Small businesses in Victoria's beer and hospitality industries can now apply for grants from the state government. Applications for assistance via the Business Support Fund announced by the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on March 21 are now open.
The $500 million fund has been launched to help small businesses survive the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and keep people in work and is part of the Victorian Government’s $1.7 billion Economic Survival Package.
The aim is to support small businesses that employ staff and are subject to closure or highly impacted by the shutdown restrictions as a result of COVID-19. Grants of $10,000 are available for individual businesses and can be used towards things such as meeting business costs (utilities, rent, salaries), seeking financial or legal advice to support business continuity planning, developing the business through marketing and communications activities, or other supporting activities related to the operation of the business.
To be eligible, businesses need to meet the following criteria:
- have been subject to closure or highly impacted by shutdown restrictions
- employ people
- have a turnover of more than $75,000
- have a payroll of less than $650,000
- hold an ABN and have held that ABN at 16 March 2020 (date the state of emergency was declared), and
- have been engaged in carrying out the operation of business in Victoria on 16 March 2020.
If you believe your business is eligible and want to apply you can head here to register. If you have any questions about the program, contact the Program Centre on 13 22 15 or email program.centre@ecodev.vic.gov.au.
Applications are now open and are being accepted until 1 June 2020.
NB You will have to upload your most recent Business Activity Statement as part of the application. If you've not yet made the change to access your Business Portal via MyGovID, you will need to do so in order to access online statements. From personal experience, I suggest doing this over the phone with the ATO direct to save time. There's a good chance you'll also have to be prepared for some delays accessing the ATO online due to the weight of traffic.
We've added this to the Ideas Pool page of the #keepinglocalalive campaign. If you know of any other resources available for anyone in the local beer and hospo worlds impacted by the current crisis we can share via the campaign, please get in touch.
