Author: Franz Malten Buemann

If you’re a marketer, it’s likely been a very – odd – Q4!
On top of racing to the finish with end-of-year reports, campaigns, and project memos, you’re also in the thick of annual planning for the new year.
And, to add one more complicated layer to the mix, many marketing teams are waiting in the balance to see how our uncertain economy and the continuance of unprecedented global events will impact their work.
While we don’t have a crystal ball, our final analytics report of the year aims to give you an insightful glimpse of how industries are performing in Q4, and help you make the most informed decisions for your brand as 2023 begins.
Without further adieu, let’s dive in.

About this Data: These insights are based on data aggregated from 158,000+ HubSpot customers globally between November 2021 and November 2022. Because the data is aggregated from HubSpot customers’ businesses, please keep in mind that the performance of individual businesses, including HubSpot’s, might differ based on their markets, customer base, industry, geography, stage, and/or other factors.
Mid-Q4 Marketing Themes
Overall Themes
With seasonality – which we began to see in our last recap – in full swing, industries linking to retail, travel, and leisure are seeing unsurprising month-to-month upticks in conversions, leads, and even traffic. Meanwhile, industries like construction – which are often less active during the end of the year and in uncertain financial times – are seeing some MoM and YoY decreases.
Overall, year-over-year leads and conversions are trending up, which could be a positive sign for marketers who want to show that their work does impact their brand’s bottom line.

 

Below, we’ll dig into a few specific marketing themes.
Website Performance Continues to See Seasonality
Website Traffic
Compared to October, websites across industries saw a significant traffic decrease in November, with Construction and Financial Activities seeing the greatest dips. Only Leisure and Hospitality saw a significant MoM gain, which makes sense due to holiday-related travel and annual vacation planning on the rise.
Luckily, many industries are seeing year-over-year traffic boosts.
Manufacturing as well as Trade, Transportation & Utilities (which includes the retail industry) lead the pack with 6.3% and 6.2% increases respectively. The only industry which didn’t see a boost was Construction, which saw a slight dip of 2.6%.
As we mentioned in previous reports, the construction industry’s performance could be due in part to the season as well as current macroeconomic conditions.

 

Website Conversion Rates
Month-over-month, website conversions were relatively flat across industries. This can happen due to seasonality.
One big exception to the MoM data was Leisure and Hospitality which saw a significant 9.5% increase. Not super surprising during the end-of-year holiday and shopping season.
Year-over-year, we saw the biggest conversion increases from Education & Health Services followed by Leisure and Hospitality. In previous posts, we’ve highlighted that Leisure and Hospitality brands are likely seeing growth due in part to global regions and key travel cities reopening due to fewer COVID-19 restrictions.

Industry
MoM
YoY
Sample size

All
-1.3%
+9.2%
127169

Construction
-2.5%
+2.3%
1177

Education and Health Services
+2.0%
+17.6
3374

Financial Activities
+0.8
+1.7%
3628

Leisure and Hospitality
+9.5%
+13.4%
972

Manufacturing
-0.7%
-0.7%
3606

Professional and Business Services
-3.0%
+10.2%
11,708

Technology, Information and Media
+2.2%
+3.4%
14,208

Trade, Transportation and Utilities
+3.69%
-2.8
3,087

Inbound Leads See Positive Movement
Despite lower or flat traffic and conversions, both YoY and MoM lead trends are actually ticking up across most industries: a positive theme for marketers who are hyper-focused on their business’s bottom line.
Trade, Transportation & Utilities (which includes the bustling retail industry), and Leisure and Hospitality saw the largest MoM gains.
Year over year, Leisure and Hospitality also saw a huge YoY gain along with Education & Health Services. And, as a consistent theme, only Construction saw annual and monthly decreases.

 

Email Opens Hold Steady Despite More Sends
While most email marketers expect to see email engagement drop as the holidays begin in November, there was only a 1.3% open rate decrease, despite a large 13% increase in sends (likely due to end-of-year campaigns and last-minute pushes to hit numbers). Additionally, more subscribers were likely opening and potentially engaging with emails this month as all industries saw a 10.3% open increase.
Despite positive movements in November, marketing email is still dealing with some long-term challenges as opens and open rates have decreased by 14.5% and 10.1% respectively – even with more companies embracing a slightly more modest number of email sends.

Metric
MoM
YoY
Sample size

Email sends
+13.9%
-3.9%
144,733

Email opens
+10.3%
-14.5%
144,733

Email open rate
-1.3%
-10.1%
144,796

Starting the Year with a Full View
While these November numbers show some industries working their way back from slower growth in 2022 – and a few still continuing to keep up numbers in seasonality and current macro-economic times – it’s important for marketers to look at all possible data when planning out their strategies for January and the new year ahead. That’s why, on top of reports like these, it’s important to look at:

Your annual and MoM website traffic and conversion data
Your leads, sales, and revenue, especially as compared to direct competitors
The direct and indirect ROI of your inbound campaigns, such as marketing newsletters.  

To keep you informed as you kick your new marketing plans off next year, we’ll be launching a series of posts across the HubSpot Blogs in January to give you an overall look at how businesses performed throughout 2022, as well as insights on how business heads, marketers, sales teams, and other departments can adapt in 2023. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, read through our previous reports below:

Are Seasonality & the Economy Impacting Marketers in Q4? [Traffic & Conversion Data from 150K+ Companies]
The Top Traffic, Conversion & Lead Trends in Q3: Data & Takeaways from 120,000+ Businesses
Your Guide to Summer Web Traffic, Conversion & Lead Performance Across Industries [Data from 150,000+ Businesses

Or, download our free State of Marketing Report below to dive deeper into what marketers focused on this year.

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I have a database for marketing campaigns (mainly SMS and email) and I I want to know if the users are active. I suppose that to maintain database alive i should use some tool of marketing automation. What KPIs should I keep in mind? Thanks. submitted by /u/mikiki310 [link] [comments]

Which generation do you think is the hardest to reach with marketing content?
Is it Gen Z, hiding out on TikTok and exploring virtual worlds like Roblox? Or Millennials who many other generations think are busy with “quiet quitting?”
While the two generations above are incredibly unique, it’s neither. The data we recently found might just surprise you. 

According to our most recent survey of 1,200+ marketers, it turns out Baby Boomers (age 55+) are the hardest to reach: 

Because Boomers are the oldest generation, and might even have more purchasing power than others, you’d think we’d know them — and where to market to them — pretty well by now. Right?
The truth is, while marketers find it challenging to understand and engage younger ever-evolving generations, Boomers are the clear outlier.
Why? It all goes back to how Boomers like to discover and purchase products, which stands out like a sore thumb compared to other generations.
How Boomers’ Shopping Habits are Different
You might think Boomers are the hardest to reach because they’re not always on the internet, but our survey of over 1,000 consumers shows that more than two-thirds of Boomers use social media. On top of that, searching online is one of the most common ways they discover new products.
So what exactly is it that makes the 65+ audience so hard to reach? In a nutshell, most marketing efforts targeting either Gen Z, Millennials, or Gen X will likely reach all three generations to some extent – while leaving boomers in the dark.
For example, marketers can effectively reach the three younger generations by advertising on social media, streaming services, and on YouTube — but this would do a terrible job of reaching Boomers, shown in yellow below.

Just 17% of Boomers have discovered a product on social media in the past 3 months. This drops to 13% for streaming services like Netflix, and goes down to 8% for YouTube ads. In comparison, these are among the best channels for reaching Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X.
So where can you actually reach the elusive Baby Boomers?
 
The Top 3 Marketing Channels to Reach Boomers
Television Ads Drive Boomer Product Discovery
More than any other generation, Boomers prefer to discover new products through television ads, which is also where they discover new products most often
Online Search is Second Best, but Boomers Do It Differently
Online search is second-best for reaching Baby Boomers. While this channel is also a top product discovery channel across generations, Boomers are searching differently.
All other generations heavily favor their phones for online shopping, while most Boomers are using their computers.

Boomers Prefer Retail Shopping More Than Any Other Generation
Another common and highly preferred product discovery channel for Boomers is in retail stores. 44% of Boomers have found new products in stores in the past 3 months, and 37% of them say it is their preferred method. Both numbers are the highest of any other generation.
Keeping Up With Consumer Trends
Boomers might be the most unique, but each generation has its own way of engaging with brands and their content.
To keep you updated on how each generation’s shopping habits change over time, we’ll be running our consumer trends survey twice a year. For a more detailed breakdown of Boomers’ shopping habits, along with every other generation, check out our full Consumer Trends Report.

As a writer for HubSpot, the most I thought I would use our product was creating marketing blog posts and measuring their performance over time. I never envisioned myself actually using a CMS to, well, you know, build a website.
But, that quickly changed in the Fall of 2022 when I created a blog that cataloged my journey down the Great Divide, a mountain bike trail that stretches from Canada to Mexico.
Before I knew it, I was managing Pedaling4Pups.com and producing a handful of blog posts each week all while biking the 2700-mile trail. Even as a seasoned blogger, I was amazed at how much I learned about creating content — mostly when doing it on the go.
Here’s what publishing a blog post looks like when you’re 12K feet above sea level:

In this post, I wanted to share the lessons that I learned about content creation from my trip. Below are five tips you can use to create awesome content from the top of a mountain, on a sandy beach, or wherever inspiration hits you.

How to Start Creating Content On the Go
If you’re just here for the tips, scroll on down to the next section for the good stuff — I promise I won’t hold it against you.
If you’re curious about the blog that I created and are wondering how I managed to publish 2 posts per week all while biking through thousands of miles of remote wilderness, you’re in the right place.
I had two goals when creating my blog. First, I wanted a way to easily share updates with friends and family. What better way to do that than with weekly blog posts accompanied by a recurring newsletter that readers could sign up for?
The other goal was more personal. I wanted to use my platform to generate donations for a charity. Readers could follow my journey while simultaneously having the opportunity to donate to a cause that I was passionate about.
This led to me to create Pedaling4Pups.com, a dog-centric blog that would not only follow my journey on the Great Divide but would also support an animal shelter in Ukraine. While on the trail, I wrote two posts per week all by writing and uploading content via my smartphone.
When I was at my campsite, I would type up content in my Notes app, then upload it to the blog whenever I had the luxury of cell service.

It was an awesome way to pass the time and I was shocked at how easy it was to pull off. With pre-made templates and themes, creating a website took no time at all, and writing and uploading posts on a phone is more efficient than you may think.
Skeptical? I would be, too. It wasn’t always a downhill ride (bike pun intended) and I had to adapt my content creation skills to fit each situation I found myself in. Read on to learn about how I did it and what you can do for your website if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.
5 Tips for Producing Content On the Go
1. You can produce content literally anywhere.
Creating content on the go is easier than you think. If you have a smartphone or a tablet, you’re already halfway there. I used HubSpot on my phone, but you can use any blogging tool that offers a mobile CMS.
Even if you just have a pen and paper, sitting in a tent in the middle of the woods, you can still come up with stories, lessons, or other pieces of interesting content that your audience will want to read. Just jot it down while it’s fresh in your mind then transfer it to your phone or laptop as soon as you get the chance.
As for the actual creation part, you will still need a platform to post your content on as well as internet access so you can share it with the world. Some platforms to consider using while on the go:

Your Website: Don’t have one? If I can create one, then I’d argue most land mammals can, too (sorry whales). Just grab any free website builder and you’re off to the races.
Social Media: Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Club Penguin — take your pick. There are plenty of social media sites to choose from and they all have their own features that make them unique.
Community Forums: These days, it’s tough to be original on the Internet. But, that’s okay. There’s strength in numbers which means there’s likely a community forum or chatroom that would be interested in your content.
News/Media Outlets: While I didn’t do this personally, I do know two content creators who did get some media attention for their perilous canoe trip down the Mississippi River.

When it comes to uploading content, you might have to get a little creative as to when and where you’ll have internet access. Here are a few places to keep an eye out for if you’re in need of internet or cell phone charging while on the go:

Libraries: Libraries always have free wifi and usually don’t care if you hang out for a while. They may even have computers you can use if you’re tired of uploading content via cell phone.
Gas Stations: Gas stations are great places to upload content. Many offer free wifi and there are often charging ports scattered around the building.
Rest Areas: Rest areas are a no-brainer if you’re traveling via a busy road. Along with bathrooms and snacks, these places are pretty reliable for free wifi and charging stations.
Public Parks: While wifi may vary from park to park, keep an eye out for charging ports as well. I found parks were one of my favorite places to stop and steal a charge for a while.
Restaurants + Coffee Shops: So long as you’re a paying customer, most businesses won’t mind you plugging your phone into their wall outlets. Some will even have free wifi you can use to upload your content.

So, there you go. If I can find a way to upload a blog post here:
Then I have the utmost confidence that you can upload your content anywhere, too.
2. People still read personal blogs.
That’s right. Social media hasn’t stolen all of blogging’s thunder. Sure, you can post like-grabbing pics on Instagram, or shoot viral videos on Tik Tok, but you can’t replace the storytelling ability that a blog platform offers.
Blogs are excellent spaces to share personal experiences, and you don’t have to be sponsored by a business to be a popular blogger, either.
In fact, our research shows that nearly a quarter of all creator businesses do not yet generate income (mine for sure didn’t). That means you don’t need to be a business to drum up an audience for your website, you just need to create compelling content.
​​
Here are some tips for creating awesome content on the go:

Be transparent: If you’re posting about personal experiences, make them real. People want genuine content and most are good at sniffing out when something is fake. And, as soon as they think you’re ingenuine, it’ll be hard to win them back.
Be optimistic: Don’t drown in your sorrows or seek empathy too often from your readers. While this may gain you some attention in the short term, people will grow tired of hearing about the negatives if they aren’t ever followed by a few positives.
Don’t shy away from conflict: Now don’t get me wrong. This is not me saying go out and stir up trouble. This is me saying that my two top-performing posts were the ones where I faced the biggest challenges on my journey. People want to hear about your struggles and how you overcome them so don’t be afraid to play up the dramatics when it calls for it.
Break the 4th wall: Don’t be afraid to talk directly to your reader. This makes the experience feel more personal like they’re on the journey with you.

3. Anyone can be a content creator.
Before this trip, the most website-building experience I had was creating my bio on AOL Instant Messenger. I do know some coding, enough to know I know nothing about coding — certainly not enough to build a full-scale website.
Fortunately, I had one thing going for me. I worked for a company that sells this website-building tool you might be familiar with. It’s called HubSpot, and like Squarespace or WordPress, one of its tools is a drag-and-drop website builder that makes blogging simple for non-technical people like me.
Is this a plug for HubSpot? Yes, but that’s not my point. My point is, anyone can build a website if they have access to a drag-and-drop page builder.
Mine took me about a week or so to design, and from there I was posting content in no time. I used a pre-built template for my web pages so none of my design involved hard coding and I was thrilled with how much customization I had access to with each of the modules that were already included on the page.

The hard part was getting into the mindset of a content creator. You have to be a little vulnerable and willing to accept that some content won’t perform as well as others. In time, you’ll get the hang of it, but learning what works and what doesn’t can certainly pose an intimidating challenge for new content creators.
4.  Content creators are everywhere.
One of the coolest things about my journey was how many other content creators I ran into. My hands-down favorites were Jesse and Fien who manage the website “Two Tired Belgians.” These two adventurers are biking from Alaska to Argentina all in one, two-year trip — putting my measly little ride through the Rockies to shame.
The good news is that you don’t have to travel 20K miles by bike to become a content creator. There are plenty of reasons to get into content creation and bikepacking is only one of many.
Below, are a few other reasons why content creators do what they do.

5. Remember, it’s just a blog.
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that your blog is just a blog. Don’t overthink it, just enjoy it as an outlet to share your experiences with others.
After all, if you’re not making money from it, you should be having fun with it and testing what works with your audience and what doesn’t. If you aren’t having fun creating your content, your audience is not going to have fun interacting with it.
I learned this lesson when I wrote about my tent getting sprayed by a sprinkler system in the middle of a frigid night. Trying to find some humor in the situation, I wrote about the experience as if I were at war with the sprinkler system and used military terms to describe how I moved my tent to safety or “engaged in defensive maneuvers.”
I was soaking wet, cold, and sitting in the dark waiting for a sprinkler to stop spraying my tent. The last thing I wanted to do was write about it. So, I had some fun with it.
I poked fun at myself for pitching my tent in such a ridiculous spot and sarcastically applauded my efforts to salvage the night of sleep. It was quirky and probably not all that funny, but it was what I needed to do to get a post out that day.
To my surprise, this was one of my best-performing blog posts. Friends and family reached out to tell me how much they enjoyed the lighthearted storytelling and how they thought the whole situation was hilarious and was glad I shared it.
While it wasn’t my shining moment as a bikepacker, it was memorable and by putting my own humorous spin on the situation, I shared a genuine experience that my audience wanted to hear more about — isn’t that the mark of a good piece of content? 
Bonus: Dog content always sells.

If there’s one fundamental truth that I can speak to about bikeblogging, it’s that dog content always sells. It might not make sense, it might be irrelevant, but sprinkle in a few pics of pups if you can and you might just see your engagement go up a little bit.
Definitely not a science, but it’s a wagon I’m willing to hitch my horse to.

As a business, you likely run marketing campaigns all year round.
There are specific occasions, though, where you might spend more time and money on your efforts to maximize exposure and inspire the most sales. Holidays are a great example of this, where events like Black Friday can bring in significant sales and revenue compared to other days of the year.
In this post, we’ll go over insights from marketers on the holidays and annual events that they spend the most money on and why.

What holidays and annual events do marketers build strategies for?
We asked marketers and advertisers about the holidays/annual events they plan to build marketing strategies for in the next 12 months. They were asked to select up to three options, and the top three responses were:

Winter/End of Year Holidays (ex. New Years Day)
Black Friday
Halloween

What holidays and annual events do marketers spend the most money on?
We asked marketers and advertisers about the holidays/annual events they spend the most time and money on marketing. The top holidays were winter/end of year holidays, Black Friday, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day.

We also asked marketers why they spend the most money on the events they selected and the most common responses were that their selected annual holidays and events drive the most sales and bring in the most revenue.
For example, some marketers said they spend the most money on marketing for Black Friday because people begin their holiday shopping during this time and are more excited and willing to spend money, so reaching them with effective and personalized campaigns is essential. Marketers can spend more time and effort creating marketing campaigns for Black Friday because it pays off.
Holidays and Annual Events Provide Opportunity for All Businesses
Every business is different, but holidays and annual events are great for sales. How do your marketing campaigns, marketing spending, and high-traffic events align with other marketers?

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.
Aspiring Native entrepreneurs face many challenges in growing small businesses. Complex land lease laws, strained infrastructure, and a chronic lack of credit access all inhibit Indigenous success. However, thanks to growing federal, organizational, and tribal support, potential business owners have more resources available than ever.
Navigating new financial mechanisms, tribal incubators, and government programs can still present a challenge. By appraising available resources, and when to leverage them, Native entrepreneurs gain a great head start in launching new ventures. Starting on the right foot, with the right tools, can make all the difference – especially when climbing over systemic barriers.
Native Community Development Financial Institutions
Native access to capital can prove a complex and frustrating obstacle for up-and-coming business owners. Chronic systemic discrimination, along with general confusion around complicated land laws, can stymie new businesses before they ever get started. Generational poverty often means that Natives don’t have alternative means of obtaining start-up capital, either.
A May 2021 report by the National Indian Council On Aging states that 16.3 percent of Native households don’t use banks.  The same report notes that high poverty rates, systemic racism, and a lack of brick-and-mortar institutions on Native reservations leave many Indigenous people without good financial standing.
Natives also can’t use lands held in trust with the Bureau of Indian Affairs – meaning reservation lands – as collateral. As a result, traditional banking and the consequent access to business loans remain out of reach.
In response, many tribes or non-profit organizations have established Native Community Development Financial Institutions or Native CDFIs. These institutions use non-traditional methods, often backed by tribal or federal funding, to lend to otherwise ineligible borrowers.
There are over 70 Native CDFIs across the United States. Some are tribally owned, such as the Lummi CDFI in Bellingham, Washington. Others are established as regional organizations, such as Native Community Capital in New Laguna, New Mexico. Many are part of an overarching organization called the Native CDFI Network, whose website hosts a list of member institutions.
As Native-led or Native-serving organizations, these institutions understand land law, tribal sovereignty, and the issues facing Indigenous entrepreneurs. Loan officers at Native CDFIs often use metrics other than credit scores or collateral to support their lending or offer financial literacy and credit-building programs to improve clients’ standing.
These groups also share many of the perspectives and experiences of their surrounding constituents, which means a wider array of business models can be encouraged and supported. An October 2022 report from banking giant Wells Fargo notes that traditional, national banks frequently lend more often to tribal enterprises with established presences, while CDFIs help cover the gap for smaller loans and riskier businesses.
Potential Indigenous entrepreneurs who have access to a Native CDFI should make reaching out and establishing a relationship their first step in drumming up business capital. In addition to establishing credit, working with a CDFI to build financial literacy and refine a business model can get things started on a high note.
Business Incubators for Indigenous Entrepreneurs
Good products and services may form the cornerstone of successful business ventures, but they’re just a part of the overall operation. Entrepreneurs need a good understanding of cash flow, marketing, scale, and a wide array of other subjects to maintain that success.
Indigenous-led business incubators serve an important niche, combining traditional business sense with a deep understanding of a community’s traditions, needs, and issues. Where non-Native incubators might falter in addressing challenges specific to Native entrepreneurs, Indigenous incubators work from a Native perspective, tailoring their programs to fit their communities.
For Tuba City, Arizona-based Change Labs, an incubator serving the Navajo (Dine) and Hopi peoples, that means initiatives such as providing storefront space and no-credit-needed micro-loans, according to their Theory of Change report. These tailor programs address the limited availability of workable retail space on Navajo and Hopi lands, as well as a widespread lack of credit.
Incubator cohorts typically include dedicated programs packed with classes, projects, and networking. These cohorts often pair participants with experienced mentors in their chosen industries, building relationships and connections for striking out on their own later.
Much like Native CDFIs, Indigenous incubators form for both tribes and regional organizations. While Change Labs targets the Hopi and Navajo tribes specifically, Traverse City, Mich.-based Arrowhead Incubator aids entrepreneurs across that area. While there aren’t many incubators fully off the ground, the passage of 2020’s Native American Business Incubator Act aims to grow that number considerably. Where there isn’t a resource now, one may exist soon.
Native entrepreneurs growing their businesses or who are uncertain of their next steps may find it worth it to locate an Indigenous-led business incubator either through their tribe or regional support. In the absence of a nearby resource, larger incubators such as the Spokane-based Native Business Center provide a range of online classes and workshops.
Economic Development Organizations for Indigenous Entrepreneurs
Even as Indian Country struggles with building wealth, national organizations work to combat those issues and develop strategies for new Native entrepreneurs. Many of these organizations develop programs for funding and supporting Indigenous businesses. Some of these organizations include:
1.  The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development
The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development provides a wide array of programs for supporting everything from procurement for Indigenous small businesses to securing government contracts through the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. The Center also offers Native Edge Institutes, one-day in-person events providing concentrated bursts of business training.
2. The Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
The Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which offers data-driven research on industry trends, headwinds facing Indigenous businesses, and policy recommendations.
3. The National Minority Supplier Development Council
The National Minority Supplier Development Council certifies and supports businesses whose owners are majority Native American, Asian-American, African American, Asian-Pacific, or Hispanic. The council connects member businesses with over 500 corporate members,  provides seminars and training, and offers a range of capital access programs, like the Growth Initiative.
In addition to wide-net organizations like the above, many states have American Indian Chambers of Commerce, such as chapters in Oklahoma and New Mexico. These organizations provide advocacy, management, and networking services to Native-owned businesses in their given regions, making them crucial and powerful tools for accessing localized support.
Federal and Tribal Government Programs for Indigenous Entrepreneurs
New COVID-19 era legislation has poured unprecedented funding into Indian Country and prompted the development of new federal support. Some of that is leveraged toward small businesses, chiefly through offices like the Small Business Administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
1. The Small Business Administration
The SBA offers free technical assistance for business owners through the Office of Native American Affairs. The Administration also partners with Native-led organizations like RedWind and Sister Sky, Inc. to provide entrepreneurial workshops for Indigenous business owners. The administration also manages the 8(a) Business Development Program, which offers federal contracting preference to certified minority-owned businesses.  
2. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs supports Indigenous entrepreneurs through its Native American Business Development Institute, which can fund feasibility studies and market research for business plans. The agency also manages the Indian Loan Guarantee and Insurance Program, which can help provide collateral and support for first-time borrowers.
3. The U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency
Lastly, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency serves minority-owned businesses with research, market data, and a wide swathe of Native-centered business grants and projects.
It’s also worth checking in with individual tribes and their corresponding economic development institutions. While tribal gaming continues to be a juggernaut in generating tribal revenue, tribal acquisitions and diversification are on the rise – a tribal member’s small business may be the next best fit for the tribe’s economic strategy. Alternatively, tribes may have support programs and individualized help available for citizens running new ventures.
Use What’s Out There to Build Your Career
Starting a business can be hard in the best circumstances – and Native American entrepreneurs hardly ever begin in the best circumstances. As more and more institutions grapple with Indian Country’s generational trauma and how best to ease that trauma, Native business owners find themselves with more resources than ever.
Native businesses are important parts of local, tribal, and state economies, generating roughly $50 billion a year across the United States, according to an SBA report. Moreover, starting a successful business remains one of the fastest ways to pull a family out of poverty and begin creating generational wealth, combating one of the longest-running problems in Indian Country.
With the range of new opportunities available, it’s never been a better time to start a new business, whether that’s selling arts and crafts, providing IT services, construction contracting, or a large-scale farming enterprise. Aspiring Indigenous business owners should take advantage of renewed interest in Indian Country’s well-being and secure self-sufficiency and success for themselves in the future.