SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS RECEIVE GRANT MONEY

Keiashia Wood, owner of Key2Glam Hair and Makeup Artistry, was one of 46 local small business owners to receive money as part of the Verizon Foun- dation’s #PayItForwardLIVE, which was designed and executed by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Photo courtesy of Keiashia Wood
Keiashia Wood, owner of Key2Glam Hair and Makeup Artistry, was one of 46 local small business owners to receive money as part of the Verizon Foun- dation’s #PayItForwardLIVE, which was designed and executed by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Photo courtesy of Keiashia Wood

 Small Business owners receive grant money

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Keiashia Wood has owned Key2Glam Hair & Makeup Artistry, located at 2150 S. Canalport, for almost four years. Like most business owners, Wood has felt the effects of closures due to COVID-19.
     “We were very much affected by it. Me, personally, it probably hit me harder being the owner of the shop, because they still expected their rent. So, I still had to pay rent in a location I couldn’t do service in,” she said. “I took a really hard hit with that, not being able to work with clients and not being able to have the rest of my staff, because my staff pays booth rent.”
     Wood was one of 46 small business owners who received between $5,000 and $10,000 as part of Verizon Foundation’s #PayItForwardLIVE initiative, which was designed and executed by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
     Wood said the money she received from the initiative will go towards the back rent she has to pay when COVID-19 hit the hardest.
Wood said now women are back to getting their hair done. She said she knows that the shut down time really affected her clients, as well.     “We value getting our hair done, that’s our time where you can let loose, you can talk to your stylist. My clients talk to me about everything. Not having that time to themselves where they can relax and get their hair done, I had a lot of clients that said, ‘I couldn’t wait to get back into your chair,’” she said.
     Wood said now inside the shop, everybody has to wear a mask, the stations have to be socially distanced so that everyone is spread out. Also, clients cannot wait inside the shop.
     “It works,” she said. “We’re making the best out of it,” she continued, and “it’s a little different” than how they operated before.
     Wood said she appreciates the money and it will help her to stay afloat during a very hard time. In the four years she’s been in business, she said, this is the first time she’s received any type of funding for her business. As a first-time business owner, she said she was excited when she learned that she was a recipient of the money.
     “I was so excited because this could really help. I’m trying to create jobs for other people like me. And, this is something that can keep my business going,” she said. “Because I know a lot of people who had to close shop, they got hit pretty hard. It was truly a blessing for me because I’ve never received any type of funding like that for my business.”
     Meghan Harte, executive director of LISC Chicago, said the Verizon Foundation had some resources that were flexible and quickly available to small business owners who really needed it. “We wanted to be able to access that and get it to businesses in Chicago communities,” she said.
     Harte said, with the lottery system, there was a preference for small businesses with owners of color and low- to moderate communities that LISC serves. She said they used the lottery system because the request and the need was significantly larger than what the initiative could serve.
Harte said when it comes to the need for resources during COVID-19, small businesses were hit hardest because of the length of time the pandemic has lasted and because it was unforeseeable.
     Harte said the small businesses really needed emergency cash to address some of the lingering things that other resources didn’t cover – rent for a couple of months, so they could preserve their spaces. “Others used it to adjust and adapt their business for what was going on with COVID-19, to do more online or do more marketing,” she said.
     Harte said the pandemic has been devastating for a lot of businesses, especially small businesses, but she hopes it also causes people to realize the importance of small businesses. “Hopefully, it’s also a moment in time where the rest of the economy and economic infrastructure can recognize how important small businesses are to the communities we serve, but also to the wealth building to the communities we serve,” she said.

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