Elizabeth Gore, President and co-founder of Hello Alice, joined Cheddar News to discuss her company’s mission, as it provides resources to thousands of small business owners, including veterans, who face unique challenges in securing funding and marketing their businesses.

Hello Alice Helps Military-Connected Small Business Owners Find Pathways to Success

Welcome back to closing bell and cheddar news Everyone. This segment is brought to you by jpmorgan Chase providing transformative opportunities to veterans and their families. Small business owners do face a myriad of challenges in their journey to grow their passions and do successful vet. And that includes veterans and military connected entrepreneurs who have an even tougher road to securing funding and land on the right path to success. That's where Hello Alice comes in with a network of over a million companies in all 50 states and abroad. The woman owned company helps small business owners with information on grants, loans and other resources. And joining me now is Elizabeth Gore, president and co founder of Hello Alice Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining. And my first question is to you is what led you to start? Hello Alice. Well, I have a huge passion for small business owners and think they are the absolute fabric of this country. And I myself grew up in an air force household with my dad serving in Vietnam and we have a huge passion for the new majority of small business owners, women, people of color are U. S. Veterans, the L. G. B. T. Q plus community, we think they are the best bet for a strong economy and that's what Hello Wallace does is to help them secure capital. Uh of course, I'm sure many of them Elizabeth so deeply grateful to you for your work. Talk to me about some of those steps, your own journey that you set them up with to get to the financial future and the business that they want. Well it's critical that you know, your financial health. So in hello dot com we ensure that you're looking at all elements of your company whether you need to secure capital or do better at your cash flow. So we'll help you find the credit grants, loans you need. But most importantly the best customer acquisition tools because the best place to get money is from your customers, customers. Of course. Very key. I know you just unveiled a new survey in partnership with bunker labs. What were the main takeaways that veterans and military connected families should know? You know, the most important thing is that we need to do a better job in our country helping military connected individuals, whether the U. S. Veterans or military spouses access capital. They are denied at almost 43%. When they apply for loans, the U. S. Averages around 32%. So we need to do a better job ensuring those who served us that we help them get the capital they need. Um I will say on the flip side of that, our military connected folks make the best entrepreneurs. So if you're looking for the best bet for an investment or to give a loan or access credit. Our military spouses and U. S. Veterans have the leadership chops the capabilities and the planning to make it happen. Why are the challenges unique to veterans and military connected families and Elizabeth is the hardest part as you mentioned securing that initial loan? Absolutely. I mean we're in a tough time anyways for any small business owner. But you think of a US veteran who's been back less than two years. They have not built up a credit score or credit history that most banks and credit networks rely on to say you yes to that application. So we need to be very smart about ensuring that we use new data sets and really develop relationships with our military connected folks to give them the capital. They need to start and run their business. And that's what we do at Hello Wallace. How does marketing play into all of this? Because this day and age we know marketing your business, whether it's a small business or a big business, it is so crucial. Well, um if if if you are a veteran, you're like my dad, you certainly don't boast about your service. But I encourage anyone whether you're a military spouse or your US veteran to say that you are a veteran owned business or you're a military connected family. I guarantee given the choice that I'm going to walk into your front door versus the one next to you. That doesn't say that. So it's not about boasting, it's about us serving our community and supporting our U. S. Veteran. So really market that you are a veteran owned business and I know we had talked about Elizabeth how building credit over time is important to securing a loan and other financial steps that you want to take for your own future personally and your business as well. How do you recommend that some of these business owners, veterans and military connected families work to build that credit? Well the most important thing is to actually do something quite simple and look look at your credit score check in with the credit bureaus, make sure they're correct. The second advice I would give you is to separate your personal credit from your business credit. So ensure that you're creating separate bank accounts, separate cards, be very smart about that. And then finally ensure that you are reporting back to bureaus and to those credit networks that you're paying back on time that you're building that equity and credit that you need any other advice Elizabeth. Such great insight that you have of course as the president and co founder of Hello Alice that you recommend the veterans as Veterans Day approaches, you know, um be proud and leverage your service lean on the rest of us who got to benefit from your service to buy your products to support you with grants to support you with that small business loan. Um you know, take that pride and and ask for help when you need it because we owe it to you. All right, Elizabeth, Gore, President and co founder of Hello Alice Elizabeth, thank you Jpmorgan Chase is committed to supporting the military community and their families visit Jpmorgan Chase dot com slash Veterans to learn more.