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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Minority-owned and women-owned business matching grants continue in 2010

Racine County offers grants of up to $2,500 each for small and medium-sized minority-owned and women-owned businesses in Racine County. (Non-profits are not eligible.)

The program is designed to help minority-owned and women-owned businesses prosper and grow, so that they can continue to provide jobs in Racine County for minority and women entrepreneurs and their employees. The grants will provide qualifying businesses with up to $2,500 to help cover costs associated with improving their business operations. Examples of goods/services that can be paid for with the grants are: staff training, business consulting services, marketing plans, and business systems upgrades. Normally, equipment will not be eligible for grants, although computer systems may be approved on a case by case basis.

Grants will be made to for-profit businesses that meet all of these criteria:

• At least 51% minority-owned or women-owned
• Based in Racine County
• Have no more than 200 employees
• Have average annual sales of no more than $5 million.

These are 50% matching grants. This means they will reimburse a business for 50% of allowable expenses, up to a maximum of $2,500. For example, a business with $4,000 in allowable expenses will receive $2,000; a business with $5,000 in allowable expenses will receive $2,500; and a business with $6,000 in allowable expenses will receive $2,500.

County Executive Bill McReynolds said: “Especially in these economically challenging times, Racine County wants to be part of the solution helping small to medium-sized minority-owned and women-owned businesses grow. This matching grant program is one example of Racine County’s commitment to addressing the concerns of minority and women entrepreneurs.”

The grant program is managed on behalf of Racine County by the UW-Parkside Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Minority-owned and women-owned businesses based in Racine County that are interested in receiving grant funds for authorized purposes should contact Matt Wagner, Executive Director of the SBDC, for more information. Grant applications can be found on-line at http://www.parksidesbdc.com or www.wdc.racineco.com

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