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In the beautiful foothills of southwestern Colorado, just shy of the Rio Grande and San Juan National Forests, lies the community of Ignacio, home to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. This awe-inspiring area holds more than just the beauty of its land. It harbors the resilience, dedication, and ingenuity of its people.

From Modular Homes to Internet Transaction Machines (ITMs), the people of Ignacio and the surrounding areas address community needs and provide for themselves and their families. It is with the greatest honor that the and at the hosted year two of the Demystifying Native Entrepreneurship Workshop at last month.

Nearly 20 Native and rural participants joined together for this two-day workshop to learn from and , entrepreneurs and award-winning professors at the . The workshop focused on sowing the framework for developing sought-after products and services, strategies to increase sales, funding opportunities, and how to avoid entrepreneurial pitfalls. Rural entrepreneurs and Native entrepreneurs from the , , and the came together to build their networks and help their communities thrive.

Erick Mueller shared

"I was inspired by the amazing collaboration amongst the entire southwest Colorado community that included Native and local entrepreneurs sharing ideas and moving innovations forward. I can't wait to learn of the success of these entrepreneurs and local leaders!"

These inspiring entrepreneurs came with a focus on growth for their communities, their businesses, and themselves. , a brilliant student at Fort Lewis College, used the workshop to develop her bilingual childcare service. She plans to use her skills as a bilingualist to help children in her community develop better language and cognitive skills. A Southern Ute Native, Holly Begay worked to further develop , where she produces beautiful handcrafted artisan soaps that shares the authenticity of her Native work.

The next stage of Demystifying Entrepreneurship Workshop Series, StartUp to ScaleUp, will return to Ignacio in the Spring of 2023. Join us next year to learn how second-stage small businesses and organizations can transition past the startup phase and into what’s next. .

Thank you to all our our amazing partners: , , , , and .

Â鶹ӰԺ Demystifying Entrepreneurship

This series of workshops is put on in partnership with the at the Â鶹ӰԺ’s Leeds School of Business and is available in every major rural region in Colorado. The next Demystifying Workshop, , will be in Sterling, Colorado, July 22 to 23. To register for this event, .

And to learn about all locations, visit our Demystifying Entrepreneurship: Rural Colorado Workshop Series website.