Small Businesses Boosted By Healthy Consumers

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You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio.

Tim and I, of course, here in, well, about an hour outside of Atlanta.

Yeah.

It does not feel like Atlanta when you walk outside in the morning and hike on the nature trails.

I love the nature trail. It was pretty amazing.

All right.

Let's get back to business. We did mention earlier how U.S. small business optimism fell to a three-month low in September. Economic expectations dimming and a smaller share of firms indicated it was a good time to expand. Inflation stubborn. Borrowing costs elevated. Small businesses are more cautious about expanding. Cap capital spending plans dropping to a three-month low. We want to talk about, though, that's our backdrop, but the importance of business and how they connect. with community and vice versa, community connecting with small businesses.

We've got Deirdre Porche here, National Head of Community and Business Development at JPMorgan Chase. She joins us here at the Make Your Move Summit in Georgia that is hosted by Chase for Business.

Welcome, welcome.

How are you?

I'm well. Thank you for having me. This is great. I'm so glad you guys are here.

Yeah, thank you for hosting us. We appreciate it. I want to talk a little bit about what Carol mentioned, the connection that a community has to a small business. Because when we talk about small businesses, we talk about the numbers that we get nationally and the numbers that are here in Georgia too, which is just an overwhelming portion of the economy, at least in this state, small business powers that. But what is the effect of that in a local community?

Well, they're inextricably linked.

I mean, when you think about the health of the consumer, it literally feeds businesses. So when you have a consumer that has confidence in their spending, has knowledge about how they can get to their next steps, It feeds the business community and the ecosystem. It's also partnerships that make a really big difference there as well because when you have a healthy consumer, you also have a healthy nonprofit base, and they work together with businesses. So then the business system, the ecosystem of the business is richer. The other thing I'd mention is a lot of folks are somewhere on the path to becoming business owners. So when we do our workshops and help them improve their financial health, oftentimes

they're thinking about becoming business owners or they're at some stage of that. And so the extent to which they're healthier, more confident, have stronger cash buffers, that feeds the small business ecosystem.

You know, Deidre, one thing I wanted to ask, what do you spend more time on?

Working with the small business community or is it The community itself and making sure that it's a supportive and financially stable environment for these small business owners or those to come.

Well, I will say, particularly smaller businesses, we spend a lot of time with. And when you think about it, oftentimes those businesses are at some stage of solving for their personal finance needs. leading up to becoming a full-fledged business. So we work with consumers on how to budget, save, and plan for retirement. And then we help businesses start, run, and grow. So you can see how those would overlap.

And oftentimes in a workshop, we'll have a wide range. We'll have someone who has a gig business or a hobby that they're thinking about scaling. We'll have someone that just sort of just stepped away from their corporate job and they're sort of taking the plunge. And then we'll have a more mature business that's really starting to get its legs under. So it's great to be able to offer those resources to both consumers and businesses.

So community investments that support the local communities and business investments that do that too. When you look at what you do, how do you measure success and make sure that the strategy that you're helming is one that is leading in the right direction?

Well, it's all about those indicators of financial health. And it's the basics. Do you have a consumer that has.

a cash buffer that.

Can get them through three months of expenses that they otherwise didn't have? Do they have access to credit? Do they have a healthy credit score? Are they prepared to invest in the business that is budding? So it's all of those indicators of financial stability that we're looking for.

What's harder, getting a small business started or working on a show like.

The Drew Barrymore? Nothing about her, but working on a show.

It's hard. Without a doubt.

I have so much admiration for the small business owner.

It takes grit and resilience.

I thought she was going to say, I have so much admiration for the television host.

Well, you too.

You are a financial expert on the Drew Barrymore show.

That was a lot of fun.

That was so much fun.

But to your point- It takes so much for businesses to start, run, and grow, and that's why the ecosystem that we support is so important.

We want to be with businesses at every stage.

We've heard a lot about the ecosystem, and I know that there's mentorship and so on and so forth, but just dig into that a little bit deeper because we hear it.

But tell us the specifics. Somebody comes in and you guys are doing what?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we have workshops that we do in our branches and in our local community. We partner with Chambers of Commerce and other organizations that are focused on supporting the business owner.

And we put on workshops. We teach them about cash flow.

We help them figure out when it's time to scale their business. We help them with any technical assistance that they may need.

But we can't do it alone.

So we also work with local nonprofits that are focused on helping businesses thrive. And then oftentimes civic and governmental entities are also looking to support. So no one industry or entity can do it alone. It's really about creating that entire system.

But the thing is, is a bank only has so much power. I mean, there's so much else that goes into a local community that determines whether or not this is a good place. or conducive to actually starting a successful business. You can't control for that other stuff.

Absolutely not.

We have this thing we say, we do this work together. And that means we do our part. So the extent to which we can provide education, information, access to capital, access to tools and resources, that's the bank's role. But then we also have to come alongside our governmental entities that may be doing redevelopment of a particular zone are investing economically. And then nonprofits are also mission-based, focused on helping the economy locally. It's all of us working together that really create the right system to make sure those businesses have what they need.

Well, coming off of our last conversation, I mean, it feels like This is why Atlanta makes so much sense. I mean, is it safe to say that there are cities that you guys might think about working with, but it's just the communities?

There's a lot of things.

That go into making it a really great community for small business.

Oh, 100%.

Listen, Atlanta, with WeBank, over 165,000 businesses here, but there are millions of businesses here. And so there's this sincere focus on making sure that the resources that are needed for businesses are located here.

But to your point, it does require great partnerships.

Right. Right.

As you say, ecosystem that's got to be behind it. Deidre, thank you so much.

My pleasure. This is so much fun. Thank you.

Yeah, we're having fun too.

Deidre Porche, she's National Head of Community and Business Development at JPMorgan Chase.

We promised it was going to be a slice of life.

Small Businesses Boosted By Healthy Consumers

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