As part of its ongoing effort to help local businesses get through the COVID-19 public health emergency, the City of Kenai is offering grants of up to $1,000 each for individualized marketing and e-commerce development plans.
The City is offering the grants to businesses located in Kenai, with at least $10,000 in gross revenues in 2019 and which have been hurt by a loss of sales or changes in their operations due to the ongoing public health emergency.
The City Council has approved the use of up to $50,000 in federal CARES Act money to pay for the marketing grant program. The marketing and online assistance is in addition to the City’s earlier grant program that disbursed more than $2.2 million in CARES Act money to local businesses and nonprofits.
City of Kenai CARES Act Project Lead Larry Persily: “Let’s say you’re a Kenai business and the world has changed this year. You’re doing online orders. Your sales and services, you’re delivering them differently than you used to before. You want to build-up your website. You want to set-up e-commerce online purchases, online ordering. You want to do more social marketing, but you’re really not sure of how to do it. Maybe you’re like me, you’re 68 years old, you don’t even have a clue of how to do it. The idea was: let’s help the businesses adapt and evolve into the new world that we’re seeing.”
He also noted that the City of Kenai does not decide how the money is spent, though there are a few rules: “You’ve gotta spend it by December 30. You’ve gotta work with the city’s contractor if you want to use yours to design a new website, set up a whole new online ordering system for your customers, or if you want to get into social media marketing. You can use it for anything that helps your business, that’s legal, that’s in the boundaries of good taste, that helps you get through and adapt your business to the way people are going to shop and spend money, and the way you’re going to have to advertise and market going ahead.”
The City has contracted with Divining Point, which provides website and online marketing assistance for the City of Kenai, Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council, and other enterprises in Alaska and Texas.
Under the City of Kenai program, each eligible business will receive a grant covering the first $1,000 worth of work with Divining Point. If a business wants to continue past the $1,000, it is their decision.
Applications are available online at the City of Kenai’s website. The deadline for applications is 5:00 p.m. on November 6. Businesses must use their $1,000 grant by December 30.