As local and state governments issue shelter-in-place orders, asking residents to remain home for all but essential errands, businesses, especially small local businesses, across the U.S. are facing difficult decisions. Several organizations & companies are extending a hand to small-business owners navigating the coronavirus crisis.
1. Small Business Administration
The Small Business Association (SBA) is the first stop for entrepreneurs seeking relief – plus other options for those who don’t qualify for loans. In order to be eligible for a small business loan, you must be a small business (usually 500 employees or fewer, though slightly larger businesses, may qualify in select industries). Nonprofits also are eligible for benefits. SBA disaster loans are only available for US citizens or permanent residents. The application will need other information:
- A filled-out SBA business loan application.
- Financial information for the owners of the business applying for a loan.
- Your recent tax returns for the business.
- Any liabilities the business has.
The goal of the SBA loans is to help small businesses cover their near-term operating expenses during the crisis and provide cash incentives for entrepreneurs to keep their employees. For more information, visit the SBA website here.
2. Lawyers for Good Government Foundation
Lawyers for Good Government Foundation (L4GG), a nonprofit network of more than 125,000 legal advocates in all 50 states, launched the Small Business Remote Legal Clinic to offer free consultations for small-business owners to help them answer legal questions and better understand the help that’s available. L4GG has already put together a growing coalition presently comprised of 34 law firms in 30 cities across the U.S. to help staff the remote legal clinics. The pilot program is to start in New York City and will expand to other cities in the weeks ahead.
Interested small business owners can sign up HERE to be notified when the clinic becomes available in their city.
3. Hootsuite Social Media Services
Content marketing can become an effective way for you to remain in touch with your customers and increase pipeline generation during the coronavirus pandemic. With the ever-changing digital landscape, communicating and engaging with your audience can remain undisrupted, no matter what the situation is – as long as you have the proper content marketing strategies in place. In challenging times and a fast-changing global landscape, communicating brand identity and values remains important.
Hootsuite is offering free access to its professional plan through July 1 2020. Plus, you’ll get access to a free library of Hootsuite Training Videos to help you engage with your audience, create content efficiently, and manage crisis communications. For more information click HERE.
4. Exemplar’s Tax Relief by State
The new law is a daunting 880 pages long, but it contains lots of good news for individuals and businesses, including meaningful tax relief. Here’s what you need to know:U.S. states are providing tax filing and payment due date relief for individuals and businesses. So that you can focus on your family and business rather than hunt for information, Exemplar has compiled tax news related to the COVID-19 outbreak HERE
5. Video Conferencing for Remote Employees
Google has had a free version of Hangouts available for a while now, but it hasn’t offered many of the enterprise-level tools that modern businesses demand. Fortunately, the company announced that it is rolling out free access to advanced features for Hangouts Meet for all G-Suite and Education customers until the first of July.
This means that you can now host meetings with up to 10,000 viewers, or 250 visitors in a single domain, for free. Plus, there’s the option to record and save meetings to Google Drive too. The Google team said that this new rollout was its attempt to “do our part” to keep teams connected.
Limitless Investment & Capital Coronavirus Relief
Limitless Investment & Capital is committed to helping small businesses during the coronavirus outbreak. We are offering relief packages to small business and entrepreneurs that are weathering the tough times. If your business signs up in the month of April, we are offering FREE payroll, bookkeeping, and controller services to ensure your business has the financial information it needs to survive. For more information please visit our coronavirus relief package page.