The Stats: 23 years old, athlete, coach, student and owner of Moose Meat Apparel -- the first clothing company in Canada to create, support and develop Aboriginal youth-based sports teams and have sales year-round. Studying Native Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. ACE 2011 Student Entrepreneur, Saskatchewan champion.
Where did the inspiration come from for Moose Meat Apparel?
It all started back on my men's volley ball team. We started calling ourselves moose meat, and basically that name kind of created a big fan base for us. People liked our name, they liked our slogan, our humour ' everything. So I thought there's an opportunity here to make a clothing line because of the response, and there's also an opportunity to do something good with it as well, as in creating more sports teams with the name Moose Meat.
Can you tell me a little about those initial stages of getting Moose Meat off the ground?
I found some mentors to help me because I don't have a business background. I made my first business plan and I entered in a few business competitions, one being the Aboriginal Youth Idea Challenge in Saskatchewan, and the second one being the Wilson IQ Idea Challenge at U of S. I ended up finishing first in the Aboriginal one and fifth in the Wilson one. So that's how my start up plan came, and that's how I was able to get my first batch of inventory.
You mentioned some mentors. How did you go about finding mentors?
I found someone who was an Aboriginal clothing company owner, and his name was Timothy Lewis. What he owns is Tansi Clothing; what he does is promote Aboriginal languages through his clothing. I asked him via Facebook if we could meet up, and that's how it all started. He met with me after classes and evenings once a week, and encouraged me to do this. He helped me with my first business plan as well.
What were some of the biggest challenges at this stage?
The first challenge for me was having the confidence in myself to do this. I don't have a business background; I've never taken a business class before, even prior to starting the business. I think that was the biggest challenge ' believing in myself. The competitions really gave me that confidence. If I hadn't won any of the startup competitions, I wouldn't have started right away.
Can you talk about the importance of sports in relation to youth? There are some funding problems with sports and youth teams here in Canada. I'm curious as to your thoughts on that.
I've seen the problem back when I was growing up ' that Aboriginal youth had trouble being a part of mainstream sports teams. The primary reason for that was funding and the whole income situation. That's what I faced as a youth. I had trouble getting to and from the city to play on the volleyball team. I was fortunate to be gifted in many sports, but I could only afford to play one sport, and I think I could have excelled in all of them. But I was still fortunate to play volleyball and it carried me on to college; I played two years there then transferred to U of S. That's why I created these sports teams as well as pursue my clothing line, because I've seen what it does for me, I've seen what it does for my friends, some of whom are top players in Canada. Sports are very powerful and that's one area that needs to be developed, funding-wise for sure.
How do you think sports can combat some of the traps that a lot of youth fall into, especially Aboriginal youth?
The first thing is being part of a team. I think being part of a team allowed me to open up, because, for a lot of First Nations people, we're brought up a little differently than mainstream society, especially if you live on a reserve. We're more traditional and taught to not be too open to everything, so I guess being part of a team kind of opened me up that way and helped me meet new people. And it helped me develop my skills ' one of them being confidence. I probably wouldn't have been as confident today without the sports that I've played. And I think if more Aboriginal youth would find these teams to play on, we could develop more positive things for the Aboriginal communities.
Any advice for students starting their own business?
I would find really positive people to inspire you, because that's the hardest part ' just believing that you can do it. I was the only one holding myself back from pursuing this idea. If you find positive people to help you, they will really help you start up any idea you have. jp