Woman’s Frybread Business Reaching Goals
The journey of Wolf Point’s Tracey Rider to have a successful business with Montana Rez Bred has hit a few hurdles during the last couple of years, but appears now to be on a good path.
In March 2023, Rez Bred LLC was registered with the State of Montana. Rider said she was blessed with a frybread recipe from a beloved elder of the community.
After moving to the Ronan area, she received assistance from the Mission West Community Development to set up the small business. Rider explained that she made some of her special frybread for a friend. Her friend’s reaction was that the product was good enough to sell at the store. The friend told her about the help that the Mission West Community Development could provide.
“I was assigned professionals to walk me through the process of writing a business plan, creating my logo, marketing, state regulations, packaging to start selling at farmers markets,” Rider explained.
During June 2024, Montana Rez Bred became a sole proprietor. Rider started over as far as raising funds for such things as packaging, labeling and supplies.
“People I approach are so receptive and excited about it,” she said. “They love that it’s pre-made and all you have to do is add water.”
She began selling her product at gift shops and garage sales in Pablo, Charlo, Poplar, Billings, Wolf Point, Lodge Pole and Hays. She has also made orders for graduations, weddings, baby showers, birthdays, elder programs and church functions.
“The Lord really had his hand on this business even before I knew it was Him lining things up for me,” Rider said. “A huge thank you to all the wonderful people the Lord put in my path to help me continue on.”
Her Montana Rez Bred product is now available on Facebook.
“The goal I set for myself was accomplished. This next year, I’m working on getting the bar code, nutritional value and have the label state approved so I can register with Native American, Made in Montana and have that all on packages ready for next summer,” Rider said.
