Cabarrus County is dedicating up to $5 million in American Rescue Plan Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to help small businesses recover from economic hardship caused by COVID-19.
Local small business owners have until October 15 to apply for one-time funding through the Cabarrus Recovery Grant – Small Business Support Program.
Qualifying expenses include:
- Payroll and benefit costs
- Mortgage/rent
- Utilities
- Operating costs
- COVID-19 prevention/mitigation (e.g., physical barriers, cleaning, testing, etc.)
Eligible businesses must:
- Have a location within Cabarrus County that opened before January 1, 2020
- Operate as a for-profit agency
- Have an independent owner/operator
- Employ 50 or fewer workers
- Demonstrate loss of revenue due to COVID-19
- Be in good standing with all federal, state and local governments (taxes, etc.)
- Provide 2019 and 2020 Federal Tax Returns with their application
- Meet County vendor onboarding requirements
The County will review applications and allocate funding after the October 15 deadline.
How to apply
To learn more and apply, visit cabarruscounty.us/BizGrant21.
From there, applicants can:
- Review information
- Submit their application online in a few easy steps
- Download and print the application to mail-in or hand-deliver
Applicants are required to answer a few qualifying questions, including how the business impacts Cabarrus County’s economy.
To complete the process, applicants will need to submit the business’ 2019 and 2020 Federal Tax Returns with the application. Online applicants will need to upload an electronic copy.
Paper applications are available at Cabarrus County’s libraries, Human Services Center, Veteran Services Office, Board of Elections Office, Senior Center in Concord and the Government Center (County Manager’s Office).
Previous COVID-19 assistance
Businesses that received COVID-19-related financial assistance (i.e., PPP) are eligible to apply for the grant; however, priority may be given to businesses that have not received such assistance.
Ineligible business categories
The federal government has outlined which businesses are ineligible for funding. These include, but are not limited to, non-profit businesses, financial businesses primarily engaged in lending, pyramid sale distribution plans and political organizations.
Steps toward recovery
The $5 million small business support initiative falls in line with other County efforts to support recovery.
Since March of 2020, the County has allocated federal and state recovery funds in the following ways:
- $6.5 million toward emergency rental and utility assistance
- More than $1 million in Nonprofit Resiliency Grants to 32 local agencies that helped stabilize the community during the pandemic
- $40 million toward local nonprofit efforts to support the community’s highest needs