Native Americans are about 2% of the U.S. population - how does that translate to business ownership?

Answer: 402,582 businesses

This includes 48,582 businesses with employees and 354,000 businesses without employees.

Questions:

• What are the benefits of business ownership?
• What are potential difficulties related to starting, operating, and growing a small business?
• What kind of supports do you think could increase small business ownership, especially in historically excluded communities?

Here are the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (US Census Bureau, US Census Bureau):

"There were an estimated 48,582 American Indian and Alaska Native-owned businesses with $54.4 billion in receipts, 307,933 employees, and approximately $12.9 billion in annual payroll."
"American Indian- or Alaska Native-owned firms accounted for 1.2% (354.0 thousand) of nonemployer businesses, with $12.5 billion in receipts."

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Curious about what it takes to start a business? Check out NGPF's Entrepreneurship Mini-Unit!

About the Author

Kathryn Dawson

Kathryn (she/her) is excited to join the NGPF team after 9 years of experience in education as a mentor, tutor, and special education teacher. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in policy analysis and management and has a master's degree in education from Brooklyn College. Kathryn is looking forward to bringing her passion for accessibility and educational justice into curriculum design at NGPF. During her free time, Kathryn loves embarking on cooking projects, walking around her Seattle neighborhood with her dog, or lounging in a hammock with a book.

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