Small businesses around the world are facing unprecedented worries with very little financial certainty for the future ahead…
Hello, I’m Uzair and I thought I'd share the latest announcement from the CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai,
and to let you know how you might be able to use some of the support from Google that's being offered to help your business.
What started as a small news item about a new virus in China has turned into a devastating scene
all around the world, affecting communities and the lives of everyone, most frighteningly at lightning speed.
We are all looking for help from our health services and governments, but the large corporations are also stepping up to help.
Google has just announced a commitment of $800 million to support small and medium-sized businesses,
health organizations and governments, as well as health workers on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google’s commitment includes:
In addition to the previous $25million offered, a further $250 million in ad grants will be given to help the World Health Organization (WHO)
and more than 100 government agencies globally to provide critical information on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
There’s also a pool of $20 million in Google Cloud credits for academic institutions and researchers to improve computing capabilities
and infrastructure as they study potential therapies and vaccines, track critical data, and identify new ways to combat COVID-19.
Another $200 million investment fund will support NGOs and financial institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access to capital.
Now, this could be really important for small and medium businesses (SMBs). For example in the US,
this fund will work with the Opportunity Finance Network, to help give financing to people
and communities that may not be able to access more conventional finance from the mainstream financial institutions.
A really important point to pick up on in Google’s announcement is that SMBs have access to $340 million in Google Ads credits available to them if you've had an active account in the last year.
Credit notifications will appear in your Google Ads accounts and can be used at any time until the end of 2020 across Google’s advertising platforms.
Whatever amount you have access to, at least it will help towards the costs of keeping in touch with your customers.
and might just be the one bit of marketing that helps to see you through to the other side.
Google has also pledged their financial support and expertise to help increase the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and lifesaving medical devices
and are already talking with their key partners to bring together a faster solution to the pandemic we are all facing.
Google has also increased the gift match offered to all employees to $10,000 once doubled up, communities can be reached even more quickly with up to $20,000,
and that's for businesses, educators, researchers and non-profit organizations.
Every single business is going through immensely challenging times, but let’s remember that we must work together as people,
first and foremost, not get caught up in the size of the business or who matters most. Just as a small business might be supporting their own family,
large corporations are responsible for the livelihoods of thousands of staff.
So, let's all work together, use the tools and support that are offered to us and emerge from this crisis in good shape to serve our communities once again.
Thank you to Google for their generosity and I’m sure this is going to help many around the world.
Thanks for watching this video and hope to see you again soon. Stay safe. Bye for now.