A local business that benefited from a COVID relief grant got a visit from the governor. His trip to Lima was to tour the facility and talk about and how other small businesses could still be eligible for one of those grants.
Sign Solutions of Ohio is a small business with big operations and they’ve recently had a helping hand from the state’s COVID relief grant. On Thursday, Governor Mike DeWine toured the facility to see how state assistance helped them through the pandemic.
The sign shop sits tucked away on the Southside of Lima, but their work can be seen all over the area. During the pandemic, though, it became difficult for the shop to get their hands on the materials needed to do their job. With a $10,000 grant from the state, they were able to keep an inventory bigger than usual to combat the scarcity of supplies.
During the tour, DeWine explains that small businesses are the backbone of our economy and it’s important for the state to support them when they need it.
“This is part of the money that had been set aside by our administration and by the state legislature to help small businesses," says DeWine. "Small businesses create most of the jobs in the state. We always focus on the big businesses or we seem to focus a lot on the big businesses but it’s the small businesses that really make a difference.”
There are still grants available for small businesses just like Sign Solutions of Ohio. Around one-third of the $300 million set aside for the COVID relief grants have been claimed, and DeWine is encouraging all other small businesses to look into receiving some of that money.
Mike Powell, owner of Sign Solutions of Ohio says, “It is interesting because it does emphasize that they do care about small businesses because really you can’t--we’re a five-person operation so you can’t get much smaller than that-- and so they’re interested in terms of helping small businesses and they realize it.”
There is a wide variety of COVID relief grants available in the state, and not just for small businesses. For more information, you can head to businesshelp.ohio.gov.
