Hey guys, it's Ginny Silver.
And today I want to talk to those of you who
are small business owners or who hope to start a small
business or who had your business impacted by the pandemic.
I want to talk to you about
two brand new programs that are now
available or are are quickly becoming available.
The first is the California Dream Fund, and
the California Dream Fund is a one time
$35 million grant program which will provide micro
grants up to $10,000 to seed entrepreneurship and
small business creation in California.
Now, this program is going to be
administered by Cal OSBA and it's dispersed
through the California Small Business Technical Assistance
Expansion Program network of centers.
Now, in order to participate in the program, entrepreneurs
have to apply for an intensive startup program developed
by one of the participating business centers.
After you complete the program successfully and have met all
requirements, then business owners can become eligible to apply for
a one time grant of up to $10,000.
So for those of you who are looking at
where to apply, you have to undergo this training
program first before you can apply to the grant.
So that means that the first step in
applying for this grant is going to be
to contact one of these training centers.
Now, they have an interactive map available.
You can search for the closest center
nearest you, click on that link and
then you can contact that center directly.
Now, most of the centers don't seem to have an
exact link to the training program that they're talking about.
So once you locate a Center, I would recommend
that you either email them or call them right
away to ask about this specific program.
When you call them, let them know that
you are interested in participating in the California
Dream Fund program and that you're interested in
learning about their intensive startup programs.
Required to Apply for the California Dream Fund
Grant Now, the second grant opportunity that I
want to talk to you about is called
the Microbusiness Covid 19 Relief Grant Program.
These are $2,500 grants.
Now, because this is a county run program, these specifics
are going to vary a little bit from county to
county in terms of how the program is operated.
But the eligibility factors, the funds that you
will receive, and the way that you can
use the funds all remain constant.
Now, in order to qualify as an eligible microbusiness,
you must have less than five full time employees.
Because this is a pandemic related program, your
business must have been in operation since 12, 31
2019 and your business must have been your
primary source of income in year 2019.
In order to qualify, your business must have
less than $50,000 in revenue in 2019 and
you must have not previously received a small
business relief grant from the State of California.
So for those of you who already received a COVID
relief grant from the State of California, I do not
think that you would be eligible to receive this grant.
Now your eligible use of funds is going to
be for payroll or employee retention, working capital, purchase
of personal protective equipment, rent or mortgage payments for
your business and paying vendor invoices.
Now, availability of this program is going to
depend on if your county opted in and
requested funds from the state of California.
This is an optional program for the counties
to participate in and not everyone is participating.
Now, if you do not see your county linked
in the video description then what I want you
to do is do a Google search.
You're going to type in California Microbusiness Covid 19
relief grant program and then following that type in
your county names such as Santa Clara County.
If your county is participating, then it should be
one of the first few results that you see.
Now for those of you who are independent
contractors or self employed but you don't necessarily
have a business entity, can you still apply?
The answer does seem to be yes.
Self employed workers, independent contractors, sole proprietors as
well as other business structures with less than
five employees in 2019 can apply as long
as you meet all other requirements.
Now, some counties have already opened up applications
whereas other counties are still waiting for their
programs to either be funded, their request to
be granted or are awaiting the opening date
of their actual application.
So once again this is going
to vary according to your county.
Ok guys, I hope that was helpful.
Please let me know in the comments down below.
Did you know about these California grant
programs and will you be applying.