Summary

Roads Consulting Group is a boutique consulting firm and small business helping underserved entrepreneurs achieve success and sustainability for their businesses. CEO Dr. Jose Perez and his team offer a range of services that align with each client’s needs, meeting them where they are as entrepreneurs. He and his team are pillars of support for these businesses, offering them affordable, high-quality tools, resources and insights — from bookkeeping help to legal guidance and loan application support — that are instrumental to their growth and success.

As his consulting firm grew, Dr. Perez turned to Eastern Bank’s Business Banking group for his business banking relationship but also as a resource for banking relationships that could be set up for the businesses he advises. Dr. Jose Perez says, “There are many banks out there but there are not a lot of personal banks. When you work with Eastern Bank, you know the team is willing to help and they really care.”

And the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Massachusetts District Office has taken note of the growth of Roads Consulting Group, awarding it the 2024 Minority-Owned Business of the Year award. It’s an honor that represents years of hard work and relationships with organizations and teams like Eastern Bank to help expand the resources, capacity and possibilities for the future of underserved business owners.

Overview

When Dr. Jose Perez launched Roads Consulting Group in 2017, he was motivated by a desire to help other people of color thrive in their small businesses. It was one of the many ventures he has launched over the past 20 years, which along with his master’s in business and PhD in philosophy, provide the experience and wisdom to guide other entrepreneurs toward success. But unlike the other companies he has started, acquired, sold and closed, Roads Consulting Group has been built to focus on creating greater impact and more opportunity for underserved entrepreneurs providing them with access to affordable resources, technical assistance and capital. It has grown to 26 employees working with over 300 businesses each year across Massachusetts and in eight other states.

Says Dr. Perez, “We focus primarily on underserved small business owners by helping them successfully navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship and grow their business.” Roads Consulting Group offers a range of comprehensive business services including technical assistance, accelerators with other business owners interested in classroom learning, business certification courses, and business workshops and seminars covering the essentials for creating and running a successful business in areas that include marketing, digital marketing, finance, bookkeeping, bidding services, legal support, human resources and business strategy. The need for business resources in the entrepreneurial space is even more pronounced in disadvantaged communities, says Dr. Perez, which is why he prioritized communication and accessibility, and offers services in five languages.

Working with municipalities became a natural fit for his business. Their Offices of Economic Development assist business owners seeking services to help their companies thrive. Roads Consulting Group provides the connectivity and resources local cities seek to offer to small business owners.

During the pandemic and a pivotal time for the growth of his own company, Dr. Perez’s path crossed with Adriana Moschella, a Senior Vice President and Business Banking Team Lead at Eastern Bank. Both were helping entrepreneurs in underserved communities secure the support of the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Roads Consulting Group CEO Dr. Jose Perez is shown with Eastern Bank’s Adriana Moschella. They met during the pandemic when they were helping underserved entrepreneurs.
 

At first, Moschella helped Dr. Perez move both his personal and business accounts to Eastern Bank, which have grown to about 20 accounts today. Then, their working relationship expanded to include Eastern becoming a resource for banking accounts that could be set up for the businesses Roads Consulting Group advises. And more recently, Eastern has participated in seminars Roads Consulting Group runs for local municipalities, helping to build financial business literacy with underserved small business owners. “It's not transactional. It's really all about a working relationship that begins with banking and provides so much more,” says Adriana Moschella. “It's about a team really building things together.”

Dr. Perez adds, “Working with Eastern has been a great business journey. The entire team, from my relationship manager Lisa Fulton to the branch staff, have been tremendous supporters of the work we do. Eastern Bank is a true believer in what we are building in the community.”

Rounding out his consulting business, when Dr. Perez recognized that underemployment was a community need not being met, he established a nonprofit dedicated to workforce development. WeReach supports disadvantaged communities by seeking meaningful and lasting employment through training opportunities that lead to better placements, an effort the Eastern Bank Foundation supported with a grant.

The Results

The SBA recognized Roads Consulting Group as the Massachusetts 2024 Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year for its exceptional growth, supporting businesses in Boston, Revere, Chelsea, Lynn, Providence, and even Vermont and Washington. This increasingly effective reach might be the greatest source of pride and satisfaction for Perez.

“I think the number one result is the number of businesses, lives, and direct or indirect people that we are helping. This is not about the bottom line. It's also being able to produce impact for our folks and communities,” he says.

He is appreciative as well of the people who have served as his business advisors through the years of growing his company, encouraging him and his team that they could do more and go farther. Dr. Perez says, “You start to build relationships that will be mutually beneficial in the long run, that will generate value on both ends, and it’s these long-standing relationships that I’ve learned are so key to business success. I am very honored and humbled to receive the banking support and so much more from the team at Eastern.”

Dr. Perez adds, “We’ve built Roads Consulting Group to be able to produce impact for the entrepreneurs and people we are helping. There is a huge need in this space, and it makes me incredibly proud to see business owners from disadvantaged communities secure loans and new contracts and be able to actually recruit and hire more people, that is a sense of pride.”

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