreneurial organizations to help expand its sphere of influence and would be open to joint ventures. 

Haskell plans to hire a program director to handle the day-to-day operations of the new center, she added.

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