New Grants: Now in its fourth round, KKR Small Business Builders is here to support entrepreneurs and their small businesses around the world. More than a hundred recipients have already been selected to receive a $10,000 grant as well as mentoring and coaching opportunities with KKR employees. Everyone who applies receives free access to the thousands of curated resources and a community of 360,000+ small business owners on Hello Alice.
To qualify, you must: Operate in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Singapore, Luxembourg, Japan, Ireland, India, Germany, France, England, China, or Australia. Be a for-profit business. Have 5 – 50 employees. Have generated annual gross revenues in 2019 of less than $7 million. Have a demonstrated need for support. Propose a strong plan for moving forward
Although the application asks for the name and email of the KKR employee who nominated you, those questions are optional! Anybody who meets the eligibility rules can apply.
To learn more about the program and submit an application, visit kkr.helloalice.com or Apply now!
In December 2020, the state began the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program that provides micro grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to eligible small businesses and nonprofits impacted by COVID-19 and the related health and safety restrictions. The State built on the program it began in December by allocating an additional $2.1 billion, including a special program allotment of $50M for non-profit cultural institutions. The California Office of the Small Business Advocate, through their selected intermediary, Lendistry, will administer the new $2.1 billion allocation.
The remaining additional rounds will be conducted as follows:
Round 5: Thursday, March 25th through Wednesday, March 31st
- Eligible applicants: current waitlisted small businesses and nonprofits not selected in Rounds 1, 2, or 3 and new applicants that meet eligibility criteria found at CAReliefGrant.com.
- Eligible grant award: $5,000 - $25,000
- Details: Applicants not selected to receive a grant in Rounds 1, 2, & 3 do not need to reapply as they will be automatically moved into Round 5. New applicants will need to apply at CAReliefGrant.com.
Round 6: Date to be announced soon
- Eligible applicants: current waitlisted small businesses and/or nonprofits not selected in Rounds 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 and new applicants that meet eligibility criteria found at CAReliefGrant.com.
- Eligible grant award: $5,000 - $25,000
- Details: Applicants not selected to receive a grant in Rounds 1, 2, 3 & 5 do not need to re-apply and will be automatically moved into Round 6. New applicants will need to apply at CAReliefGrant.com.
If you are small business owner who already applied for a loan, do not worry about reapplying. If you have not applied, additional information on eligibility, required documentation and the application can be found at CAReliefGrant.com.
The Numbers: Pasadena reported secen new cases on Saturday with no fatalities.
Los Angeles County has reported 700 new cases of the coronavirus and 23 additional deaths, as health officials warned that Spring Break and upcoming religious holidays present a danger of greater transmission of the virus. The number of COVID-19 patients in county hospitals declined slightly from 676 on Friday to 669 Saturday, with the number of those in intensive care dropping from 170 to 166, according to state figures. Saturday’s numbers brought county’s totals to 1,217,707 cases and 23,078 deaths since the pandemic began, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
California: As of March 28, California has 3,562,191 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 57,746 deaths. On Saturday, the state reported 2998 new cases and 195 fatalities.
PPP Loans: Friday, the Senate voted to pass H.R. 1799, the “PPP Extension Act” which will ensure that small businesses have appropriate access to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as they continue to struggle due to the impact of the pandemic.
COVID-19 vaccine eligibility has been slowly expanding in the state in recent weeks. Most recently, eligibility was extended to people aged 16 and over with serious underlying health conditions that put them at risk of severe illness or death from COVID. An array of essential workers are already eligible for vaccines, such as teachers and food workers. Health care workers were the first to be given access to the vaccine, and everyone in the state aged 65 and over is already eligible. Thursday’s announcement means everyone in the state aged 16 and up will be eligible for the shots in mid-April. However, given the state’s vast population, it will still take months to provide the vaccines to everyone who wants one.
School: From PasadenaNOW: The Pasadena Unified School District and United Teachers of Pasadena on Friday announced an agreement on reopening middle and high schools for in-person instruction, setting the date for student cohorts to begin returning to campus on April 20, according to a statement issued by the district.
As previously announced, PUSD student cohorts in preschool through second grade will begin returning April 13. Student cohorts in grades 3-5 return April 20. Student cohorts in grades 6-12 will begin to return for in-person instruction on April 20 in the hybrid simultaneous learning model where groups of students are in the classroom and their classmates remain in distance learning, the statement said.
Students who select in-person learning will be on campus in cohorts for two consecutive days between Tuesday and Friday and the remainder of the week in distance learning. Students will be on campus either Tuesday-Wednesday or Thursday-Friday, depending on their cohort assignment.
Cohorts will be assigned according to the results of the Return to Campus Survey which closes for 6-12 parents/guardians on April 7, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Schools will notify parents/guardians about their students’ cohort assignments the week of April 12. Middle and high schools will hold orientation sessions for their school communities the week of April 12.
The Economy: From the Financial Times: Fed expects US economic growth to hit 6.5% this year but signals no rate rises until 2024: Federal Reserve officials sharply upgraded their growth forecasts for the world’s largest economy but signalled that they expected to keep interest rates close to zero until at least 2024. The median estimate from Fed officials now predicts that US economic growth will reach 6.5 per cent this year, compared with 4.2 per cent in its December forecast. The rosier projections from the Fed came at the end of a two-day meeting of the FOMC on Wednesday held against a backdrop of growing optimism about the US economy in the wake of Joe Biden’s $1.9tn fiscal stimulus and the country’s swift vaccination rollout.
From The Wall Street Journal: On Wednesday, it was the durable goods report’s turn. The Commerce Department said that new orders for long-lasting manufactured items dropped 1.1% in February from January, snapping a nine-month streak of gains. Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, seen as a gauge of the direction of companies’ capital spending, slipped 0.8% in the first decline since April of last year.
It was probably the weather that drove the drop in orders, just as it was probably the weather that accounted for the decline in February existing and new home sales, reported earlier this week, and for the decline in February retail sales and industrial production reported last week. The strong winter storms that hit the country last month, and particularly the Texas blackouts, pushed the pause button on all types of economic activity.
There are signs that things got back on track this month. Creditcard data suggest retail sales have already bounced back. March manufacturing surveys indicate that fac- tories are, if anything, struggling to keep up with demand, which should help push capital spending along.
Indeed, the bigger question in the months ahead may not be whether manufacturers continue to experience growing demand, but what the contours of that demand will be as more people are vaccinated, allowing the economy, with hope, to reopen further. Orders for computers and electronic goods, which were a source of strength through much of last year, were softening even before February. Industrial categories, such as manufacturing equipment, have done better.
Still, until March data arrives it won’t be possible to know for sure if February’s economic setbacks were about anything more than the weather. Worse, while it makes sense that demand will rise with Covid-19 cases down sharply from earlier this year and vaccinations rolling out, the ultimate size and shape of that rebound remains muddled. February’s economic reports might not be worth worrying much about, but neither were they helpful.