First Nation student wins Entrepreneur Champion award

University of Saskatchewan student Kendall Netmaker from the Sweetgrass First Nation has won the 2011 Saskatchewan Student Entrepreneur Provincial Champion Award for his business venture called Moose Meat Apparel.

“Basically what this award means is that I get to move onto a different round. I get to compete against the provincial champions in BC, Alberta and Manitoba, and hopefully make it to nationals,” said an enthusiastic Netmaker.

Moose Meat Apparel was born out of a business plan competition Netmaker entered into last April.

“I never thought I’d start a business until I was done my post-secondary,” he said. “A year ago, I knew nothing about business, but I took the initiative to find mentors to guide me through the process. I submitted my business plan to the Aboriginal Youth Idea Challenge, and next thing I know I win first place, and have $6,000 in start up capital. So, that’s how it all started in June 2010.”

Netmaker finished a Bachelor of Education in December, and is now completing a Native Studies degree. He said winning the award has re-energized him tremendously.
“It’s instilled a lot of confidence. Sometimes, especially as a full-time student, it’s really hard to stay motivated because of all the tasks at hand to advance the business. The award just kind of sparked me up again to keep going,” he added.

The name for the clothing line “Moose Meat” comes from Netmaker’s years as a volley ball player.

“The company name goes all the way back to 2007 and my men’s volleyball team,” Netmaker said. “We are an all Aboriginal men’s volleyball team, and we called ourselves Moose Meat. Our team members were from different First Nations communities all over Saskatchewan.”

“We’re basically an elite team which has done very well in various competitions, and we have an amazing fan base. So I picked our slogan, and turned it into a clothing line.  We also do a lot of good things with our clothing line,” he added.

Netmaker, 23, has founded the Moose Meat Sports Club recently, which receives five to 10 percent of Moose Meat Apparel’s profits. He put together the girls-under-18 volleyball team after holding tryouts in December. The team has been practising on weekends in Saskatoon since, and just competed in its first club tournament in Regina.

“The girls loved it,” said Netmaker, “it’s really empowering for them. There is no other program out there in Saskatchewan, and I’ve hardly seen any opportunities across Canada for young Aboriginal people to be developed as part of an elite team, where they can go on to have some of the same opportunities as my teammates and I did.”

The Moose Meat Sports Club is now registered as a non-profitable organization, and Netmaker hopes that eventually he will be able not only to provide professional coaches and skills development, but to offer the program for free to Aboriginal athletes. But for this season, he said it was too late to find enough sponsors.

“For this year, I had to charge the girls $200 each to play on the team. That pays for their jerseys, entry fees and so on,” he said. “But for the future, I’m trying to find more sponsors and establish a program that’s year-round and, down the road, Canada-wide.”

Having grown up on the Sweetgrass First Nation, Netmaker said, he knows firsthand how difficult it can be for Aboriginal youth to be active in sports.

“My athletes come from all over the province – from as far north as La Loche and as far west as Onion Lake; they travel for hours just to make it to practice. A lot of the girls are having trouble financially to get to practices. I faced that, too, as an athlete.”

Netmaker said he lived on the reserve all his life and his mom struggled to get him to his volley ball practices.
“My goal is to eliminate that financial barrier, that’s why I want to apply for funding, why I’m always looking for sponsors, I want to provide that support for them,” he said.

Being a student and running a business is pretty tough, said Netmaker who is looking forward to focusing on the business and sports club full-time after graduation.
“There are days when I doubt myself, but I think that’s normal, but then I turn myself around and keep going, and soon things look up again.”

Netmaker will travel to Calgary for the regional round of the competition, which is sponsored by Advancement of Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) in March, where he will introduce his business to a panel of industry professionals. From there, two finalists will advance to the national competition in Toronto, where one young entrepreneur will win $10,000.

“I think I’m kind of meant to do this,” said Netmaker. “I know I can be a good teacher, but I feel I can bring about more change with this sports club. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. All the skills I learned to become a teacher: presentation, unit planning, and time management, it all relates; I can apply it all to my business. The fact that I made it this far with Moose Meat without a business background may inspire other people that they can make their dreams a reality as well.”