Funds given to struggling small businesses
James Catchick said Ray’s Ice Cream was on the brink of closing its doors for good last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 63-year-old Royal Oak icon is one of 6,000 small businesses statewide that will receive $52.5 million in grant funding through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s (MEDC) Michigan Small Business Survival Grant Program to help with payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility expenses, or other similar expenses.
Catchick, manager at Ray’s Ice Cream, said the impact of the pandemic on the business has been “pretty profound,” adding that half of its sales are made through distributing to restaurants and other businesses that have also been hit hard by the pandemic.
“Half of our business goes out to restaurants and grocery stores,” he said. “Once the restaurants closed down because of the lockdown orders, we lost a lot of business. We also had to close down our indoor dining room, which led to a lot of loss of business...I don’t think Ray’s would be here without this assistance. We were looking to close our doors last month. Our boss was honestly looking to shut the shop down.”
The grant will help the business retain around a dozen employees as well as pay for utilities and equipment. In addition to the MEDC support, the business launched a GoFundMe account last month and has raised over $78,000 with Catchick adding, “It absolutely blew up and saved us.”
In Oakland County, $6 million in grant program dollars are going to 1,348 small businesses, which will help retain 9,730 jobs, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).
To be eligible, businesses could have had no more than 100 employees as of Nov. 17, 2020; are in an industry that demonstrated it was affected by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) epidemic orders that have been in effect since Nov. 17; and have demonstrated an income loss as a result of that order.
In Oakland County, the grants applications were reviewed and grant dollars awarded by the county’s department of economic development.
These businesses are either fully closed or partially closed and have demonstrated. Grants awarded in Oakland County ranged from $1,825 to $7,500.
Mark Burton, MEDC CEO, said the Michigan Small Business Survival Program is providing significant support to small businesses helping to get them through this critical time and on the path to economic recovery,.
“We are thankful for the efforts of our economic development partners, who worked swiftly and diligently to deliver these vital financial resources within their regions and create a path toward economic recovery for small businesses throughout Michigan,” he said.
The grant program allowed for grants of up to $20,000 to be awarded to businesses that are fully closed, with grants of up to $15,000 awarded to businesses that have been partially closed, or otherwise are open and can demonstrate an impact. 5 percent of the overall funding ($2.75 million) will go toward administrative costs of the economic development organizations administering the grants. .
The dollars were appropriated as part of Senate Bill 748, a $106 million supplemental budget bill signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at the end of December to provide pandemic relief to businesses, the unemployed, and live music and entertainment venues.
A full list of businesses that received survival grants can be found at: https://www.michiganbusiness.org/survival/.