Indigenous businesses are always concerned with community development. Every business concept they develop, every operation they plan, and every incorporation they undertake eventually contributes to the advancement of the community and its members. Each entrepreneur maintains their Indigenous identity at the heart of their business to help other Indigenous entrepreneurs and artists thrive in the industry.
Here are five Indigenous-owned businesses working to support fellow Indigenous members, improve their business operations, and enhance their growth.
AS Williams Consulting
AS Williams Consulting is a proudly Indigenous-owned business that assists customers in developing meaningful partnerships that increase their dedication and determination toward community growth and self-determination. They help provide the foundation for a unified framework and a better future through mutual respect, transparency, and constructive collaboration.
AS Williams Consulting strives to incorporate culturally appropriate approaches and traditional knowledge and beliefs into their business. They facilitate engagement with First Nations and Indigenous communities, organizations, and all levels of government, collaborating to help build successful partnerships in planning and strategic decision-making processes and delivering solutions that help you achieve your goals and desired outcomes.
Shop Métis Inc
Shop Métis Inc. aims to become Canada’s leading Métis business amplifier. They help grow a strong and resilient Métis economy by enhancing the strength and resilience of Métis businesses of all shapes and sizes and incorporating innovative marketing and networking strategies.
Benjamin Robitaille, the Founder and CEO, is a proud Métis Nation member who is a self-taught web designer, expanding and polishing his abilities by working with his small company partners to build an engaging online presence they can be proud of. Shop Métis has developed a Métis Business Directory that allows consumers to Shop Métis for all their needs with just a few easy clicks. In addition, they help connect with hundreds of Shop Métis Businesses that are at least 51% owned by a person of Métis heritage.
Indigenous Works
Indigenous Works, originally the Aboriginal Human Resource Council, is an ISO 9001-certified national social enterprise. They were established in 1998 as a non-profit national organization in response to a proposal in the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to improve Indigenous peoples’ involvement and engagement in the Canadian economy.
They have worked with corporations and organizations for over 20 years to enhance their performance and results in Indigenous employment, workplace engagement, and inclusion. Indigenous Works focuses on relationship development and responding to the growing demand for essential partnership development between Indigenous-owned businesses and corporate Canada. They are nationally recognized for their workplace inclusion leadership and for promoting greater Indigenous inclusion initiatives in Canadian organizations.
Firebird Business Consulting Ltd
Firebird Business Consulting Ltd. is a 100% Metis-owned corporation with multiple locations in Canada, and the head office is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Their professional business consulting team gives clients over 100 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience. Their expertise is optimizing your company’s sales and marketing strategies.
Firebird Business Consulting services cater to their clients’ needs for business consulting, sustainability, sales, revenue, profits, growth, business and market assessment and planning, project management, business plans, and grant proposal writing services. Their mission statement for business and management consultants is to “commit and provide business owners a strategy to dominate and lead their industry for profitable growth.”
Totem Design House
Totem Design House is an Indigenous shopping platform for everyone. They are a culturally conscious brand that disseminates cultural knowledge through their products. They create a local economy by producing most of their product line in-house. They also source materials as close to home as possible and create products that hold their revered Northwest Coast art form in the highest esteem.
Totem Design House assesses every part of the business to guarantee that the most environmentally friendly materials and procedures are used. They strive to be part of the solution rather than contribute to the apparel industry’s problem. As a social enterprise, they contribute to the Copper Legacy Indigenous Empowerment Society, a non-profit created to support several Indigenous programs and projects.
Indigenous businesses have always prioritized values and ethics in their operations. Indigenous entrepreneurs strive to build a business that will promote and empower community members to excel in their fields, leading to community growth and economic reconciliation. Indigenous enterprises also make no compromises regarding their operations’ environmental impact and adhere to a strong values-based and ethical business model.
IndigenousSME introduced Indigenous businesses that make a difference in their community and stand out as unique in their operations. To read more about these enterprises, subscribe to Indigenous SME Business Magazine at lnkd.in/gBMWGCHX and for the latest updates, check our Twitter page @IndigenousSme.
