By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
JP Morgan Chase recently held its Small Business Owners Marketing Event, featuring guest speaker Rohit Bhargava, who spoke on the “Seven Non-Obvious Marketing Secrets to Grow Your Business.” Bhargava, a keynote speaker and expert on trends, innovation, marketing, storytelling, and diversity, provided business owners with creative and effective marketing techniques. He also discussed how to do more with a limited budget and ways to use AI in marketing to help businesses stand out and grow.
Bhargava highlighted the importance of events like these for building connections and inspiring innovation.
“I think that events like this are huge because, A, they allow people to connect with one another, which I think is really important both for inspiration but also for connection,” said Bhargava. “I think a lot of people show up for networking events and they are like, ‘Who can I meet?’ But being around this energy of people trying to do something new inspires others to do something new.”
He further emphasized the importance of networking in person. “So, getting out of your home or out of your co-working space to be around people who are thinking the way you are thinking—that is huge,” Bhargava added.
Gretchen Alger Lin, Market Manager for Washington, Chase for Business, provided the opening remarks and introduced the keynote speaker. She emphasized Chase’s role in the success of small businesses and expressed pride in the support her team provides to help business owners thrive.
“Ninety-nine percent of businesses in the U.S. are small businesses, and over half of jobs in the U.S. come from small businesses, so small businesses are a vital part of our economy,” said Alger Lin. “My team is one hundred percent dedicated to serving that market—that’s what we at Chase do.”
Alger Lin also elaborated on how Chase meets the needs of small business owners by offering mobile support, acknowledging the unique challenges they face.
“We are a mobile group, so we go to our business owners’ places of business because, as you may know, for small business owners, their time is everything to their business,” said Alger Lin. “To leave their place of business to take care of things like banking can disrupt their day completely. Our goal is to meet them where they are and to provide them with advice, tools, and resources they need to grow and be successful.”
During the event, Chase offered “business pods” where participants could learn about banking and marketing tools available through the company, and even get professional headshots to help promote their businesses.
“So, the outreach is important for a number of different perspectives,” said Alger Lin. “The majority of business owners don’t go into business because they want to handle the banking piece of it—they go into business because they want to be in business, they have this passion, they have this idea that they want to share with the world. But if they don’t have good advice, most don’t grow up knowing how banking works, right? We as a team have incredible experience that we can bring to the table—ideas, suggestions, ways to slow down payables, speed up receivables, do something with the monies that are inside the bank, and make it so that the bank is in the background, helping support the business so business owners can concentrate on the business itself.”
The event had a festive atmosphere, held in an artistic and arcane remodeled warehouse with catered food and beverages, where participants mingled, exchanged ideas, and reflected on the speaker’s message. Among them was Joshua Johnson, a web designer whose business also manages paid advertising campaigns.
“Events like this that Chase is hosting are really important, mainly because of the exposure of networking,” said Johnson. “Being around other business owners, like-minded folks you can network with, get some ideas, and brainstorm and become more integrated with the community.”
Johnson also highlighted the importance of staying informed about market trends.
“[It is important] what is working in today’s market,” says Johnson. “There’s a lot of changes, with AI being introduced and a lot of new technologies, things are changing fast, so you want to be able to keep up to date, want to still be a part of the community, and understand what the community is doing and staying ahead of the curve.”
For business owners like Steven Appiah, events like this provide valuable insights into the market and offer support and knowledge from experts in both business and banking.
“These events are great for business owners because it is a great opportunity to learn about competitors and peers in the local Seattle market,” said Appiah. “With the backing of large banks and corporations, it’s great to see that they are giving their support and insight, both from a local perspective and national perspective. So, it is always a great opportunity to come to such events.”