Extension’s focus turns to county grant program

This week’s University of Nevada, Reno Extension online town hall and webinar will focus on a new program launched by the Nevada Association of Counties to assist small business.

Wednesday’s town hall, with both an English and a Spanish session, will discuss the County Small Business Grant Program, which begins Sept. 8 and will be aimed at small businesses in Douglas, Elko, Lincoln, Lyon, Nye, Storey, Washoe and White Pine counties. The program will help small businesses experiencing hardship due to COVID-19. Businesses must have been in business for at least six months prior to COVID-19 to be eligible.

The grants can be used to help cover personal protective equipment, business retrofits and operating expenses, including payroll and rent.

The Nevada Small Business Development Center will help businesses through the application process and has hired three new small business advisers, as well as a new lead business development advisor, Jamie Schwartz, to assist with the program.

The webinar, on Tuesday for English speakers and on Friday for Spanish speakers, will focus on managing cash flow and using cash flow reports. Tuesday’s session is offered in conjunction with the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce’s series of quarterly business seminars.

Both the town hall and the webinar are free for interested participants and are part of the “Coping With COVID-19” series being offered each week by Extension. The town halls begin with a presentation on a given topic, and then participants network with one another and drive the discussion. The webinars provide information on specific topics to help businesses plan strategically, adapt and succeed.

The town hall, “County Small Business Grant Program” is 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2 for English speakers and 2 p.m. for Spanish speakers. Panelists include Small Business Administration Deputy District Director Saul Ramos (9 a.m.) and SBA outreach/marketing specialist Alfred Cedeno (2 p.m.), NACO executive director Dagny Stapleton (9 a.m.), small business adviser Tony Salazar from the Nevada Small Business Development Center and several representatives of UNR Extension, including program officer Willie Daugherty, community-based instructor JR Mendoza, business development instructors Reyna Mendez and Juan Salas and research associate Mike Bindrup.

The webinar, “Cash Flow &Business Finance,” is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1 for English speakers and 11:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 4 for Spanish speakers. Salas will discuss the cash flow report and its sections, benefits and limitations of a cash flow report, improving cash flow during COVID-19 and how to be prepared for business financing applications.

“It’s great that NACO has developed this new grant program to help small businesses, especially in rural communities, through this tough time,” said Buddy Borden, economic development specialist with Extension’s Business Development Program. “Wednesday’s town hall will give business owners the nuts and bolts of the program, and Dagny from NACO will be there to answer questions.”

Both the town halls and the webinars usually run about an hour.

To register for the English-language webinar, go to https://unrextension.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w4C_PBScRFmQ4BxFSs-Law.

For the English-language town hall, go to https://unrextension.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5yjPkFDBQMWjusYXy0HvVA.

For the Spanish-language town hall, go to https://unrextension.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FJ2L5iaCQnmRLhAe8CWDBQ.

For the Spanish-language webinar, go to https://unrextension.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZBFmQsg6S6GH2iT-oKfmGw.

For more information, go to the Extension Business Development Program website at extension.unr.edu/busdev. There are also other resources at the website to assist businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. For more information, email Borden at bordenb@unr.edu.