How do we help small businesses launch, grow and thrive?

As a national bank serving the small business community, we partnered with the nonprofit Operation HOPE to create a small business empowerment series to educate small business owners.  The series featured diverse business owners across the U.S. telling their unique stories and offering guidance on key topics like accessing capital, recovering from mistakes and leading through growth.

Key to the initiative was to deliver inspiring content in an easy and accessible way that would help entrepreneurs reach their goals. Roughly three-quarters of small businesses require financing to make investments and grow their business, and we kicked off the ten part video series with experts from CIT and Operation HOPE discussing how to access capital. Other topics included:

• Building Your Team
• Passion, Purpose & Profit
• Cultivating Your Personal Brand 
• Leading a Business Through Rapid Growth 
• Recovering from Big Mistakes
• What's Your Price
• Confidence is Key
• Building & Leveraging Relationship Capital
• Your Reputation Precedes You

The series featured CIT customers and Operation HOPE clients who completed the small business training. The series reflects diverse participants with 60 percent being female and 70 percent representing people of color.

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Through extensive distribution and outreach, the program received nearly 15 million impressions and over 150,000 views.  Since the inception of our small business solutions operation, over $5 billion in capital has been lent to over 100,000 small businesses across the country touching a broad variety of industries.   

Craig Jackson