GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Nicolet Bank says it’ll get your small business relief much quicker than the Paycheck Protection Program.
“There’s no strings attached, they don’t have to pay it back, there’s no reporting,” said Nicolet Presideent and CEO Mike Daniels. “We want them to be able to stay open, remain open and retain the people they need to.”
If you’re a small business applying for a PPP loan under $5,000 dollars, Nicolet suggests trying its grant program.
“The micro grant are Nicolet dollars that we’re putting out in the community for these businesses,” said Daniels. “It allows them to either catch up with expenses from being closed or allows them to maintain some course of operation.”
“It was really simple and straightforward and like a day or two later the money was already in my account,” said Amy Sohrweide who runs a floral design business that depends on weddings.
She counts on making her money right about when the ‘Safer at Home’ order went into effect.
“When you’re at the lowest point of your bank account and then all your business gets canceled or postponed and you have no income coming in at all, whatsoever, when you were expecting it, it made a big difference for peace of mind and continue to operate without any income,” said Sohrweide.
Nicolet’s micro grant has reached 226 small businesses so far for nearly $900,000. They think they’ll reach the one million mark by the end of this week.
There’s no cap on how much they’re willing to give out, if you qualify. If you’re a small business that banks with Nicolet, they want to get you help.
“We don’t want to have somebody say, oh you missed it by whatever, right? If they need the money they need the money,” said Daniels.
“It brought me to tears when they called and we’re just going to do this for you and that’s the kind of banking relationship you, a small business can really appreciate,” said Sohrweide.
“You can only be as strong as the community you serve and if all these small businesses are shuttered, or going out of business, it’s what we believe is our responsibility to the communities in which we operate,” said Daniels.
