Small biz owners seek relief
BRIDGEPORT — With more than two weeks left for businesses to apply for coronavirus-related relief grants, City Hall has so far received 74 applications.
“That’s a pretty decent number,” said Fred Gee, whose Small and Minority Business Enterprise office is helping to administer the distribution of the $1 million in federal COVID-19 relief heading to Bridgeport.
After a few months of delays, the application process launched three weeks ago.
Maximum $25,000 individual grants will be awarded to companies that earned less than $1 million in gross revenue in 2019 and had 20 or fewer employees as of March 15, when the global pandemic struck Connecticut resulting in a host of costly new health and safety regulations, lost-revenues and layoffs.
Gee, Economic Director Thomas Gill and Rowena White, the city’s head of communications, told The Connecticut Post during a teleconference Tuesday they are doing everything possible to spread the word about the grants and help with the application process.
“Sometimes people say, ‘I’m applying for government funds, what does that open me up to?’ There might be some of that or some hesitation for filling out documents,” White said. “The way Fred and Tom have formulated this, they’ve tried to take away any of the hurdles and make it as simple as possible.”
“We did file-able forms online and also forms they can print,” Gill said.
Those are available at bridgeportct.gov/smbe.
Gee said he has received a lot of interest from downtown establishments and has met with community organizations and had staff distributing information in English and Spanish throughout the city to “some of those side streets and places not heavily populated” trying to ensure no one is left out.
“Word of mouth is a huge tool that still works,” Gee added. “We’ve had some submissions because business owners have spoken to other business owners.”
Deborah Thomas-Sims, who helps to run the small East End NRZ Market, helped organize a conference call with city officials and other East End businesses and, as of Tuesday, was finalizing her grant application.
Because of COVID-19, Sims said, the business did not move ahead with plans to open a cafe. And, she said, more residents are turning to food banks and pantries because of the impact the health crisis has had on the economy.
“There is a lot of free food,” Sims said. “We’ve seen our numbers in terms of people purchasing from us drop probably about 30 percent.”
Sims said many East End establishments need financial assistance: “A lot of people had to change the way they do business.”
Aaron Sarfati, owner of Contempo Suits downtown, already had an advantage when COVID-19 struck Connecticut. His store opened in 1985, began selling online 14 years ago and has relied less and less on in-person sales.
“You have to build up a customer base of (online) traffic. That doesn’t happen overnight,” Sarfati said, sympathizing with businesses that suddenly shifted to online commerce because of the pandemic. “That takes months upon months, even years.”
Still, Sarfati said, he applied for some of the $1 million “to help with some bills.” With so many people working from home and not going out to socialize, less of them are dressing up, which impacts Contempo’s bottom line, he said.
“Who’s going to wear suits these days?” Sarfati said.
The federal dollars can be used to help cover short term working capital and expenses, inventory and payments to vendors, advertising and marketing related to changes in hours or offerings, training staff in new procedures and some of the other costs of adapting a business to a COVID-19 economy, such as buying new technology.
Gee noted that while establishments that have received other forms of financial aid will not be disqualified, “We’re trying to hone in on businesses that haven’t received any of that funding and are looking for a bridge to hold them over the winter months.”
Gee and Gill said some applicants are confused about the need to obtain a special propriety DUNS number.
“Most in business two years or more have been assigned a DUNS number,” Gee said. “If you have any type of business credit, a DUNS number has already been assigned to you.”
White said more information can be obtained by visiting www.dnb.com/govtduns or calling 1-866-606-8220: “People shouldn’t be intimidated by it.”
Moses Garcia co-founded the Sweet Treats Bakery downtown five years ago. Garcia on Tuesday said he thought there were more pick-up orders this month for the holidays and also this week for New Year’s Eve and Day. But downtown foot traffic and visits have been way down during the pandemic.
“We had a lot of walkins. Kids. There’s hardly no walk-ins now,” Garcia said.
He was unaware the city was issuing business grants and said he would look into it for help covering Sweet Treats’ rent.
“We haven’t been able to pay,” Garcia said. “The (building) owner has been pretty lenient with us. But that’s one of our issues.”