Now it’s £5 MILLION for our small firms booster!
More free adverts up for grabs – but huge demand means today is last chance to claim
THE Mail on Sunday’s groundbreaking advertising giveaway for small firms has been deluged, receiving more than 5,000 applications in just four days.
Our boost for struggling local firms, launched last week with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), was set up with £3 million of funding to help 1,000 firms bounce back from the lockdown.
But it has proved so popular that the owner of The Mail of Sunday – Daily Mail and General Trust ( DMGT) – is pumping another £2 million into the scheme, taking the total to £5 million to help 500 more businesses get back on their feet. To avoid disappointment, we are giving small firms the rest of today to apply, with the scheme closing to applications at 10pm.
Businesses qualify if they have no more than 150 staff and a turnover of £ 6 million a year or less. All applications that meet the criteria (see below for more details) will be shortlisted, with firms then selected at random to receive advertising funds worth over £3,000 each.
Our advertising arm Mail Metro Media will help each successful firm design tailored adverts to run in The Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Metro, the i newspaper and online at our hugely popular Mail Online and Metro.co.uk websites.
The adverts will appear from next Sunday. Business owners can ask for their adverts to appear later if they wish, as long as it’s before September 30. For example, a delay can be requested if the company would rather wait until lockdown rules are loosened enough to return to full operations.
The giveaway is The Mail on Sunday doing its bit to help the millions of small firms struggling to cope in the coronavirus crisis. Many of them are family- run businesses that play a vital role in local communities. Small firms employ about 17 million people in Britain.
DMGT’s giveaway has drawn praise from Ministers, including Rishi Sunak. The Chancellor last week thanked the newspaper group for assisting firms that ‘ are the backbone of our economy’ and said they would ‘be vital in helping us recover from the outbreak’.
A study by the FSB revealed the importance of aid packages. It found that one in three small firms that have temporarily shut during the lockdown may never reopen.
Its survey of 5,000 companies found seven in ten have furloughed staff, and one in three are considering or have made redundancies.
Mike Cherry, FSB national chairman, said: ‘The economy will not go from zero to a hundred overnight once we’re in the recovery phase.
‘So it’s vital small firms receive as much help as possible. That’s why The Mail on Sunday’s offer is a fantastic opportunity for our members as they get back on their feet. This move is set to have a big impact.’