Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant – Applications Closing

Applications closed July 2!

This program administered by the provincial government provides grants and recovery training and consulting to small and medium businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  This program is available to BC businesses impacted by COVID-19 and who experienced at least a 30% decline in revenue for one month between March 2020 and the date of their application (compared to same month in 2019).   Full information on the grant is available here. 

How It Works:

  • Eligible businesses (see below) apply for support through an online application. (Apply online)
  • Applications are accepted until July 2 or until the allocated funding has been committed
  • Applicants will need to upload certain financial documents and statements such as balance sheets and tax returns (see here)
  • If an applicant is eligible, they will need to provide a “recovery plan”.  This plan will outline how the funds will be used. To develop this plan:
    • Applicants can be matched with a professional services provider who will provide $2,000 worth of free consulting to assess the business’ recovery plan or to help them develop one; or
    • Applicant can use their own professional service provider to develop the plan for them (but their provider must be registered with Small Business BC to get funding)
    • Applicant can use their own service provider and not register them, or can do the plan themselves, they just won’t get any additional funding in this case to help with the plan development
  • This plan is submitted to the government, and if approved, grant funding is provided to implement the plan.
  • Assistance submitted the complete application is now being offered by Small Business BC

Grant Amounts

  • The amount of the grant you can receive is related to your pre-COVID revenue:
    Pre-COVID revenue Grant amount
    Less than $100,000 $10,000
    $100,000 to $1,000,000 $15,000
    $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 $20,000
    More than $3,000,000 $30,000
  • Tourism businesses can receive an additional top-up grant of $5000 (for those with 2 – 4 employees  or $15,000 for those with 5-149 employees)

Eligibility 

  • There is a significant eligibility criteria.  Full details are available here.
  • Must have been operating in BC for at least 18 months at the time of application
  • Businesses must have experienced a revenue loss of 30% or more in a one-month period (when compared to 2019) between March 2020 and the date of their application.  For example, a business would be eligible if they had $100,000 in revenue in July 2019 but only $70,000 in revenue in July 2020.
  • Must have between 2 and 149 employees for at least 4 months of the year for whom they deduct and remit payroll taxes.  For owners who work in the business but do not draw a salary, only one can count toward this requirement
    • For businesses such as sole proprietorships and partnerships that do not have staff, they can apply but must explain how the grant will help their recovery
  • Must be majority-owned by a BC resident, with primary operations in BC.
  • The business must be registered and based in BC — subsidiaries of organizations outside of BC are not eligible
  • For the tourism top-up, businesses must be in the tourism sector and have 75% of their revenue derived from visitors to BC

Using the Funding

Funding can be used to implement the actions identified in your recovery plan. Your actions should be specific to your business recovery.

For example, you might propose to:

  • Provide new services to your customers
  • Modify your physical business location
  • Install new outdoor patio with social distancing barriers
  • Support your business moving online
  • Hire a B.C.-based online marketing service
  • Diversify your business to reach new customers or offer new services (E.g. delivery, new tour packages, new products)
  • Purchase equipment to support a change or improvement to your goods or services
  • Pay for rent, lease, or other fixed costs
  • Other actions that support your business recovery

You can include actions in your recovery plan that your business took since the program began on September 17, 2020.