For many, the world seems upside down these days in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. However despite the personal and professional challenges we’re facing in the current environment, Growth Capital is committed to being resilient in the face of change.
As a Certified Development Company (CDC), we’ve been busy ensuring our efforts continue to bring a positive impact to northeast Ohio and beyond. If your small business is looking to not only weather the storm, but to grow and thrive—here are 5 ways we can assist you.
1. Funding Loans
Despite the disruption of normal activities due to COVID-19, Growth Capital is operating as usual—continuing to provide loan assistance for small businesses. In fact, we recently funded six new loans totaling nearly one million dollars, and have received Small Business Administration (SBA) approval for four additional loans totaling an additional two million.
We’re getting capital into the hands of small businesses at a critical time—with no plans to slow down. We can assist you with appraisal and environment reviews, responding to regulatory requests and in general are keeping a keen eye on overall risk mitigation management.
2. Financial Relief
Growth Capital is also supporting small businesses by assisting borrowers with loan deferment requests to give them more time in light of economic strain.
Additionally, we can connect struggling small businesses to the SBA Disaster Relief Online Loan Application. This program offers financial relief from negative impacts that coronavirus precautions have put into place, such as the impact of social distancing on staff being able to be in office. By preserving the lifestyle of your business through the downturn, our hope is you’re more likely to be in a position to resume business as usual when it’s safe to open all doors again.
3. Adding to a Resilient Economy
We are committed to playing our own small, but vital, role in contributing to a resilient economy. Efforts include participating in the SBA Secondary Market, which increases our liquidity and allows us to issue more loans. We’re also issuing debentures to investors to raise capital and offer long-term loans that are based on credit rather than assets.
The bottom line? We’re paying vendors, making payroll, buying supplies and investing in new equipment purchases.
4. Adapting to the Market
Plato famously stated ”Necessity is the mother of invention,” and that still holds as true today as it did 2,500 years ago.
To keep up with the ongoing changes COVID-19 has resulted in for businesses and to assist in keeping people safe, the Growth Capital team is actively learning new approaches to our business and adapting to the evolving market, such as equipping our team as a fully remote workforce. We are constantly innovating to give borrowers and banks our best foot forward during these current challenges.
5. Building Relationships
One of our favorite ways the Growth Capital team is working to help small businesses weather the negative impacts of COVID-19 is participating in the building of stronger, intentional relationships for support.
With stay-at-home orders put in place in Ohio and beyond, it’s amazing to see how communities, small business owners, banking partners and all of our CPA and attorney friends have banded together to provide support, guidance and encouragement to one another. While we are “social distancing” physically, we are keeping the lines of communication open remotely—solidifying relationships that are not only important to weathering this crisis today, but will maintain value for years to come.
Here for Small Business Today, Here for Small Businesses Tomorrow
As Growth Capital takes measures to ensure the smooth continuation of operations, our entire team is ready to serve our small business borrowers and banking partners through the challenges of COVID-19.
We will continue to make prudent choices, love and support our Growth Capital families, and ultimately contribute to and share in our community’s resiliency. We’re here for you today, and we’ll be here for you tomorrow.
We look forward to a bright future together.