cdp
Creating opportunities for people to live, work, & thrive on the Lower Cape
Inside Scoop - December 2021
Bringing you the latest tools to help your business.

You made it! 

As we close the books on another challenging year, we want to congratulate you for navigating the “new normal”. Community Development Partnership worked with 165 small businesses, fishermen, and entrepreneurs to strengthen and grow their businesses in 2021. In addition, we issued $183,000 in microloans and helped 41 businesses obtain $467,000 in Community Development Block Grant Covid-19 grants.

It’s never too early to start planning for 2022. Why not make working with Community Development Partnership your top New Year's resolution? We will be here to help you keep that resolution!

We have included the following resources to help you grow or stabilize and learn about topics important to your business.

December's Inside Scoop:

  • QuickBooks Online Workshop starts January 11th
  • Instagram 101 with SCORE on January 20th
  • Update to MGCC Small Business Grant Programs
  • SBA EIDL program ends December 31st
  • SBA Supplemental Shuttered Venue Operators Grants
  • SBA PPP Forgiveness Portal
  • Calling All Early Stage Food Entrepreneurs
  • Assets for Artists
  • December is National Write a Business Plan Month
  • Cape Cod Businesses: COVID-19 Economic Impacts November 2021 Survey
  • SCORE Recorded Webinar: 2021 Year-End Tax Planning for Your Business
  • CDP Business Assistance staff is here to help - Make an appointment now
  • QuickBooks Help
  • Do you need a microloan?

As always, if there is a business topic that comes up for which you need more information or assistance, please email or call. CDP staff will help find resources to answer your questions.

Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy & successful New Year!

Pam & Tricia


QuickBooks Online Workshop
Begins January 11th


Join Crystal Mucci, owner of CRM Bookkeeping & Consulting and a SCORE Subject Matter Expert to learn how to correctly set up your QuickBooks Online and then how to navigate the program. SCORE Mentor, Jim Dannhauser will also offer his expertise during this workshop.

Topics include how to: write checks; collect money; estimate; invoice; track time; pay bills; make bank deposits; run reports; set up budgets; set up loans; buy and depreciate equipment; send out collections letters; turn estimates into invoices; memorize transactions and more. The final workshop will include a Q&A session, to address items that participants may need further work on.

This workshop is a good opportunity for:
  • businesses who have never used QuickBooks Online to get an introduction to how it works
  • to ask questions and better understand the record keeping process
  • for those using QuickBooks Online and want some training or have questions.
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This workshop is available to all levels, even if you are using another method or program, come see if QuickBooks Online is right for you.

This is a 3 session workshop, held via Zoom
  • Tuesday, January 11th 10:00 - 11:30 AM
  • Tuesday, January 18th 10:00 - 11:30 AM
  • Tuesday, January 25th 10:00 - 11:30 AM
Cape Cod Coperative Bank
Thank you to our sponsor:
MGCC Grant Programs for Small Business Owners
Please read more about both programs below and follow the links. If you think either of these programs is a fit for your business, conntact pam@capecdp.org 
or call 508-240-7873 x18.
Crowd Funding Matching Grant

MGCC is partnering with a crowdfunding platform, Patronicity, to assist low to moderate-income and underserved entrepreneurs, and small business owners with meeting capital needs of their business through matching grants. The objective of the is to provide entrepreneurs with new knowledge and skills for growing their business and advancing toward innovative approaches to obtaining capital through the earned support of local residents, neighborhoods, community members, and stakeholders alike by raising funding to match the amount requested in their grant application. Eligible MA-based small businesses that have been nominated by MGCC’s SBTA providers may be funded up to $20,000.
Digital Capacity Building Grant Program - Updated 11/15/21

MGCC launched its Grant Program for the Development of Digital Capabilities on June 15, 2021 to provide funding (up to $5k) for tools and services to develop digital capabilities for your small business. MGCC will make these funds available for eligible businesses until funding is fully disbursed.
11/15/21 Update: MGCC previously required eligible small business applicants to pay 20% of their project costs and MGCC would cover 80% of their project costs UP TO $5,000. NOW, MGCC will cover up to $5,000 without requiring the 20% from the business owner. For those small business owners who already signed the grant application with the 80/20 split, please contact Pam. 
Current SBA COVID Relief Programs
LAST CALL FOR EIDL FUNDS
The December 31, 2021 deadline to apply is fast approaching. There are still billions of dollars still available to help small businesses hard hit by the pandemic. You may be eligible to receive up to $15,000 in funding from SBA that does not need to be repaid.

shuttered venue image
SHUTTERED VENUE OPERATORS GRANT
Supplemental awards are available to eligible applicants through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program.
Applicants can choose to apply for any amount up to 50% of their original SVOG amount, with a $10 million cap of the initial and supplemental awards combined, according to the law. The supplemental awards also allow SVOG recipients to extend the time to use their grant funds for expenses accrued through June 30, 2022 and lengthen their budget period to 18 months from the initial grant’s award date.
PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM
If your loan is $150,000 or less, you may be eligible to apply for direct forgiveness through the SBA's online portal.
Calling All Early-Stage Food Entrepreneurs

Cultivate Small Business is open to food businesses of all types, including restaurants, food trucks, bakers, food tech, and packaged goods companies. It’s ideal for people who have been running their food business for at least a year and are looking to strengthen their skills, knowledge, and peer network. The 12-week, fully virtual program is completely free to entrepreneurs, and provides you with industry-specific education, networks, and mentoring, along with the opportunity to apply for capital grants for your business.

The program runs April 19-June 28, 2022 and requires a commitment of about five hours/week. Applications are due January 28, 2022. 

Contact Ploy Khunisorn, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at CommonWealth Kitchen for more information about this exciting opportunity.

Cultivate Small Business is sponsored by Santander Bank and run in partnership with CommonWealth Kitchen, Babson College, and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner CityLatin American Education Development Association (NJ), and The Columbia-Harlem Small Business Development Center (NY).
Assets for Artists-Workshops through MassMOCA

Business Strategies for Artists w/ Shey Rivera Ríos
January 19 & 26, 2022, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (You are expected to attend both days.)

Artists often run their own creative business. And as the world changes, artists continue building alternative structures to sustain themselves. Let's talk about this and share experiences. This two-part workshop will present strategies for developing a more sustainable art practice and will also take a look at what opportunities exist for artists in today's economy.

Fostering Relationships w/ Galleries and Museums w/ Kristen Becker, Founder: KB Art Strategies
February 1 & 8, 2022, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (You are expected to attend both days.)

Gallery and museum relationships are in the midst of a big shift. Access to certain gallery and institutional opportunities seem at once more open and more siloed. In this workshop artists will learn how to seek out and build relationships with gallerists and curators, as well as best practices for communications and the expectations and etiquette of moving through curatorial consideration.
December is National Write A Business Plan Month!

End your year right by planning for next year. SCORE has you covered with these great live and recorded webinars.

December 28th 9:00-10:00 AM
Starting a business is a tough decision and needs proper planning. SCORE mentor, John Tile will cover the essentials of creating a business plan through a simple step-by-step process in this hands-on webinar. Topics include:

  • The basics of a business plan and will provide a few samples
  • A step-by-step process to develop the key information for your business plan
  • What you will need in order to do a simple business plan for yourself and a more detailed business plan if you need a bank loan
Upon completion of this webinar, you will have the key information that you will be able to use with your SCORE mentor in follow-up sessions to develop your formal business plan.

(Recorded Webinar)

Writing a one-page plan is highly useful because it forces you to be very focused and clear in your statements. As a result, it enables you to see quickly in a glance what you need to know to keep moving your business forward in the right direction.

In this hands-on workshop, led by expert business coach Jennifer Dawn, you will learn:
  • How to create a one-page business plan to guide the direction and growth of your company
  • Eliminate distraction and begin working with focus and purpose
  • How to take a step back and understand the scope and the strategy behind your tactics
Watch with a pen and paper, as you’ll walk away with a business plan that you can begin to execute immediately.

Business and Financial Templates Available

SCORE has a variety of business planning and financial templates available for download.
Cape Cod Commission and Cape Chamber of Commerce Launch Fourth Survey of COVID-19 Business Impacts

Continuing an economic impact discovery effort that began in the spring of 2020 following the onset of pandemic-related restrictions, the Cape Cod Commission and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce have issued a fourth online survey to Cape Cod businesses and non-profits.

The first pair of surveys, conducted in the summer and fall of 2020, provided critical information on immediate impacts to the region’s business community and insight into the support necessary for businesses and organizations to adapt. A third survey, issued in January 2021, sought to better understand the impacts of the pandemic over the course of the year and included specific questions about how they were fairing in the off-season.
This fourth follow-up survey will evaluate the extended effects of the pandemic, including for the 2021 summer season and examining the impacts of vaccinations on the workforce. Results will reveal more about changes to operations, effects on revenue, impacts to the workforce, and both financial and non-financial needs.
Data collected will inform the Cape Cod Commission’s economic resiliency planning efforts, which includes development of a regional economic resilience plan to address identified needs, and direct technical assistance to businesses by the Cape Cod Commission and the Chamber of Commerce.

Survey data collected to date can be leveraged by businesses, towns, and other organizations in grant applications and reports, as it documents the initial impacts of the pandemic as well as those felt during Cape Cod’s peak summer season. Results of the first three surveys are available at www.datacapecod.com.

Responses are held confidentially, and results are reported out in aggregate. Business owners and non-profit leaders from throughout the region, including past survey participants, are encouraged to respond. The survey will be open through late November, with results expected to be published in December.
2021 Year-End Tax Planning for Your Business - Recorded Webinar

In the final quarter of this challenging year, there is still time to take actions that can favorably impact your bottom line and your tax bill for 2021.

These measures relate to your employees, your customers, your equipment, and your operations. They reflect big changes made by the American Rescue Plan Act and other legislation (including extension of the Paycheck Protection Program), as well IRS pronouncements. 

Whether you work with a CPA or go it alone, learn which tax breaks apply to you and how to nail them down now before time runs out.

In this webinar you will learn:
  • Year-end actions to reduce your 2021 tax bill
  • Best business practices to avoid problems with the IRS
  • Strategies for potential tax changes to come
  • Necessary actions to get ready for 2022

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Barbara Weltman is a small business expert, prolific author and trusted advocate for small businesses and entrepreneurs. She also serves on the advisory board of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

The CDP offers Individual Business Guidance in a number of ways.
How can we help your business?
Individual Business Guidance

Are you self-employed, a solopreneur or a small business owner, and live or work on the Lower Cape?

The CDP offers individual business guidance for all types of businesses.

What are your business needs?

Professional Services Grants Still Available for 2021/2022.

Many businesses are finding the need to change their business model in these turbulent times. The CDP has Grant Funds available to help business owners hire specialized consultants to quickly implement these changes whether in technology, legal or marketing.
Make an appointment to learn more and to help stabilize or grow your business.
SCORE


Individual Mentoring through SCORE

SCORE offers individual mentoring across the Cape. The CDP partners with SCORE to offer mentoring on the Lower Cape. Due to COVID19 all SCORE Mentoring Session are currently being help remotely. Please register with SCORE using the link below.
QuickBooks Help tailored to your needs!

Did you struggle putting your records together to give your accountant?
Do you use QuickBooks but need to learn how it can do a better job for you and provide you with the information you need when you need it?

CDP Staff offers QuickBooks help. Follow the link below and schedule an appointment to get your business on track.
Need a microloan?

The CDP has microloans up to $50,000 for small businesses on the Lower and Outer Cape. Visit our website for complete program details and eligibility requirements.

We are able to lend to businesses that have a limited credit history, are too new to obtain a bank loan or need help developing a business plan or cash flow projections. We even work with local banks offering loan packaging to potential applicants.
The CDP's small business and technical assistance programs are made possible by the following funders:
Mass Growth Capital Corporation
Cape Cod Five Charitable Foundation Trust
Rockland Trust
Santander Bank

This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer.