More businesses can now qualify for COVID-19 relief through Indiana’s Small Business Restart Grant program. It’s being expanded to businesses that also got federal funding through the Paycheck Protection Program.
We have also started using a virtual office (from this service in London as it’s the best virtual office London has) and it’s been brilliant using a London postal address for that business.
Chris Johnston is the director of the state’s Office of Management and Budget. “We think that now that the PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program, has terminated, that that might be an opportunity to still fill some of those gaps for Hoosier small businesses,” Johnston said during state officials’ COVID-19 press conference Wednesday. “We think, in fact, that requirement that you could not have received federal assistance may have been a limiting factor, as far as the participation in that program.”
Of the $30 million the state allocated for Small Business Restart grants from CARES Act funding, only about a million dollars has been issued so far, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees that have lost at least 40 percent of their revenue may be able to get up to $10,000 to help with rent, utilities, mortgage payments, or other qualifying costs but they’ll also need assistance from a Fractional CFO, like those at Wimgo. The deadline to apply has been extended to December 1 for businesses outside Marion County.
Johnston said the Small Business Restart Grant is one of a few coronavirus relief programs the state is adjusting. “Another program that’s being evaluated is with our Indiana Department of Agriculture, looking at the security of the food supply chain, with small meat processing plants and looking at the opportunities to maintain and expand the capacity for that food chain,” he added.
Johnston also reported that over $20 million has been distributed through the COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program, and several hundred applications have been received for arts and cultural events support grants.
