Displaying items tagged: Michigan Women Forward

Women entrepreneurs across Michigan are getting a new source of much-needed financial help from one of the state’s leading women’s groups.

Applications are now open for the first round of grants from a newly established fund for women-owned businesses in Muskegon County.

Hiring a new business development director who’s based in Grand Rapids is part of Michigan Women Forward’s goal to build a larger West Michigan market presence for business lending and support for female-owned businesses and entrepreneurs of color.

Women have been slower than men to return to the workforce over the past year and a half. They are more often held back by childcare complications from the pandemic and are likely being dissuaded from returning to frontline positions with low pay.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met virtually today with small business owners who received support from a state grant program and discussed the importance that additional federal support would have on their businesses. 

Just 13 of the 80 venture capital professionals working in Michigan in 2019 were racial minorities. An equal number of all VC professionals in the state, or 16 percent, were women.

  GRAND RAPIDS — In partnering on a $25 million small business relief fund, Kent County and the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce want to tap a number of community and entrepreneurial support organizations to get the word out to companies and provide volunteers to vet grant applicants. 

New grant funds by the state and in Kalamazoo, as well as a loan fund in Grand Haven, are the latest efforts to provide relief to small businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.