Local Indigenous youth played their entrepreneurial hand over the spring break to develop competitive business plans through a three-day Bears' Lair Youth Entrepreneur Dream Camp at Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN).
“This place is a hotel for people all over the world,” said 12-year-old Liam Sanders as he showed his team’s business plan to the Tribune. His team envisioned creating a venue for weddings at a local ranch where guests could stay overnight and enjoy access to trails with hired horses.
“The team creates the ideas...we guide them through it” said Dean Montgomery. He and his wife Geena Jackson Montgomery are the organizers of the camp, which grew out of their Indigenous business reality TV show Bears’ Lair.
“This is our legacy, our passion project,” said Geena. She and Dean are entrepreneurs at their cores, balancing four other businesses along with running the camps year-round.
The camp is designed to empower Indigenous youth to turn their ideas into reality through experiential learning. Since their first session in August 2022, the couple and their main team of eight staff has run 51 camps in 62 different nations for Indigenous youth aged 11 to 18.
Diyame Elkins, 16, attended this latest camp to develop their own business skills and ideas. Elkins, who wants to open their own cosmetics business, said the camp helped them visualize and construct their brand.
To do this, the participants are split into six teams who compete for prize money. Each team comes up with a product or service they want to sell then they build their business by identifying the target market, creating a market plan and writing a mission statement. The teams determine their startup costs and operational costs, how many goods or services they need to sell to make a profit, and they design a logo, make business cards and create a video to pitch their business to a judges’ panel.
“Besides learning about how to start a business, they learn life skills like public speaking, body language, eye contact, connection with each other,” Geena said, later adding that the youth are also taught to shake hands.
“A lot of it is just for them to believe in themselves, that they can create their own business, and they can create their own dreams,” Dean said.
Mataya Quilt, for one, isn’t necessarily planning to open his own business in the future but still chose to attend the camp.
“My original plan that I think I'm going to stick with has always been being a lawyer,” Quilt said.
Introducing himself with a handshake, Quilt said he did lots of the planning for his team and designed the logo.
His team, which was named Wolf, ended up winning the grand prize and each member received $250. Their business is called The Bannock & Brew House, an Indigenous cafe where Indigenous culture, food and art would be accessible to the larger Williams Lake community.
“It’d be nice to show other people our culture and foods,” Quilt said, whose role was chief executive officer of the business.
Working with Quilt were Taya Solomon as the president of marketing, Electra Cahoose as the vice-president of marketing, Elias Billy as the chief financial officer and Ryder Munn as the director of social impact. The team was coached by Jay Falkus, who filled the role of executive director.
The camp ended with a graduation ceremony Friday night, attended by 120 people including Williams Lake Mayor Surinderpal Rathor who acted as a judge along with Unity Cannabis and Sugar Cane Cannabis Chief Operating Officer Daniel Penny and Elder Nancy Sandy. Jack Middleton, the vice-president of policy and advocacy for the Association of Mineral Exploration which sponsored the camp, was also a judge.
“It’s really important to support and make sure the next generation of kids that are going to be out there have those kind of life skills and are able to do this great work,” Middleton said.
Along with the grand prize, youth participating in the camp received $100 MasterCard and orange sweaters with imprints of the Bears’ Lair and WLFN logos.
Participants have gone on to open their own businesses in the past, including one who at 11-years-old started a popcorn business which earns him $60,000 per year working at just two events per month. Other Bears' Lair youth have opened businesses selling apparel, jewellery and colouring books.
