Update | The Denver Economy
In this exclusive video segment, Hispanic Lifestyle spoke with Mike Matthews Business Banking President for the Rocky Mountain Region for the states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
Hispanic Lifestyle: Can share some insights to Denver, Colorado’s economy.
Mike Matthews (MM): We happen to be one of the largest, in fact the second largest employment of the space industry in the entire country. The fact that we’ve diversified away from oil, increased things such as manufacturing. We’re becoming a financial hub for the center of the country. Health care is a big part of our industry. And start ups. Whenever you’ve got Boulder (Colorado) as part of your community, the start ups and the health food industry. It just represents absolutely an incredible opportunity for us.
Hispanic Lifestyle: Locally what is the impact of Latino owned businesses?
MM: Latino businesses make up approximately 18% of the business banking customers that we have here in Colorado and it’s growing each and every day.Approximately 60% of our small businesses customers start as personal banking customers. It’s an incredibly large opportunity for us. We work hard at trying to develop the right opportunities, the right contracts, the right centers of influence to really help us open the doors. We work closely with our small business development centers across all three states to really help with opening doors for folks to come in and really get to sit down with one of our bankers, because our bankers are absolutely there to help them succeed financially.
Hispanic Lifestyle: What advice or insights do you give to start up companies?
MM: The first thing is you’ve got to dream big, The old saying goes, “If you shoot for the stars, and you miss, you still land pretty high anyway.” That’s absolutely the first thing. I would tell anybody, because there’s so many lines of business that we can open up, particularly within Wells Fargo, to any small business. It’s an opportunity to really help them with their dreams, with their aspirations. We can start as simple as helping them develop a business plan. We can start with maybe personal loans that help them get the business started, but as they grow all the different products and services that we can help them with. We’re right there with them as a financial partner.
For more information on the programs and assistance Wells Fargo Bank offers business owners here is the link , http://bit.ly/1iwflVN
