3. GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

How JP Morgan Chase is supporting South and West side businesses – Crain’s Chicago Business

Written by Amanda

Small businesses have power. Power to boost local economies, create jobs and enliven communities. More than 60% of Americans dream of starting their own business, yet many would-be small-business owners could benefit from a better foundational understanding of the path to success—especially minority-owned businesses, which often face unique barriers that inhibit their ability to start and scale.

Financial institutions are increasingly prioritizing and investing in educational content and new resources, particularly online, on how to access capital, save it and invest it. That’s an important step in the right direction. Creative private-public-nonprofit collaborations can also make it easier for Black, Hispanic and Latino business owners to tap into capital opportunities.


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Just look at the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, a loan fund supported by JPMorgan Chase in Chicago and nine other cities and managed by Local Initiatives Support Corp. to support BIPOC-led small businesses and entrepreneurs through low-cost loans and technical assistance. Or the recent culmination of World Business Chicago’s Black & Latino Investment Excellence Summit. This multiphase program launched last spring to provide counsel, connections, support, technical assistance and, ultimately, access to capital for Black- and Latino-owned small businesses on Chicago’s South and West sides.


JPMorgan Chase supported the program’s first cohort of 11 business-owners interested in scaling their operations by providing technical assistance, resources and funding opportunities. The effort was intended to accelerate capital flow to minority-led businesses, a critical component to growing resilient small businesses and sustaining vibrant communities.

Businesses from a variety of industries, including retail, light manufacturing, construction, food service and more, enrolled in a 10-week program. JPMorgan Chase’s team of experts and other partners delivered educational webinars and one-on-one sessions and facilitated introductions to potential funders.

L. Brian Jenkins, founder and president of Entrenuity, mox. E. and Overflow Coffee, a business with two successful locations looking to expand to the South or West Side, participated in the summit.

“Access to capital resources is one of the most important challenges Black business owners face,” Jenkins said. “Particularly in under-resourced communities where business creation and development is critical to the health of the community.”

Several businesses that participated in the World Business Chicago summit also participate in a new program from Chase for Business, the bank’s small-business arm. The pandemic exacerbated many underlying racial disparities that already existed in the banking system; approximately 40% of Black-owned businesses shut down in 2020, for example. So in 2020 as part of a $30 billion commitment to racial equity, JPMorgan Chase chose Chicago to pilot a program with dedicated senior business consultants helping Black, Hispanic and Latino entrepreneurs recover from the pandemic. The free program provides coaching for small businesses, helping them:

  • Access capital, looking strategically at the ins and outs of borrowing, understanding financial data and exploring credit options.
  • Think like an entrepreneur, establishing a foundation for business growth, developing agility and resilience.
  • Navigate cash flow, helping minority business owners understand the basics to help their cash work for their business.

The Chicago pilot has been a hit. Our consultants largely work from the Chase Stony Island Community Center branch, mentoring more than 140 local small-business owners, and have facilitated more than 100 events (in Spanish and English), touching more than 1,500 small-business owners. Chase expanded the program nationally and now has over 40 dedicated senior business consultants in 21 U.S. cities who each mentor 50 small-business owners.


Source: chicagobusiness.com

About the author

Amanda

Hi there, I am Amanda and I work as an editor at impactinvesting.ai;  if you are interested in my services, please reach me at amanda.impactinvesting.ai