Program for Indigenous female business owners gets boost through new partnership

Destinee Peters took over as the owner of a hair and beauty salon at the age of 22, after the former owner asked if she wanted to buy the business out.

Peters faced many challenges while running the business as a young woman, but other challenges arose because she's Indigenous.

"I did face a lot of challenges just trying to learn about the business, and finding the right employees," said Peters, who has owned Tangles Hair and Beauty Salon in Regina for seven years now. "I didn't have a loan in the very beginning, so I know that was partially due to my experiences growing up."

It wasn't until she came across Matchstick, a entrepreneur workshop series for Indigenous women offered through the Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan (WESK), that her business started taking off.

Matchstick, which launched in 2017, helped Peters learn more about business plans and provided her with a network of mentors and other Indigenous female business owners, she said.

Peters now mentors through Matchstick, which should be getting boost thanks to a new partnership.

WESK is forming a long-term partnership with FHQ Developments, a First Nations economic development group, to help network, find more female entrepreneurs and offer the Matchstick program to them.

"We were aware of the fact that women entrepreneurs, in general, are experiencing unique barriers, including access to financing, access to mentors, access to networks," said Prabha Mitchell, CEO for Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan.

"These barriers are compounded when it comes to Indigenous women entrepreneurs, partially because our cultural identity raise even greater challenges in terms of accessing capital, challenges with credit history."

'Invest in our Indigenous people'

Indigenous women make up over eight per cent of Saskatchewan's entire population, according to the latest census data. So Mitchell says it's important to continue with the Matchstick program, as it will help that demographic become more influential in the province's economic picture.

"We have one of the largest Indigenous populations in the country.... It is important for us to invest in our Indigenous people because they are indeed the future of our province and all of our country," said Mitchell.

On top of the business education participants receive, Matchstick also provides a space where entrepreneurs can relate with one another, said Peters.

"It was really nice to sit down with a group of women that were able to connect on a different level and share our stories. They bring it up and then I can relate to them," she said.

"With our personal lives, we don't just go to work and that's it. You deal with family issues and struggles, like addictions and trauma, that we can all connect with and just know that our family is huge in our background."

Peters is thankful for the Matchstick program because it allows people to talk through those issues, while providing a space that supports Indigenous women in business, she said.