State Expands Small Business Restart Grant Program

Cris Johnston is the director of the Indiana Office of Management and Budget.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has announced changes to a program designed to help Hoosier small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline to apply for assistance from the Indiana Small Business Restart Grant program has been extended and eligibility requirements have been expanded as well.

The program launched in early June and, to date, has issued just over $1 million in grants to nearly 250 small businesses throughout 83 of the state’s 92 counties.

The deadline for eligible small businesses in Marion County to apply for grant funding has been extended through November 1. Businesses outside of Marion County now have until December 1 to apply.

Previously, businesses that had received funding through federal programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Community Development Block Grants were not eligible to receive funding from the state program. 

The IEDC says businesses that have received such federal funding are now eligible to apply for assistance through the Indiana Small Business Restart program.

“We think that now that the PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program, has terminated, that that might be an opportunity to still fill some of those gaps for Hoosier small businesses,” said Cris Johnston, director of the Indiana Office of Management and Budget. “We think, in fact, that requirement that you could not have received federal assistance may have been a limiting factor as far as the participation in that program.”

The state says the changes aim to increase the number of small businesses utilizing the program and to increase the amount of assistance they could receive. The grants can be used for qualified business expenses, such as rent or mortgage payments, utilities, lease payments for real or personal property, and safety investments, incurred in the additional months of October and November of 2020.

Additionally, in order to be eligible for funding through the program, businesses must be registered to operate in Indiana, have had less than 50 employees as of December 31, 2019, had have had less than $5 million in revenue in 2019. The businesses must have been profitable in 2019 and must demonstrate a monthly revenue loss of at least 40% compared to pre-pandemic revenues.

The Indiana Small Business Restart Grant was established with $31 million made available through the CARES Act. At least $5 million is being reserved for certified minority-owned and women-owned businesses.