Small Biz Focus: It’s a New Year Filled With New Tools To Help Your Business

This article was written by Tara Palacios, Director of BizLaunch, and Alex Held, Small Business Manager, at Arlington Economic Development.

BizLaunch is pleased to officially announce its latest initiative to help small businesses during the health pandemic, ReLaunch, which kicks off this month with a webinar on Jan. 27. As part of the ReLaunch efforts, local businesses will have the opportunity to apply for a complimentary suite of business services and technology assistance to help their business in the upcoming months.

If you’d like to be sent a notification about the upcoming initiative or to learn more about what’s happening in the small business community in Arlington, please sign up for our BizLaunch newsletter. We hope you apply!

Paycheck Protection Program Update

On Monday Jan. 11, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reopened its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for new PPP borrowers. Starting today, small businesses that have received PPP funding previously are able to apply for additional PPP funding accessing what is called a Second Draw PPP Loan.

In order to promote access to capital, only community financial institutions are able to make First Draw and Second Draw PPP loans this week. Community financial institutions include Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs), Certified Development Companies (CDCs) and Microloan Intermediaries. To help borrowers prepare, sample applications for both the First Draw and Second Draw PPP loans are available on the SBA’s website.

In Arlington, two of our CDFI partners, Latino Economic Development Center and ECDC Enterprise Development Group, are both participating in the program, and businesses that don’t currently have a relationship with a 7(a) lender are able to apply. Shortly thereafter, the program will open to all participating PPP lenders, and all eligible businesses will be able to apply for the program. Businesses should consult with their financial institution, and visit the SBA’s website to learn more about the Paycheck Protection Program in order to take advantage of this resource.

For more information about capital resources available through the SBA, visit its website and stay up to date with us by signing up for our email.