Editor's note: Arizona State University graduates make a difference in every corner of the world and in their communities, positively changing the lives of the people they meet. ASU News traveled across the United States in 2023 to profile five of these graduates. This is his second in the series.

TUBA CITY, Ariz. — Navajo Reservation President Boo Nygren stands at the microphone as wispy white clouds try and fail to obscure the brilliant early morning blue sky above Tuba City, Arizona. Ta.

The hour-long ribbon-cutting ceremony for Change Labs, a 1,400-square-foot coworking space built to encourage indigenous entrepreneurs and small business owners on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, is nearly over.

However, before Mr. Nygren handed me the scissors to cut the tape, there was something I wanted to say.

About Change Lab. On the need for small business in the Navajo community. And it's about two women, Heather Fleming and Arizona State University graduate Jessica Stago, whose 10-year dreams finally came true on that beautiful mid-June day.

“We're all tired of hearing the word 'no' and being told it's not possible,” Nygren said. “They believed that the impossible could happen.”

This story, Jessica Stago's story, begins with a struggle.

It was the early 2000s. Mr. Stago, who grew up in Winslow, Arizona, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from ASU's WP Carey School of Business in 2001, founded a medical supplies company with his mother, Lula M. Stago. I was returning home to do so.

“We were trying to do business with the tribe,” said Jessica Stago, a member of the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache. “That was supposed to be our market.”

But almost immediately, Stago faced a hurdle common to many indigenous small business owners. According to World Bank metrics, it takes seven times as long to complete the necessary formalities to start a business on a Navajo reservation as it does in the Colorado border town of Cortez.

The price is also 2-3 times higher. Accessing land requires him to take four times as many steps, resulting in a process that takes him six times as long and obtaining electricity costs him four times as much.

Stago and her mother didn't have access to the funding they needed to expand their inventory and compete with larger companies, so they pivoted to their part-time jobs at Northland Pioneer College's Small Business Development Center. I made it.

“I was always talking to people who came to talk to me about their entrepreneurial dreams. I knew the challenges they would face. “We knew we didn't have an established ecosystem,” Stago said. ”

Stago recalled a conversation he had with an older man at a restaurant in Window Rock, the capital of the Navajo Nation. She was dressed in business attire, and the man approached her and said, “Can I ask what she's doing?”

Stago said he helps people with business plans. He said he tried to open a store near the Four Corners Monument 20 years ago, but it took him five years to get a lease on the business site and he was unable to raise the necessary funds. .

“He said he had no choice but to give up,” Stago recalled. “I kept hearing that over and over again from people. And from leaders at the state, federal and even tribal level, we don't have entrepreneurs, we don't have people who are interested in business. I kept hearing that people in our country are risk-averse.

“I just started thinking, 'That's all wrong.' That's not true.”

Stago decided to do something about it. In 2014, she co-founded the Native American Business Incubator Network, and over the next several years, the network provided business counseling to 22 existing and prospective businesses, ranging from fashion designers to her B&B operators. .

Five years later, Stago and Heather Fleming, who founded a nonprofit company supporting indigenous entrepreneurs outside the United States, partnered to rebrand the network as Change Labs and host annual entrepreneurial support events across the reservation. did.

Then, in 2019, Stago and Fleming decided they needed to lay down brick-and-mortar roots.

“At the time, we knew it was important to represent the permanence of our community in a physical space that symbolized it,” said Fleming, Change Labs' executive director. “That was important to us. Too many nonprofits go back and forth and make promises within their communities, and things don't work out or change. We knew we needed a physical presence to build trust in the community and claim to be part of the community.”

It took five years, a failed land deal and postponement after postponement due to the pandemic, but on June 16, Change Labs had a home.

Stago helped make the impossible possible.

Timothy Kulani Jr. sits at a table on the patio at Change Labs. The ribbon cutting ceremony will begin in a few minutes. Clani is there to praise Change Labs for what they have done for him.

In 2016, while working in the auto industry, Kulanyi noticed that there were few easily accessible repair shops on the Navajo reservation. Cars had to be driven hundreds of miles to be repaired, the costs were high, and mechanics were often not skilled enough to do extensive diagnostic work.

Clani decided to start a mobile phone repair business, but didn't know where or how to start. A friend told me about Change Labs, so I went to their Facebook page and discovered they were trying to innovate in Shiprock, New Mexico.

His business plan pitch was accepted, and soon Change Labs was advising him on the steps he needed to take to start his business.

“They taught me what I needed to do with books, contacts, how to network, insurance, how to plan my day, monthly expenses, etc.,” Kulani said. “All the things I never thought I'd have to do. They taught me how to handle everything at a professional level, which I don't think anyone had ever seen before. .”

Unfortunately, Clani's business went under due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he said he will always be grateful for the advice and business counseling he received at Change Labs.

Qurany said, citing a line by French poet and novelist Victor Hugo: “A poet once said, 'There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.'” “I hear there are other mechanics out there who are still trying to do mobile service, which is great. I mean, it’s not a make-or-break story. We are sending it out into the world.”

The ribbon-cutting ceremony served as a physical representation of what Change Labs is all about.

Video by Ken Fagan/ASU News

More than 40 entrepreneurs and small business owners are graduates of Change Labs' incubator program. Applicants accepted into the program will receive one-on-one coaching from one of her eight full-time employees at Change Labs.

“This is essentially for entrepreneurs who are looking to start a business, but also grow or expand it,” said Holly Patterson, a business coach at Change Labs. “We’re here to not only provide resources like Business Model Canvas coaching, but everything from customer segmentation to identifying customers to identifying marketing strategies.

“Also, just provide them with information like how much it will cost to set up the business they are trying to get into.”

The opening of the Change Labs building is a game-changer for entrepreneurs. Stago said this is an opportunity to converse with others facing the same challenges, develop ideas for overcoming those challenges, and work with the organization's business coach.

Additionally, the building is equipped with wireless, which is not easily accessible on the Navajo reservation.

“When you go to local government and tell them you want to start a business, they don't say anything. There's a big challenge there,” Stago said. “What Change Labs is doing is filling that gap.

“We've put a lot of effort into designing the program to be very intuitive for entrepreneurs at different stages, so if you're just thinking of an idea, you can look it up and talk to someone about it. Let’s give them the tools and.”

Funded through philanthropy, Change Labs also provides startup capital to entrepreneurs through its Kinship Lending program. This program does not require credit or collateral from the person seeking the loan. This difference is crucial because the Navajo Nation has no land titles and most do not have the physical collateral needed to bank.

Instead, Change Labs is inspired by co-lending practices and offers “relationship-based loans” of up to $5,000, where borrowers don't have to start making repayments until four months after receiving the funds. there is no. Since 2020, the program has awarded $285,000 to 57 Native-owned businesses.

“This works because it removes any barriers people have to accessing capital,” Stago said.

In addition, Change Labs has an online database titled Rez Rising, which includes more than 700 local businesses across the Southwest. Databases help businesses connect with new customers and help them find the services they need.

“If you go to the website, you'll find a lot of businesses that are very hard to find outside of social media,” Stago said. “It’s important to make these businesses more accessible to people.”

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony and mutton burgers handed out by local vendors, Stago warmly welcomed those who came to the ceremony. When she and her mother were struggling to make their medical supply company sustainable, they never imagined this day would come.

But it was a testament to her dedication, work ethic, and determination to flatten the path for Indigenous entrepreneurs.

“This is something that is really needed across the Navajo Nation,” Nygren said. “What I appreciate about them (Stago and Fleming) is their tenacity and resilience. They believed this could happen on the Navajo as well. They believed we could build a strong small business community. I believe we can do it.”

Long after Kurani left the ceremony, his words resonated with me.

“The advice they give me is invaluable,” he says. “What they're doing is money.”