The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provides federal loans to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Borrowers may be eligible for PPP loan forgiveness.  While many “not-so small” businesses were able to take advantage of PPP loans, we are learning that small businesses and independent contractors and self-employed individuals struggled, due to lack of knowledge or failure to properly complete the application.  

Our goal is to provide low or no-cost PPP Application Assistance to our community small businesses, to help them complete the application process, obtain the required documentation, and hopefully receive a PPP loan that will be forgiven.

We provide easy-to-understand PPP loan application steps and a checklist of required documentation, and provide filing assistance through this program.

In addition, we offer a series of virtual seminars (live and recorded) to:

• Walk through the steps of the PPP loan application process and loan forgiveness process, and
• Share best practices (Do’s and Don’ts) from other small business owners who have successfully completed this process.

Due to the pandemic, businesses have struggled to reach their customers, as foot traffic to their businesses have been impacted.  Most consumers have been consuming food, products, and services from the confines of their homes, so it is even more imperative for small businesses to reach their customers online.  Having a quality website, with secure online payment processing and search engine optimization, can help maintain and grow businesses in these trying times.  The objective of this program is to connect small businesses with experts at low cost to help set up and improve their business websites with the following:

• Create a new website or improve existing business website; 
• Business pictures / videos to visually represent products/services;
• Integrate secure payment mechanisms to complete transactions; and
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools.

Being overwhelmed with running day-to-day operations and record-keeping, small business owners often struggle with marketing.  Given that the majority of consumers are shopping and consuming services online, it has become even harder for small businesses to get their name and products familiarized with customers if they don’t use effective social media and marketing strategies.  With the massive reach and targeting capabilities of social media platforms, targeted advertisements and campaigns can help small businesses stay afloat or even grow during this time.  

With this program, we connect small business owners with experts in social media marketing and advertising to help them get the best return on their investments in Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube ads.

While many restaurants and food services businesses have struggled severely during the pandemic, some of those using delivery services have flourished and grown in response to the extraordinary demand of delivered food.  But without being signed up with popular delivery services platforms, it is hard for restaurants and businesses to reach customers.  With this program, we help our network of small businesses in the food industry by ensuring that they are leveraging all the popular food delivery services platforms and can reach their consumers in an effective manner.

With the PPP loan application and loan forgiveness program requirements, it becomes even more important for our community small businesses to have proper accounting and bookkeeping practices.  With this program, we provide low-cost accounting, tax, and bookkeeping services for our small business owners.  These services include:

• Setting up Accounting/Bookkeeping Software;
• Setting up Payroll Services;
• Filing Taxes; and
• Applying for PPP loans.

For businesses needing printing services, we connect them to fellow businesses in the MAPS-SBRN who can offer high quality services at a reduced rate.  These printing services include business cards, banners, flyers, mass mailers, coupons, etc. to help reach and attract new customers.  

With this program, we connect small business owners with qualified legal professionals offering business law services, including registering small business (i.e., setting up an LLC, partnership, or a corporation), completing IRS specific forms, and other needed advice to deal with the current pandemic challenges.  Our goal is to provide educational webinars by legal experts, provide 30-minute free consultations, and discounted rates for other legal matters from local legal firms.

In order to bridge the language gap or to reach customers of different ethnic backgrounds, small business owners may need business translation services, which are designed to ensure that documents and marketing material (website, flyers, menus, promotional material) are properly translated into different languages.  With this program, we connect small business owners with business translation service providers that offer their services at reduced rates.

With this program, we keep small businesses informed of federal, state or local grants, loans, and other opportunities to obtain economic assistance/relief during this pandemic (or beyond).  These include options available through the federal relief packages (like the PPP), through the Washington State Department of Commerce (which has grants for small business owners and restaurants), or other sources.  As part of the network, you will get emails when such opportunities arise.

In addition, we connect individual business owners with resources such as MAPS-MCRC (Muslim Community Resource Center), which offer rental/utility help or food assistance to those individuals/families who may be struggling to meet basic human needs.