Learn More About Three Grants Currently Available to Help Businesses Recover, Restart and Be More Resilient in the Future

1. Oakland Together Small Business Recovery Grant: See information on a Grant Primer for this Thursday, July 23, 2020 (2-3 p.m.) to help businesses navigate the application process.
2. Michigan Small Business Restart Program
3. Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) Resilience Grant

1. Oakland Together Small Business Recovery Grant

Click Here for Application
Closes: 5 p.m., Monday, August 24, 2020

Oakland County is dedicating nearly $30 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Fund to help small businesses negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This competitive grant program is focused on these hard-hit sectors:

• Retail
• Food and Lodging Personal Services
• Business Services
• Entertainment and Recreation
• Construction and Maintenance Services
  
  

ELIGIBILITY
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic effects between March 2020 and June 2020, your business must have experienced at least one of the following:

• A loss of gross receipts or sales revenue
• Operated at a reduced level of production, sales, employment or service
• Temporarily closed all operations and are now in the process of reopening

Additionally, your business must meet these requirements:

• The business must provide and/or sell goods, products and/or services at or from a physical location within Oakland County Michigan
• If the business owns the building it operates from, as of the application submittal date, there can be no 2019, or prior, property tax payments overdue
• If the business operates out of a residence (home-based business) as of the application submittal date, there can be no 2019, or prior, property tax payments overdue
• The business must employ 100 or fewer full-time and/or part-time employees
• Must be a for-profit business

Questions?  Email us at RecoveryGrant@OakGov.com

To learn more about eligibility requirements and the application process, plan to participate in an informal Grant Primer on Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 2-3 p.m., with Michael Abdallah, Oakland County Department of Economic Development & Community Affairs.This live, virtual session will be open to Q&A interaction. GotoMeeting: Oakland Together Small Business Recovery Grant Primer Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/275154381 You can also dial in using your phone: United States: +1 (571) 317-3112 Access Code: 275-154-381 New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts: https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/275154381

2. Michigan Small Business Restart Program

Click Here for Application
Closes: 11:59 p.m., Wednesday, August 5, 2020

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is administering the State’s $100 million CARES Act funding to help Michigan’s small businesses restart following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Oakland County will receive $11 million as part of this grant program. Businesses can apply for grants of up to $20,000.  Awardees will be announced no later than September 30.

ELIGIBILITY
Businesses and nonprofits with 50 or fewer employees, worldwide, located in Michigan. Businesses must also demonstrate the following:

• Part of an industry or nonprofit that can demonstrate it has been impacted by the COVID-19 emergency
• Needs working capital to support payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility expenses or other similar expenses
• Demonstrates an income loss as result of the COVID-19 emergency as determined by the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF).

Additionally, at least 30 percent of the funds awarded under this program will 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.

Grants must be used for expenditures made between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020 that meet the following criteria:  Necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19 (such as resulting from employment or business interruptions due to COVID-19).  And, working capital to support payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility expenses, costs related to reopening a business or nonprofit, or other use authorized under the CARES Act.

Questions?  Contact the MEDC Call Center (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.):
(888) 522-0103

3. PPE Resilience Grant

Click Here for Application

Oakland County, in partnership with Macomb County and Automation Alley, has created this grant to help enhance the emergency response readiness of the counties’ small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the application of digital technologies known as Industry 4.0.  Grant funds will be used to re-train, re-organize, upskill, install and incorporate state-of-the-art digital manufacturing to prepare for a more resilient future when PPE is needed.

Industry 4.0 technologies for the purposes of this grant program refer to: Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, The Cloud, Cybersecurity, Additive Manufacturing and Advanced Materials and Modeling, Simulation, Visualization, and Immersion (MSVI).

Industry 4.0 technologies enable rapid and resilient responses to catastrophic events. The following are some examples of their use during the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Digital factory and MSVI technologies used to model TCF Center in Detroit
• Additive manufacturing used to produce ventilator parts and molds, and PPE
• Big data used to assess COVID-19 spread, behaviors, and trends
• Cybersecurity technologies critical for secure contact tracing

Questions? Contact Dom Holmes at Oakland County:  holmesd@oakgov.com