The $2 trillion stimulus package approved by Congress is on its way, but in the meantime, small businesses are struggling. This has led some companies to start offering grants to help them deal through the COVID-19 recovery. Salesforce is one of those companies.
The announcement of the Salesforce Care Small Business Grants initiative will offer $10,000 to keep businesses afloat. The infusion of capital will help businesses address their inventory and payroll needs. In addition to the capital, Salesforce is making some of its solutions available for free along with a host of resources.
Salesforce Care Small Business Grants
The grant from Salesforce will be for a total of $5 million. The funds will be available starting in mid-April for U.S. businesses. The company says it will provide information for the international support of small businesses at a later date.
You can sign up to get notified for the grant here.
But the grant is just one arm of the support Salesforce is offering small businesses. A virtual toolbox of free resources, solutions and tips will continue to help business owners long after the grant money.
The Virtual Toolbox
The first tool available for small businesses is Salesforce Essentials, which will be available for free for 90 days.
Salesforce Essentials will help you keep track of your customers by providing a help center 24/7. Even though business might be slow during this difficult time, you can still stay in touch with your customers and keep them informed.
Whether you are open, closed or you are providing a new service you can use Essentials to let your old and new customers what you are up to.
Another tool Salesforce is providing free for 90 days is Tableau, but it is only for organizations with 20 employees or less.
Tableau transforms the data of your business into actionable insights. Tableau can pull in your mobile, Google Analytics, social, sales, CRM and other relevant data to provide a 360-degree view of your customers, prospect and industry segment.
The Workshops
You can sign up for a free virtual workshop and take advantage of the Salesforce knowledge base. Start with hands-on workshops for Essentials. You can learn with live workshops or at your own pace with the video library at Salesforce.
The videos cover sales, service, insights, sending mass emails and more. The goal is to give users a working understanding of Essentials to take advantage of all the features it provides. This includes asking experts so you can learn best practices for small business use cases during the pandemic and moving forward.
The Resources
Additional resources from Salesforce include tools and strategies for running your small business. You can access content on everything from how you can find customers with small business marketing to tips on how to stay positive and productive while working from home.
Beyond information for the COVID-19 related resources, Salesforce also includes content on taxes, customer experience, building your business plan, unemployment, start-up costs and more.
Whether you apply for the grant or not, make sure take to take advantage of the resources Salesforce is making available to small businesses.
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