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Did you know? The USDA helps small rural businesses find grant funding | Opinion

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Did you know? The USDA helps small rural businesses find grant funding | Opinion

Amy Cowley
 |  Guest Columnist

Growing businesses from the ground up in rural Oklahoma can be difficult, but at Rural Development, we have programs designed to help our brightest entrepreneurs. As program director for one of the top funding agencies for rural businesses in America, I understand how difficult it can be to not only start a business but to be successful. Something I want to accomplish is to help not only our business startups, but also to bring much needed sales tax revenue to our rural communities.

Small business funding is one of the most sought-after forms of assistance within the Rural Business Cooperative Services (RBCS) section of USDA Rural Development. While RBCS cannot directly provode grants to small businesses with capital needs, we can work with public entities to provide that assistance through the Rural Business Development Grant Program.

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Through the years we have seen incredible success with this program. The town of Laverne is now home to a commercial kitchen incubator available for small food business owners to lease in order to create their delicious canned and packaged food items. The city of Comanche acquired a run-down roadside motel and updated it to create a space for small business owners to lease once a month as vendors at the Chisholm Trail Trading Post’s Second Monday Trade Days. Hoboken Coffee in Guthrie was able to reduce its 10-year plan down to five years by working with Logan County EDC to purchase a larger roaster. This has allowed Hoboken Coffee to expand into the wholesale market. Rural Enterprises Inc. was able to provide a 12-month training program to small businesses and entrepreneurs through its Women’s Business Center, and Main Street Altus created a strategic plan for its Main Street district. We have seen our Native American tribal partners create revolving loan funds to assist multiple small businesses within their tribal jurisdictions for many years as they continue to revolve their funds that were granted to them through Native American set-aside money.

There are some key things to note when applying for this program. The grant is designed to assist businesses in rural areas of the state that have fewer than 50 employees and less than $1 million in gross annual revenue at the time of application. Assistance can involve a piece of equipment, real estate, training or technical assistance.

While the business itself is unable to directly apply for funds, it benefits as the ultimate recipient of the funding. Public entities, such as municipalities, tribes, institutes of higher education and some nonprofit organizations, are eligible to apply for funds that they will use in turn to assist a small and emerging business. Public entities may also apply for funds to contract services with a third party to create a strategic economic development plan for a rural community or area; or to create a revolving loan fund to assist multiple businesses who may not be ready for conventional financing. This entity must also identify a small and emerging business, located in a rural area, as the ultimate recipient of the funds.

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Applications are accepted once a year, with the upcoming deadline being Feb. 28. Applications should be submitted via email to our staff. The RBDG program is a jobs driven program, it is important to share in the scope of work how the project will create or retain jobs in the rural community. While there is no maximum to apply for, the average grant amount funded with state-allocated money is $100,000, so it should be noted that we cannot fund partial projects, and all funds needed for the project will be verified before selection of the recipients.

Amy Cowley is director of USDA Rural Development Business and Cooperative Programs in Oklahoma. Application information is available at OKBusiness@usda.gov or 405-742-1060.

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