16 Creative Funding Resources Your Small Business Should Use

 
The newly-signed stimulus plan offers small businesses some relief directly from the government, but right now, no one knows how long it will take to receive funds after you apply and if that package will be enough. That leaves most of us wondering—what do we do if we need money now? What if we can’t wait?

While we certainly encourage you to apply for funds under the CARES Act (and we’ll provide you with details on exactly how to do it), there are other funding sources out there that can help. Some of them are grant programs offered by corporations, while others provide your business with opportunities to make more revenue.

Alternate Funding Solutions Your Small Business Can Try

To help you get a full picture of your options, we put together this list of resources and ideas you can take advantage of as you look for creative solutions for generating cash flow. We’ll add to it over time and give you guidance on how to use each of these resources in upcoming articles.

Your current financial institution

Before you try anything else, reach out to your current bank, credit union, or financial institution. Many banks are rising to the challenge to help their small business customers get through these challenging times. Some are waiving credit card fees and allowing skipped payments; others can help you gain access to government loans and grants under the CARES Act. 

You won’t know what kind of assistance you have through your banks and credit unions unless you ask. So we encourage all business owners to reach out to their financial institutions, merchant services providers, and other sources of credit (big suppliers) to see how they can help you.

Small business relief from corporations

A few companies are offering relief in the form of grants and other programs to small businesses during this time. And while there are no guarantees that your company will secure a grant, it’s worth it to know what’s out there. 

Here are a few to consider.

Save Small Business Fund

An initiative of the US Chamber of Commerce and founded by Vistaprint, the Save Small Business Fund offers $5,000 grants to companies with more than three employees in hard-hit areas of the country who experienced negative financial effects of Coronavirus. 

Facebook Small Business Grant Program

Facebook announced recently that they’re offering 100 million dollars in grants to up to 30,000 small businesses affected by coronavirus. According to their site, these grants can help you pay your employees, upkeep your operations, and cover rent.

Right now, they haven’t released a way to apply, though you can sign up for updates so you know as soon as the application period opens. 

GoFundMe, Yelp, and Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Relief Fund

These three companies came together to provide 1.5 million dollars to small businesses through the Small Business Relief Fund. You can apply for a matching grant through the program if you have an active fundraiser and meet the qualifications (at least 500 dollars in donations). 

Nav Small Business Grant Contest

Nav is offering a 10k grant to small businesses who apply with their stories of perseverance in response to a challenge. We think coronavirus qualifies as a challenge, so polish up your writing skills and take a shot. The contest is open until May 30th.

Google Ads Credits

Google announced on March 27th that they’re providing 340 million dollars of free Google Ads credits to small businesses. In order to receive the credits, you need an active Google Ads account. And that’s it. 

According to a blog post by Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, the credits will appear in your accounts and are available until the end of 2020. While not a direct source of funding, these ads help you continue to sell your products and talk with your customers, which can lead to revenue increases. 

If you’ve never tried this form of advertising, check out this guide to Google Ads to get started.

Fundraising & crowdfunding platforms 

Some small businesses are using fundraising platforms to raise money to pay their staff or operational costs during the coronavirus outbreak. This works well if you have a great relationship with your local community.

Here are some platforms to explore:

IndieGoGo

Traditionally a platform for getting product ideas off the ground, IndieGoGo transformed into a crowdfunding resource for small businesses. 

They created a special landing page for the IndieGoGo Local Business Relief Program that outlines how you can use the platform during this time. They also waived fees so small businesses can take advantage of the platform at no cost.

GoFundMe

In addition to providing grants, GoFundMe and others are offering small businesses the opportunity to add donation buttons to their campaigns on their Yelp listing. This provides an additional outreach mechanism for campaigns so you can get more donations to stay open.

See their Small Business Relief Fundraiser page for more.

Provide your services online

Personal services providers have been hit hard by the outbreak. But at the same time, clients are held up in their homes with little more than their laptops, cell phones, and a few rolls of toilet paper to keep them company.  

You can continue to provide your services (and generate income) by moving online and connecting via online conferencing applications. Our members have used these applications to run yoga classes, karate for kids, and even do one-on-one consultations with clients. 

Here are some of the online conferencing tools others are using:

Zoom 

Zoom’s online video conferencing platform is perfect for small businesses needing to move classes or services online. Their free version works for most sole proprietors. But if you want to host classes, you might want to consider their pro version. At just $14.99 per month, you can hold classes for up to 100 attendees at a time. 

They are also offering some creative solutions for schools and nonprofits. You can learn more about their platform and learn how to use it in their coronavirus support center.

Google Hangouts

If you are already a Google Suite customer, this is a great solution for group meetings and classes. We use this a lot for our team meetings of up to 25 attendees, and as long as you set the etiquette in advance for how people should join (and tell them to use the mute button), it’s very easy and effective. 

They’re also offering all small businesses and schools their advanced Google Hangouts Meet free of charge during coronavirus. 

GoToMeeting by LogMeIn

Similar to the above platforms, GoToMeeting is a way to connect with your employees and clients via video conferencing. During the coronavirus outbreak, they’re offering Emergency Remote Work Kits that provide some of their services free of charge for up to three months to qualifying businesses.

Sell your products online

There are a wide variety of services available to sell products online, and we’re seeing many retail businesses adding the functionality to their websites. One of the best examples of small business owners getting creative as they shift online is bundling experiences with purchases. 

For example, a winemaker in Sonoma, CA offered to give a personal tour of the property (once the coronavirus outbreak is over) along with a tasting with the winemaker to anyone who purchased over a certain amount of wine during a two-day period.

Creating a sense of urgency along with a unique experience keeps the customer close to you and your business.  

Here are some resources for selling products online:

Website Hosts

Already have a website from one of the major players? Check out their online store offerings to see if you can quickly add one into your existing site.

Here are some of the most well-known platforms:

• GoDaddy’s Online Store
• Wix
• SquareSpace
• Weebly Online Store
• Web.com

Ecommerce platforms

There are also online store providers whose main focus is selling products and services online. The most notable of these include:

• Shopify 
• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce

Add online gift cards

Another strategy you might consider is adding a way for your customers to purchase gift cards online. This serves two purposes: 

1. It brings in necessary revenue now. 
2. It ensures that your customers come back to your business in the future. 

There are a lot of ways you can go about adding gift cards. In fact, all of the online selling platforms above include ways for you to add them into the mix. If you don’t have access through your website provider or don’t have an ecommerce store, here are some ways you can provide customers with the option. 

Kabbage

One of the largest online lenders recently announced a new program to help small businesses offer gift cards during the coronavirus outbreak. To reduce costs for small businesses, Kabbage has worked with its processing partners to offer their solution with no set-up fees and only a 2.5 percent per transaction charge. 

Square

A leader in online payment processing, Square has a simple solution for adding gift cards both online and in-store. The set up is free and simple, and transaction fees are 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per purchase.  

GiftFly

GiftFly is a gift-card application built on top of Stripe, which they use for payment processing. There are no set up or monthly fees, but based on how you process the transaction (via Stripe or Clover), you will be charged processing fees. 

In the case of Stripe it’s 2.7 percent plus 30 cents per transaction.

Pre-sell your services

Do you provide services on a regular basis to customers and are unable to provide them during the outbreak? Now’s a great time to reach out to your customers to let them know you are looking forward to getting back to work and offering them the opportunity to pre-purchase services (perhaps at a small discount) to help you and your team get through this crisis.

For more on this topic, check out this short post about how we can pay it forward for small businesses.

Beware of scammers

Scammers seem to come out of the woodwork when people are under a great deal of stress and confusion abounds. We encourage you to do your homework before accepting credit from someone you have not worked with in the past.  

To vet someone within the Alignable platform: 

• Search existing discussions or post a question in Advice to find out if other business owners have worked with a specific vendor.  
• Ask people in your network who they use and trust. 
• Reach out to highly recommended accountants in your area.  

To find credible lenders outside of Alignable:

• Small Business Development Centers
• SCORE
• SBA.gov

Related content: More funding sources from the government

Try one (or many!) of these strategies and be creative to stay afloat

We all need to be creative, flexible, and innovative to bring in funding and keep our businesses running well into the future. Try a few of the strategies on this list, and let us know if and how they’re working and other ways your business is making money.

In the meantime, we’ll bring you instructional guides and detailed information about many of the above options so implementing is easier and results come faster. We can do this.

What sources and strategies is your business using to make money during the coronavirus outbreak? What ones didn’t make our list? Share in the comments!

Related content: Get more ideas to keep your business afloat in our Coronavirus Resource and Recovery Center.