Comprehensive 50 State Funding Guide for Freelancers, Self Employed, 1099 Workers, Independent Contractors, & Small Businesses During COVID-19

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By Chinwe Onyeagoro, PocketSuite.io

No doubt, it is really stressful to live and work while in the middle of a national disaster in the U.S. (and across the globe). It is even more challenging to be a business owner and employer at a time like this. There is a lot of uncertainty about when “shelter in place” guidance in key states will end and when a vaccine will be approved and released for COVID-19. Clearly, we will all breathe easier when that happens.

Until then, the most important thing is for you and your family to stay safe and healthy because you can’t help anyone if you are not well. Once that is taken care of, you will likely start thinking about your team members, clients, and business. Our Team at PocketSuite is so encouraged by how strong, creative, generous, and resilient the thousands of dedicated independent professionals, freelancers, and small businesses who we support every day have been since this COVID-19 challenge began.

In a time when client bookings, purchases, and activity have slowed or gone away completely, it’s hard to sustain a sense of hope and see the light at the end of the tunnel. For those of you who have been able to make changes in your business in order to continue to serve clients in a full or limited capacity, bravo! For those of you who are limited by needing to be in a salon, office, park, gym, studio, or physical space to serve clients, don’t worry…we will get through this temporary challenge together.

We have been sharing information daily in the PocketSuite Facebook Community on special grants, loans, funding assistance, Covid-19 aid, and disaster relief that are available to freelancers, self employed professionals, and small businesses. State, county, and city governments as well as financial institutions and private companies across the country are approving millions of dollars of local funding and business assistance every day. At the federal level, trillions of dollars have been set aside to help households and businesses and there is more to come. This funding assistance is on the way in many forms to help businesses sustain their incomes and reduce expenses, including:

Direct income assistance (i.e., cash, checks, grants)
Payroll, sales tax, and other tax postpones
Health benefits, sick pay leave, and other benefits for workers
Rent and mortgage holidays
Restrictions and moratoriums on commercial and residential evictions
Loans to support payroll and operations (Note: These loans will either have very low to zero interest. Some will even be forgivable loans that do not have to be paid back as long as they are used in a way that sustains your business and team members (if applicable.)

This Guide includes a list of loans, grants, and other funding from across all 50 states to support businesses during Covid-19. As many states and cities are still in the process of preparing and rolling out their programs, we will continue to add to it as we receive updates from cities and states with new funding and business assistance programs. This guide will not capture every program, but we will highlight those that are significant and accessible to independent professionals, solo business owners, self employed workers, 1099 contractors, and freelancers. Please email us at support@pocketsuite.io to let us know if we missed any. We’re happy to add them as we go. We hope you get a lot of funding from this guide and use these resources to keep your business healthy. Please stay safe, healthy, and full of hope.

Tap on your State below to view the list of eligible loans, grants, benefits, and other financial assistance available for you: