Navajo entrepreneurs reach for the next level

Meet Darrell Yazzie.

He looks like your typical Navajo 20-something, with his blue jeans, T-shirt and omnipresent baseball cap. But he sounds like he's got a master's of business administration degree.

Yazzie, who co-owns Round Rock Trading Post with his father, can quote from his company's mission statement and explain its value proposition.

He'll tell you off the top of his head what percentage of the store's revenue comes from groceries, and how much of that is purchased by food stamps.

Want details? Just a minute, let him go through his briefcase. Don't even get him started on his five-year plan.

Yazzie is not an MBA. He doesn't even have a bachelor's degree. But he is one of eight small businessmen - including six Navajos - who recently completed the Emerging 200 Initiative (abbreviated "e200") in Gallup.

Dan Sanchez, acting director for the Gallup Small Business Development Center, helped coordinate the program locally and describes it as "a very condensed MBA."

Small-business owners trying to take their firms to the next level dedicate three hours every two weeks for seven months to learning about business: crunching the numbers, surveying customers, determining whether and how to expand into different products, services or markets, developing a five-year plan.

Sponsored by the federal Small Business Administration, e200 is usually held in large cities like Boston, Detroit and Milwaukee, Sanchez said.

"It was really developed for minority business owners in the inner city," he said. "I guess they realized we're dealing with a lot of the same problems here on the reservations and border towns."

This year the courses were held in Albuquerque and, for the first time, Gallup, where local business development specialists recommended about 20 entrepreneurs they thought would be a good fit for the program.

The nomination approach works because otherwise, "It's hard for people to know they need extra training," Sanchez explained delicately.

Yazzie was nominated by the Women's Economic Self Sufficiency Team (the New Mexico nonprofit also helps minority business owners) after he got through every workshop WESST had to offer.

"It got to the point where I wasn't learning anything new," Yazzie said. "People were asking me questions at the workshops."

In contrast, the e200 program was challenging - maybe a little too challenging for some, as fewer than half of the original participants graduated. For Yazzie, it was hard, but fun.

"Every time it was class day I would wake up excited about going to class," said Yazzie, who made the 80-mile commute to Gallup from Round Rock, Ariz., for the seminar. "I would wonder what we were going to learn that day."

Yazzie's father is slated to retire from the trading post next year, leaving the business to Yazzie. The young entrepreneur said the e200 course let him know how much there is to learn about business, and he might hire a manager and go back to school for his bachelor's and maybe even his MBA.

Meanwhile, Sanchez said the SBA will hold another round of e200 in Gallup in the spring. If you're an entrepreneur who has been in business a while and would like to take your business to the next level, contact your local Navajo Nation Regional Business Development Office (there's at least one in each agency), Small Business Development Center (offices in Gallup, Page, Flagstaff, Holbrook and Show Low, Ariz.), or call their contracted business analyst, Suzy Baldwin, (928) 245-0622.

If you're not ready for e200, any of the above offices can help you with additional materials and assistance.

"There are a lot more resources out there for small business people than most people know about," said Arthur Hubbard of the Chinle SBDO.

In addition to Yazzie, the graduates of this year's e200 include Arthur P. Allison, president, 5 Star Oil & Gas, LLC/5 Star Security Inc., Farmington; Anthony L. Arviso, owner, Enchantment Physical Therapy, Gallup; Merlin Herbert, president, Herbert's Welding Inc., Bloomfield, N.M.; William H. Overton, CEO, Navajo Tractor Sales Inc., Gallup; Marvin Redhorse, owner, Redhorse PM, Albuquerque; Thomas Thompson, CFO, Care Express Transportation Inc., Rehoboth, N.M.; and Michael R. Vidal, general manager, Powerline Technologies, Gallup.

Information: www.azsbdc.net/, http://navajobusiness.com/sbdd/rbdo.html, www.sba.gov.