{"id":127528,"date":"2025-03-18T10:12:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T15:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=127528"},"modified":"2025-03-18T10:21:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T15:21:22","slug":"cronkite-news-navajo-entrepreneurs-find-success-thanks-to-business-incubator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/03\/18\/cronkite-news-navajo-entrepreneurs-find-success-thanks-to-business-incubator\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Navajo entrepreneurs find success thanks to business incubator"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Change<\/a>
Change Labs offers workshops throughout the year to help Indigenous entrepreneurs on the Navajo Nation realize their business ownership dreams. Photo courtesy of Change Labs <\/figcaption>\r\n
Change Labs offers Navajo entrepreneurs tools for business success<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, March 18, 2025<\/div>\r\n
By Anna Ehrick<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWhat started in 2013 as a once-a-year event to help Native American small business owners has grown into a launchpad for Navajo entrepreneurs.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBased in Tuba City, the nonprofit Change Labs<\/a> offers a modern workspace, classes in business strategies, coaching and financing for Native entrepreneurs with a business idea. The program allows them to set up and grow their companies and in turn help their communities.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nHeather Fleming, co-founder and executive director of Change Labs, had a 20-year career as a product design consultant in Silicon Valley. She eventually started her own business in San Francisco, where she worked in the international development community with social entrepreneurs, mostly in East Africa and India.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThrough a mutual friend she met Jessica Stago, who at the time was trying to develop an incubator for Navajo businesses.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe women, both Din\u00e9, conceived of Change Labs as an event for Native entrepreneurs.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cOur first event was in Shiprock in 2013 at the Din\u00e9 College Library. We didn\u2019t really expect anybody to come, but we had sold out our tiny little auditorium that holds about 80 people,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cIt was good for us to see there were enough people interested in building a business community and saw the potential role entrepreneurs play in our own Native economies.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Your\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\tYour journey starts here!\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t

Join us at our E-ship Hub on 64 Main Street in Tuba City, AZ. Our space is open to the community Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"YouTube\"\t\tYouTube\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Change Labs: Your journey starts here!<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFor five years, Fleming and Stago hosted events like the first one in Shiprock, before realizing that their target market needed more help than once a year.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThere is a need for a presence in our communities 365 days out of the year where people can access these conversations, resources, knowledge and tools,\u201d Fleming said.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWhen it came to developing brick-and-mortar infrastructure for Change Labs, Fleming and her colleagues decided to settle in Tuba City, the most populous community on the Navajo Nation. Although the plan took two years longer than they anticipated due to factors like cost increases during COVID-19, the organization has settled into a 1,400-square-foot work and event hub. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Tuba City \u201cE-ship\u201d offers work space where business owners can connect to Wi-Fi, use resources like a color printer, Cricut machine and other tools to develop a marketing plan. Entrepreneurs also can book coaching appointments with the Change Lab team.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nSo far, 69 owners have graduated from its business incubator and 961 entrepreneurs have visited the E-ship hub. Nearly 300 people attended coaching sessions and 470 participated in workshops in 2024. Change Lab has funded 76 businesses and offered $441,444 in business loans.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nToday, Native entrepreneurs like Daniel Tullie and Vanessa Tullie say they are grateful to have completed the business incubator program at Change Labs. Each of the siblings own their own business.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\n \"Daniel<\/a>\r\n<\/div>
\r\n
Daniel Tullie, owner of Jinjeeh Coffee, said joining Change Labs\u2019 Kinship Lending Program allowed him to buy an espresso machine, roaster and other equipment for his business. (Photo courtesy of Change Labs)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nDaniel Tullie owns Jinjeeh Coffee and said he fell in love with coffee more than 10 years ago when he worked at Cartel Roasting in Phoenix. Since then, he\u2019s started his own coffee business, running coffee pop-ups exclusively on the reservation.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nHis relationship with Change Labs started when he worked as a designer for the organization, but he didn\u2019t get involved as a business owner until later, when one of the coaches from Change Labs, Tim Deel, approached him at a flea market in Tuba City.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThe way I got involved with Change Labs was being a designer and not really keeping up with what they did,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, getting involved as a business owner, it\u2019s really cool to see two different sides of the way they run things.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAs a client of Change Labs, he joined the Kinship Lending Program which focuses on building good financial foundations. With the help of the program, he was able to buy an espresso machine, roaster and other equipment for his business.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAs a graduate, Tullie credits Change Labs for giving him the tools to build a business plan now and into the future.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cYou get what you put into the program,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can just go through the motions of being a participant, but the only way you are going to succeed is if you really put the time into doing what they ask you to.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nVanessa Tullie, owner of Ahehee\u2019 Shidine\u2019e Homecare, also attributes much of her success to Change Labs.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\n \"Vanessa<\/a>\r\n<\/div>
\r\n
Vanessa Tullie, owner of Ahehee\u2019 Shidine\u2019e Homecare, attributes much of her business success to Change Labs\u2019 guidance. (Photo courtesy of Change Labs)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nOwning and operating a home care business for the past six years without a college degree, she recognized there were business steps she was not aware of and was uncertain how to expand her company.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI never had this guidance before. It was really great to have access to folks that specialize in these fields and professionals that know and have worked with other businesses and entrepreneurs,\u201d she said.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nIt helped that the services were free.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s what I appreciated the most. All the funders that help with programs like Change Labs, I\u2019m very grateful for them,\u201d she said.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAfter working with the nonprofit, her company has won the Phoenix Indian Center\u2019s Business of the Year for the American Indian Excellence in Leadership Award in 2024.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nChange Labs receives funding from a variety of places, including Wells Fargo Bank\u2019s Invest Native Initiative, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Native Voices Rising and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFor more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A>.<\/STRONG>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News<\/a>. It is published via a Creative Commons license<\/A>. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication<\/A> at Arizona State University<\/A>.<\/EM>
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