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Stories of Progress: Empowering Indigenous women in business through BMO’s Zero Barriers to Business

At BMO, our commitment to creating a path to making real financial progress is a priority. Recently, our Zero Barriers to Business initiative has been expanding further into the Indigenous community in Wisconsin including working with some women-owned Indigenous businesses to foster financial literacy in the community and continue BMO’s commitment to breaking down barriers.  

Margaret Ellis is a co-founder of She Rises Collective and an entrepreneur from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. Through her time owning her own businesses, she emphasizes the strong connections Indigenous people have between their business practices and environmental sustainability, and how many Indigenous business owners carefully consider what goes into their products as well as the environmental impact, aiming for a balanced approach and healthy approach. 

She takes the same careful consideration into where she banks and has turned to BMO for some of her business banking needs. As her new non-profit organization formed, along with 5 other business-minded Indigenous women, Ellis further confirmed with her peers that more resources and support was needed among Indigenous women-owned businesses. Historically, Indigenous women were the leaders of their economies; maintaining home lives and the health of the community, and She Rises aims to help translate those leadership attributes into flourishing business skills by providing a supportive network, helping women overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship and feel less isolated. 

BMO’s Zero Barriers to Business program highlights the importance of financial literacy and access to capital by conducting financial literacy workshops for the Native American community and focusing directly on Indigenous-owned businesses, much like the ones directly connected to She Rises, further creating that sense of community. 

By empowering individuals with the knowledge and tools they need to make better financial decisions, BMO is working toward creating a more inclusive and equitable financial landscape and bringing that literacy to a community that may not have had access to such resources previously, igniting the start of a positive generational change. 

Learn more about BMO’s Zero Barriers to Business initiative here. 

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