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www.negociosnow.com 14 October 2019 SPECIAL EDITION By David Steinkraus M oney makes busi- nesses run, and Alice Rodriguez is one of the people trying to connect people with the money and financial resou- rces they need. As head of community and business development for JPMorgan Chase Bank, her main focus is the bank's mass market clients. Those are the everyday people around us and like us, the firefighters, police officers, teachers and others who make less than $100,000 per year, which is 70% of the households in the country, she said. Those are also the majority of clients of JPMorgan Chase, she said, and the bank saw that it could help its custo- mers by helping them impro- ve their financial health. "For most Americans, it's very difficult for them to think long-term. So a good number of Americans today live paycheck to paycheck," she said. She and her team found four keys to financial health: the ability to pay bills on time; having a rainy-day fund (and savings are the most important predictor of financial health); having a prime credit score and rea- sonable ratio of debt to inco- me; and the ability to pur- sue long-term opportunities such as building wealth. Because savings are so important, that's where she and her team began their work to help customers change behavior. They crea- ted Autosave, a program that automatically moves money from a checking account to a savings account. It happens when a paycheck comes in, so the customer doesn't have to think about it. That helps build a customer's discipli- ne in sticking to a budget, and at the same time an elec- tronic dashboard rewards customers by showing how savings grow, she said. Rodriguez said the bank's program has been in use for nine months. That's not long enough to draw strong conclusions, yet there is an interesting finding: users are dispro- portionately younger, His- panic, and female, espe- cially black and female. One fact about Hispanic- owned businesses coming out of research done by the Latino Business Action Net- work and Stanford Univer- sity is that most don't scale past $1 million in revenue, Rodriguez said. Her own hypothesis about why this happens is that while His- panics have great entrepre- neurial spirit and grit, they don't necessarily have the right network and techni- cal expertise to help their businesses grow. Also, she said, Hispanics tend to build wealth within their families, and this may make them less willing to pursue or accept outside sources of capital such as equity investors. Providing connections and expertise is the role of organizations such as the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and its affiliated local cham- bers, Rodriguez said. She is a member of the USHCC Board of Directors. While all chambers of commerce are formed to promote business, she said, "I think that people always thrive when they're in a community, with people who have common expe- riences, common stories." The USHCC helps its more than 200 affiliates provide programs to give business owners the skills they need to grow. Corporate sponsors of the USHCC have many resources that may be leve- raged to help as well. And for the Hispanic-owned busi- nesses that have scaled past the $1 million mark, she said, the USHCC works to provide training and connections so those businesses can pursue contracts with the largest cor- porations in the country. Peter Villegas Vice President and Head of Latin Affairs for The Coca-Cola Company Corporate Excellence Award Camerino González Fundador de "Los Comales Restaurants" Lifetime Achievement Award Jamie Rhee Commissioner of Chicago Aviation El Amigo de Negocios Now Award Socorro Vázquez Presidente de Toro Construction Corp. Latinas in Business Award Dan Arce CEO of Tropical Optical Business of the Year Award Jose R. Sánchez Presidente de Norwegian American Hospital Community Champion Award ¡Felicidades! Negocios Now felicita a todos los reconocidos en nuestra Gala Who's Who in Hispanic Chicago, celebrada en el verano en el Hyatt Regency de Chicago. En las fotos los Premios Especiales otorgados en el evento con la asistencia de más de 400 asistentes. (WhoisWho@NegociosNow.com) Alice Rodríguez Connecting businesses with fuel

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