Be the ball: Our token of inspiration & COVID-19 Small Business Resources for Everyone

Be the ball. We can beat this, and I know we can be better after it...much better. Right now I know we all must be missing sports. I know that I certainly do... especially the NBA. Do you remember the last sport you played or watched? Which sport was it? Was it basketball? Football? Or golf? Either way, it doesn’t really matter which sport you remember playing or watching right now; What we do know is that a lot of the sports we enjoy usually involves a ball. That ball, however, depending on how hard it hits the ground or it is hit by a player during play...the higher it will bounce or the farther it will go.

Be the ball. You see, just like a ball; I believe that you and our community will bounce back from this tragedy much better than ever before. This health crisis may get much worse before it gets better, however, know that our collective strengths and our natural creative ability to find solutions to the toughest challenges in our paths will be enough for us to overcome this pandemic; even if we hit the lowest of lows. And just like a ball, we’ll bounce back like never before.

I hope you and your family are taking all of the necessary precautions during this time. As we’re practicing social distancing and following the guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention; We understand some of the challenges that are associated with it and the impact this will have on our economy. We want to point you toward some of the resources that are available to assist small business owners, entrepreneurs, and social innovators like you.

Private and Nonprofit Business Resources

• Facebook Small Business Grant Program: $100M in cash grant and ad credits for up to 30,000 small businesses and organization in 30 countries 

• GoFundMe Small Business Relief Initiative: The social fundraising platform has partnered with Yelp and Intuit Quickbooks to launch a fundraiser with a goal of $1.6M.

• Verizon and LISC Covid-19 Recovery Fund: $2.5M will be deployed by LISC to small businesses; Especially entrepreneurs of color, women-owned businesses and historically underserved communities who don’t access to flexible, and affordable capital.  

• The Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund by The James Beard Foundation: This fund will be gathering the support of corporate, foundation, and individual donors to provide micro-grants to independent food and beverage businesses in need.

• Kabbage Gift Certificates: Helping local innovators keep their businesses alive by selling online gift cards. 

• Yelp’s Relief and support: $25M relief effort to support primarily independent local restaurants and nightlife businesses.

Federal and State Financial Assistance 

• Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program

• U.S Small Business Administration (SBA): Covid-19 Small Business Guidance & Loan Resources

• Chamber of Commerce Small Business Guide: The U.S Chamber of Commerce Resources 

• Florida Disaster Relief: Business Damage Assessment Survey: This assessment will help federal, state, or local agencies assess the damages to your business and may reach out to you.

Remote Work Resources

• Zoom: The online meeting platform is providing free resources and a modified free plan to help everyone who’s being affected by Covid-19.

• Microsoft Teams: Microsoft is making its online meeting and remote work platform available to everyone. This will include 10GB of team file storage and 2GB of personal file storage. Enjoy!

• Google For Education: Google unleashed free access to advanced Hangouts Meet and other resources to help educators and remote work.

Wellness & Professional Development 

• Classpass: Free Live and on-demand workouts that you can do anywhere...even at home! 

• Headspace: This meditation app wants to help you and your organization find peace within during this difficult time. Free for a limited time.

• Coursera: Free online learning and other resources while fighting Covid-19

• Apple: The tech giant has released a new app and website for everyone to use as a screening and prevention tool

We hope these resources will serve you well as we continue to deal with the realities of Covid-19. We are working to continue being a valuable resource for you and your ventures as we all go through this together. We are also working on a virtual line up of events to help you continue to innovate and create solutions we can count on. We’ll bounce back from this, just like the ball. Be the ball! 

Notes from the author: Emmanuel is the founder & executive creator of socialaim.co. He's passionate about social entrepreneurship, innovation and community building. He is a seasoned entrepreneur with 15+ years of business and professional experience. Over the years, he's valued the opportunity to do business, gain working experience while learning from various industries such as banking, sales, marketing, real estate, and management. You may connect with him by clicking here.