The Native American Business
Entrepreneurial Center (NABEC)

Encouragement, Help, and Connections
This is the starting place for prospective entrepreneurs in the Qualla Boundary, whether you are a non-Indian from outside the boundary, or a lifelong Cherokee resident and enrolled member of the EBCI. Among its many services, NABEC can assist you with

• Pre-venture training
• Business plan development
• Financial projections
• Financial packaging
• Business license applications
• Retail and development property location
• Employee background checks
• Bookkeeping essentials
• TERO application process

All these services respond to established needs. If you have a need not listed above, talk with NABEC. They will be pleased to help or refer you.

Currently located in the Ginger Lynn Complex in Cherokee, NABEC works in partnership with the N.C. Small Business Technology Center at nearby Western Carolina University, and the Mountain Microenterprise Fund through the Fund’s Sylva office.

When the proposed Cherokee Business Incubator takes its new quarters, NABEC consolidating its offices within them to offer new businesses on-site support.

Cherokee Business Incubator (CBI)

Space to Start Spreading Your Wings
Now in planning and approaching inception, the Cherokee Business Incubator will provide spaces for Cherokee businesses that want to start out, or to graduate from their home-based beginnings, in a supportive, collegial, and technical setting.

Traditionally, business incubators serve their tenants by providing space at below-market rates, attracting peer businesses to supply mutual support and generate traffic, and offering on-site support services geared to tenant needs. CBI will do all these things, and in addition, serve as an “incubator without walls” for other new and existing businesses located elsewhere on the Boundary.

For further information, please contact Gloria Rattler, (828) 497-1669, or Dr. Mickey Duval, (828) 497-1679,

The Cherokee Chamber of Commerce

Networking Central
A non-profit organization of businesses dedicated to promoting a healthy business community in and around the town of Cherokee, the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce is yet another reflection of the EBCI’s pro-active, pro-business renaissance.

The Chamber’s programs complement Tribal programs, including the Office of Travel and Promotion and Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, in improving and promoting Cherokee as a year-round vacation destination, with special focus on extending the average length of stay and developing the winter tourism market.

Chamber programs also coordinate with and complement Cherokee’s Native American Business Entrepreneurial Center (NABEC) – for example, through the Chamber’s marketing, merchandising, business management, and financial planning programs, offered five times per year.

For further information, please visit www.cherokeesmokies.com