Greetings Mountain BizWorks Borrowers,
For 30 years, Mountain BizWorks has worked to advance a vibrant and inclusive local economy across the mountains of Western North Carolina. At no point during these three decades has there been a more acute challenge to our local small businesses than the one posed by the current COVID-19 outbreak.
In recent days, we’ve heard from so many of you about the challenges you’re facing, and we understand that many of you are already losing revenue because of this pandemic.
Rest assured, we are with you. We’re making every effort – both directly and by engaging our public and private sector partners – to marshal solutions and resources needed to help our local businesses navigate these trying times.
As a first step, we are able to announce we will defer all April loan payments for existing Mountain BizWorks loan clients – no payment will be drafted from your bank account in April. We hope this will help you, in at least some small way, as you focus resources on continuing to support your customers, your employees, and our community.
We realize that the economic impacts of COVID-19 will extend well into the future. As such, we will continue to investigate other avenues to assist our region’s small businesses. Please keep an eye on your inbox in the coming days and weeks for the latest updates on disaster-related funds and other resources you may be able to access.
We encourage you to contact your Mountain BizWorks lender directly should you need additional short-term working capital or access to other financing options. We also recommend you finalize your 2019 internal financial statements in preparation for applying for additional capital when it becomes available.
As always, our network of successful local business owners stands ready to assist you with customized, peer-to-peer business coaching. If you need a confidential resource to help you navigate the challenges related to the COVID-19 outbreak, request a virtual coaching session.
We also want to take a moment to share how inspired we’ve been by the adaptive and creative solutions many of you have implemented to continue providing your goods and services to our community. We’re incredibly grateful to live and work in a region so supportive of its local economy and the entrepreneurs at the heart of it.
How are you adapting to these challenging times? Send us your story – we’d love to share it with the Mountain BizWorks community.
We know this is a stressful time for you, and we’re here to support you in any way we can.
Stay healthy and safe,
Matt Raker
Executive Director
Mountain BizWorks
See the latest updates on our response to COVID-19.
Together, we can ensure our local economy is resilient in the face of coronavirus.