$50 Billion In Small Business Aid Approved & 4 More Small Business News Stories You Need To Know

Welcome to another week of Merchant Maverick’s essential news roundup for small business owners.

While the seemingly immortal Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl this past week, the small business world chugged on. A House committee approved a government aid bill, but overall small business optimism dropped. Read on through for this week’s top five must-know stories for small business owners:

$50 Billion In Small Business Aid Approved By Committee

As part of the latest stimulus effort, the House Small Business Committee approved legislation of $50 billion in emergency small business aid on Wednesday. The bill will now go to the House Budget Committee for inclusion in the greater stimulus package.

Per the Small Business Committee’s statement, the proposal includes a $25 billion grant program for small restaurants “and other food and drinking establishments” as well as $15 billion in funding for the Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Advance program.

Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) cited how “one in three small business owners will not survive the next few months without additional financial support” as being one of the key reasons for advancing the proposal.

Further reading: Federal Aid for Closed Cultural Venues Will Be a Race for Cash, The New York Times

Amidst Pandemic, Some Small Businesses Thrive

A new article by the Los Angeles Times noted how Main Street America, a Chicago nonprofit focused on revitalizing downtown districts nationwide, published a survey in August concluding that around 7.5 million American small businesses would close by the fall of 2020. However, that hasn’t happened — just 10% of those businesses that reported closing have actually done so.

Meanwhile, a different article by USA Today covered how some small businesses managed to pivot their sales models to great success. Specifically, businesses have shifted from in-store sales to selling online via platforms like Etsy and Amazon.

“If in January 2020 you told me that in two months’ time my shop would be selling nothing but I’d be making over $100,000 on Etsy, I’d tell you, you were nuts,” a baker in Florida said. “I had never even heard of Etsy.”

Further reading: The Complete Guide To Starting An Online Store For Your Brick & Mortar Business, Merchant Maverick

Small Business Optimism Dropped In January

The latest NFIB Small Business Optimism Index dropped 0.9 points from December to January to 95.0. According to the NFIB, such a number sits three points below the 47-year average.

Only 23% of business owners expect better conditions over the next six months, the lowest level for that category since November 2013. The NFIB added that the outcome of the next stimulus package could be reflected in the optimism of small business owners.

Latest PPP Loans Are Going To Repeat Customers

Several banks say most of the Paycheck Protection Program’s second round of loans are going to second draw customers. Per an article by American Banker, 86% of TD Bank’s 28,000 latest-round PPP loans went to business that had tapped the PPP previously. And Florida-based Axiom Bank said that second draws outnumbered new requests at a 10-to-1 clip.

Those numbers are in line with SBA data. According to the SBA, $93 billion of the $101 billion allocated during the PPP second round has gone to previous PPP borrowers.

Small Businesses In 5 Metro Areas Are Eligible For $10k Comcast Grants

Black, Indigenous, and other people of color-run small businesses run in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Philadelphia will be eligible to apply for grant funding in March. The program is part of Comcast RISE, an initiative to help business owners of color survive the pandemic that we covered previously.

This round of grant funding will feature $10,000 grants going to 500+ businesses. The application period will run from March 1 to March 14.

Further reading: Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grants

The Latest From Merchant Maverick

The SBA’s shuttered venue grant program will be opening sometime soon. If you’re a small business that operates a live venue, movie theater, or museum, represents talent, or produces theatrical productions, find out how you can prepare to apply:

• SBA Shuttered Venue Operators (SVO) Grant Program: Guide To Eligibility Requirements & Application

Something Good…

A Kenyan women’s plastic brick startup is doing its part to slow plastic pollution. The startup, based in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, produces 1,500 bricks a day using plastic waste.

“Our product is almost five to seven times stronger than concrete,” the startup’s founder Nzambi Matee told Reuters. Matee, a materials engineer who designed the startup’s machines, added that she was unhappy with the government’s inability to solve Kenya’s plastic waste problem: “I was tired of being on the sidelines.”