Wells Fargo is again inviting eligible business owners to enter a nationwide contest to win cash prizes and a business mentorship opportunity.
Entrants must submit a video up to 2.5-minutes long or a 600-word max essay with a photo, responding to questions about their business.
Wells Fargo will select 25 finalists and each will receive $1,000 for their business. From that group, Wells Fargo will pick five grand prize winners and each will receive $25,000 for their business.
The contest runs from now through June 30. Wells Fargo will announce the winners September. For the complete rules, log on to wellsfargoworks.com/project.
Last year more than 3,600 small businesses entered the contest. The 25 finalists included Carolyn Miye, who has owned and operated Oodles 4 Kids, a children’s toy and bookstore in Sellwood since 2012.
A new video about how Wells Fargo helped Miye grow her business is posted on the contest website, along with videos about how some of last year’s other finalists have taken their business to the next level since participating in the contest.
“I can’t think of another bank that understands the mentality of a small business owner better than Wells Fargo,” Miye says in the video.
In addition to the $1,000 contest prize last year, Wells Fargo also selected Miye to receive mentoring from a business coach and an additional $10,000 in accounting services this year.
“Wells Fargo, they don’t act like a big national bank because they work to build a relationship with me in the same way that I work so hard to build relationships with my customers,” Miye says.
Serving the Pacific Northwest since 1852, Wells Fargo was recently named the leading small business lender in Oregon and SW Washington by the Small Business Administration. It was the fifth time in the last seven years that Wells Fargo earned this honor, based on dollar volume. Wells Fargo serves about three million small business owners across the United States and loans more money to America’s small businesses than any other bank. The company has approximately 32,000 bankers in its retail branches who provide financial guidance to small business owners and consumers across the country. Wells Fargo also has teams of Business Banking relationship managers in locations throughout the country, and phone bankers who serve small business owners 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
