We’re offering a second grant opportunity for small businesses
Washington County is asking you to please help spread the word about Washington County’s next round of small business economic assistance grants of $3,000 each. We will be opening the application period at 8 a.m. Wednesday, July 8. Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Friday, July 10, or until 10,000 applications are received, whichever comes first.
Links to the applications will be available on the County’s Business Recovery website: co.washington.or.us/bizrecovery.
Your communication with your contacts and members helped spread the word for the first round, and the same effort is necessary to ensure businesses throughout the County hear about this opportunity.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners knows that small businesses continue to struggle as we slowly reopen to a new way of doing business in the foreseeable future. The state’s guidance and protocols, as well as continuing physical-distancing practices, have altered all types of businesses modes of operation, and previous phases have significantly impacted many businesses revenues. Reopening to a modified business landscape after losing significant revenues is difficult.
Using funds from the County’s disbursement of federal assistance dollars, the Board agreed to make another round of grants of $3,000 available through a scored application process. The County’s program will be open only to businesses located in unincorporated Washington County. The County has provided funds to cities their own create local business assistance programs for businesses located within their jurisdictions.
Because we are focusing on small businesses directly impacted by the COVID-19, and because we are using restricted federal dollars through Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, eligibility criteria are complex. Eligible businesses must:
• Be physically located in unincorporated Washington County (outside cities).
• Have been closed by the “Stay Home. Save Loves” executive order or have lost 30% or more in revenue in any one month since March 2020 (compared to the same month in 2019).
• Be individually owned, if a franchise.
• Been in operation since March 1, 2019.
• Be a for-profit business.
• Be registered with the state or be exempt from the registration requirement.
• Be current on all federal, state and local taxes as of Dec. 31, 2019.
• Be compliant with all federal, state and local laws and regulations.
Eligible businesses must not:
• Have had more than 25 full-time employees at any one time in the last 12 months.
• Have received a grant or loan from Washington County or the Washington County Visitors Association since March 1, 2020.
• Be a passive real estate holding company or other entity holding a passive investment in a small business without operational ties to that business
• Have had more than $5 million in 2019 gross revenue.
• Be an adult-oriented business or derive a majority of income from gambling activities.
All eligible applications will be scored on a variety of criteria. It is our expectation that we will again have more applicants than funds again in this round. All small-business owners are encouraged to apply.
Only one application will be accepted for any one business owner. A business owner may apply on behalf of any business in which they have any ownership stake, but may not apply on behalf of a second or any subsequent business. If that same person owns less than 51% of another business that second business may apply under another owner’s name.
We are hoping to spread the word about this program quickly, before the application period opens, so that business owners can get information together to prepare to apply. To document revenue loss, we will require documentation of revenue for the same month in 2019 and 2020 (e.g., March 2019 to March 2020 revenue). There will also be questions related to industry type, years of operation, gross revenue, number of employees, and information related to the primary business owner’s level and sources of income.
To help us administer this program, the County is continuing to partner with Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO). MESO is a Community Development Funding Institution focused on providing opportunities to businesses that are traditionally hard to bank.
We are asking you to help us spread the word by sharing this update with your members and contacts that would be interested in learning more. If you have questions, please email the Business Recovery Workgroup at Business_Recovery@co.washington.or.us. We will respond as quickly as possible.
We look forward to working with you.
Business_Recovery@co.washington.or.us | www.co.washington.or.us/bizrecovery