City of Bakersfield offering up to $20,000 in grants for small businesses

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — As of Friday, the City of Bakersfield has approved 50 applications for the B-Cares grant program but there's still money available! City spokesperson Joe Conroy joined 23ABC this morning to encourage local businesses to still apply.

Businesses must meet the following qualifications in order to apply:

1. Applicant must be independently owned and operated and have a current Business Tax Certificate issued by the City of Bakersfield
2. Applicant must be a for profit small business as defined by the following:
   1. Have between one and not more than twenty-five full time equivalent (FTE) employees. An FTE employee works an average of 40 hours a week so to determine a business’ FTE count, just add the average hours worked per employee and divide that by 40.The owner operator of a business is considered one FTE.
   2. Annual revenues are less that $5,000,000 for the calendar year 2019.
   3. Demonstrate and certify that business has been operating for at least one full year prior to March 1, 2020.
3. Applicant must certify that business has experienced at least a 25% reduction in revenue since March 1, 2020 and that grant proceeds will be used for allowable expenses under the Federal CARES Act guidelines

In order to apply, click here.