Inland Empire Regional Chamber of Commerce spearheads Southern California ‘Multi-Cultural Business Initiative’ (MCBI); A Collaborative between ethnic-driven business organizations coming together to support minority-owned businesses.

By Eric Sandoval | Freelance Reporter for IEBJ

This past Wednesday, June, 23 Spectrum Reach and Inland Empire Regional Chamber of Commerce, along with other partners, launched the Multi-Cultural Business Initiative. 

“What we want to do is, help the multi-cultural business segments of Southern California,” Shared Joe Flores, Director of Sales at Spectrum Reach. “With this initiative, we are providing free commercials and marketing advice to 160 multi-cultural businesses in Southern California from July to September.”

Over 15 million dollars in advertisement and marketing advice is being donated, thanks to Spectrum Reach, Inland Empire Chamber of Commerce, and partners. Part of the donation is free marketing advice for businesses. This advice is to help ensure long-term success.

“There are lots of benefits to teaching marketing practices. Marketing is a fragmented landscape; it’s hard to find the right person at the right time at the right place. The whole idea is to stay current and be authentic over the long haul,” said Jordan Beilin, West Division Director of Advanced Advertising.

The idea for this initiative was formed organically. Edward Ornelas, President of the Inland Empire Chamber of Commerce, wanted to help multi-cultural businesses in Southern California. Spectrum Reach wanted to help their multi-cultural community businesses. This partnership was a perfect match. 

“Edward was a huge part of putting this together; we can’t thank him enough,” explained Carrie Ward, So Cal Marketing Manager for Spectrum Reach. “We at Spectrum Reach wanted to help our community businesses with the Pay It Forward program. Edward was a great connection between Spectrum Reach and our Southern California businesses.” 

Working together, Spectrum Reach, Inland Empire Regional Chamber of Commerce, and partners have been able to push their initiative to the forefront.

In attendance at the MCBI were multiple chambers. The idea for having these multiple chambers and businesses come together is so they can help build and bounce ideas off each other.  

“This initiative is great; what I love about this initiative is that it allows for the opportunity for multiple chambers from different regions to come together and share ideas and resources to support minority-owned businesses. The MCBI is a multi-county partnership between ethnic-driven business organizations throughout Southern California,” Shared Edward Ornelas, President of Inland Empire Chamber of Commerce. 

Having these Chamber members in attendance, showing the unity between Southern California Chambers and their partners. The goal is to help every business, and they want to put their efforts and ideas together to strengthen the businesses of Southern California. 

“What this event and the Pay it Forward Program shows is, at Spectrum Reach, we’re about our community, said Joe Flores. “We aren’t asking for anything in return; we just want to build our community businesses and economy.”

With over 160 people in attendance, you can feel the excitement to be back in person. The hope is this is just the beginning of a great partnership that will strengthen multi-cultural businesses throughout Southern California.

Some of the partners include: Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce​, California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce​, Black Chamber of Commerce-Inland Empire,​ Inland Empire Regional Chamber of Commerce,​ Greater Riverside Hispanic Chamber of Commerce​, Pomona Chamber of Commerce,​ Greater Coachella Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,​ Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce and Los Angeles Chargers.

View full photo album from the event here.