WAYNE COUNTY — Wayne County and many other communities across Michigan will receive grants for small businesses that are trying to reopen and recover from impacts of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

$50 million in grants to be awarded to Wayne County small businesses

Wayne County will allocate up to $50 million in CARES Act funding for small business relief grants. The CARES Act gives Wayne County the opportunity to support small businesses as they face unprecedented financial hardship. County authorities announced the fund allocation on Monday and said that by helping small businesses and their employees, the funds will ultimately generate tax revenue for the county. 

Through Wayne County’s Back to Work Small Business Grant Program, grants will be available in incremental amounts up to $10,000 based on the reported losses of each applicant business. Grant amount will be determined as a sum of losses for the months of April and May and loss amounts should be based on revenue from previous months or this time last year. Businesses that do not provide clear financial records for previous years and months will not be awarded

Eligible expenses that the grants will help towards are:

• Payroll costs for permanent employees
• Contract labor
• Supplier payments
• Rent, lease or mortgage payments for the business
• Rent, lease or purchase payments for business equipment
• New or expanded technology applications
• Utility payments for the business
• Cost of critical business operations
• PPE and sanitation supplies
• COVID-19-related expenses: Interest on other business debt obligations incurred after March 2020
• Interest on other business debt obligations incurred after March 2020

To be eligible for the program, a business must be located in Wayne County and meet the following requirements:

• Business is identified as a small business, which is a business that employs less than 50 FTE employees.
• Business has been in existence for more than one year according to tax documentation.
• Business is located in a brick and mortar commercial building and is unable to accommodate work from home.
• Business is in good standing with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).
• Business total revenue that DOES NOT exceed $1 million.

Businesses that have not received other forms of grant funding will be prioritized. Those that have been previously awarded may apply, but will be considered only after all new applicants have been accounted for. Any misrepresentation of information within the application is subject to disqualification. Applications that are incomplete or missing financials, proof of location or complete W-9 forms will not be considered.

Information required from businesses

Businesses will be required to fill out an application and provide proof of financial harm from COVID-19 by providing financial statements from last year up to and through the months following the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak.

In order to meet eligibility, a business must be located in Wayne County, must be considered a small business with less than 50 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and must demonstrate it has become insolvent due to the loss of revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Business chains are not eligible, however individually owned franchises are. The exception is small local chains (less than 50 FTE employees in total) with multiple locations. These are eligible with separate applications for each location.

Priority is given to service-based businesses like food, beverage, personal care, etc. and small retailers who depend on daily patrons.

Image courtesy: American Arab Chamber of Commerce

Application intake and award

The application for the small business grants will be posted on a website for a minimum of 12 days. Applicants that have completed applications and meet the criteria will then be randomly selected for processing in batches. Grants will be awarded in batches via a lottery system to ensure quick and fair distribution of funds.

Wayne County Economic Development staff will review applications for completion and compliance. Wayne County will be processing payments to all awarded businesses.

The grant application link was posted on WayneCounty.com/BackToWork on June 29. Business owners can reach out with questions here: https://www.waynecounty.com/departments/econdev/contact-us

Michigan small business restart program to provide $100 million in grants

In other news, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) announced on Tuesday the approval of $100 million in small business grants businesses across Michigan.

The state’s government has appropriated $100 million of federal CARES Act funding through a bill signed into law by Governor Whitmer last week. The bill implements the Michigan Small Business Restart Program, which supports the state’s small businesses.

The Michigan Strategic Fund authorized distribution of the funding across 15 local or nonprofit economic development organizations (EDOs) covering all 83 counties in the state to provide a base amount of $3.5 million per EDO for grants up to $20,000 each to support certain small businesses that have experienced significant financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19. Participating EDOs are as follows:

• InvestUP – $4,545,455
• Networks Northwest – $4,545,455
• Otsego County Economic Alliance – $3,500,000
• Target Alpena – $3,500,000
• The Right Place – $9,545,455
• Lakeshore Advantage – $3,500,000
• Middle Michigan Development Corporation – $3,500,000
• Saginaw Future – $3,545,455
• Flint and Genesee Chamber – $8,045,455
• Lansing Area Economic Partnership – $5,545,455
• Southwest Michigan First – $7,545,455
• Ann Arbor Spark – $8,545,455
• Oakland County – $11,045,455
• Macomb County – $7,545,455
• Detroit Economic Growth Corporation – $15,545,450

Image: Paul Brennan

“The COVID-19 virus has especially impacted Michigan’s food and agriculture sector,” Whitmer said. “This investment will provide critical resources to ensure the safety of Michigan’s food production industry and its workforce. We can further our economic recovery in Michigan by putting federal dollars through the CARES Act to work for the people and business across our state through efforts like these grants to farms and food processors.”

The Michigan Small Business Restart Program application will be live starting Wednesday, July 15 at michiganbusiness.org/restart and run through Wednesday, August 5. Funds can be used as working capital to support payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility expenses or other similar expenses.

Eligibility for the Michigan Small Business Restart Program

To qualify for grant support, businesses must meet the following criteria, based on statutory requirements for the program:

• Is it a business or nonprofit that can demonstrate it has been affected by the COVID-19 emergency
• Needs working capital to support eligible expenses
• Demonstrates an income loss as result of the COVID-19 emergency
• Has not received a grant through the Michigan Strategic Fund’s Michigan Small Business Relief Program.
• Businesses that have received support through other COVID-19 relief programs, including the Michigan Small Business Relief Program loans, are eligible to apply for Restart grants.

Additionally, at least 30 percent of the funds awarded under the program must be provided to women-owned, minority-owned or veteran-owned eligible businesses. The MEDC anticipates that more than 5,000 businesses across the state will benefit from this program.