Seven small business owners celebrated the completion of a four-month program run by JP Morgan Chase at the bank’s Mattapan Square branch last month. The Coaching for Impact initiative offers participants support for business development, technical matters, networking, and accessing capital resources, all with the goal of closing the racial wealth gap. 

The program’s latest cohort included entrepreneurs from Hillside Harvest, Charles Advisory Group, The Child and Family Wellness Center, The Pearl restaurant in South Bay, the Duplessy Foundation, Gourmet Kreyol, and Barry Jackman Accounting Services.

Enrollees in the program, which is run by Johnny “JC” Charles, vice president of business banking for JP Morgan Chase, were given the opportunity to work with a senior business consultant.

“My background is in social policy and management,” said Charles. “I left the nonprofit sector to do something meaningful. My passion lies in both my community and business ownership. So, when the opportunity came up, I jumped on it.” 

A first-generation Haitian American and proud Bostonian, Charles has been on the job with Chase for more than two years and has led three Coaching for Impact classes. “The whole point is to develop a relationship with the individual and not really push products and services,” he said. “All of it is non-traditional.

“Historically, to sit down with a banker you’re talking about a product or service,” he said. “When you sit down with me, it’s all about how is your business doing?. What do the operations look like? How can we come up with smart goals?” 

At last Thursday’s celebration, which was catered by the Pearl, Charles noted that the name Mattapan means “good people, good place to sit. … As we celebrate one another, let us also walk in appreciation and gratitude of those who walked before us.”
Nagib Charles, the founder and president of Charles Advisory Group and no relation to the JP Morgan Chase executive, was one of the graduates. He established his company last year to offer operational support to life science companies.

“I am just leaning into anyone who I can help,” said Nagib. “That looks a little different for everybody. But fundamentally if you got a space, or want a space, or managing a space, I can probably help you out at some point.” 

His services include design and planning, maintenance and operation, equipment procurement and management, compliance and safety oversight, and space optimization. 

“Without Johnny, I don’t know if I’d still be here,” Nagib told the Reporter. “I don’t feel like I graduated per se. It’s a moment. I will continue to reach out to them in the same way that I did two months ago. It doesn’t stop here. I’d like to keep it going.”
With the help of Johnny Charles, Nagib was able to connect with Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp. and continue to remain involved in the community where he was raised and where his mother still lives. 

Other graduates included Nathalie Lecorps, the owner and operating of Gourmet Kreyol, a food truck that prepares Haitian cuisine. Lecorps was born and raised in Miami, where she watched her parents run their Haitian restaurant, Gourmet Kreyol, for twenty years. In 2021 she brought those flavors to Boston and set up the city’s only Haitian food truck. 

Since then, she has had an impact on the city’s Haitian community by providing meals to migrant shelters and job opportunities for Haitian community members.

“Right now, we’re focusing on feeding the migrant families that are in the shelters,” said Lecorps. Her next goal is to find the first permanent home for her business, where she can offer sit-down dining alongside the already existing food truck and catering services. 

She said that Charles has helped bring her business success and she knows he will play a role in her ability to acquire her brick-and-mortar space.

For his part, he notes that small businesses are the key driver of building wealth in communities of color and that he hopes to continue to support entrepreneurs like Nagib and Lecorps.