Small businesses in Nashville, Tennessee, got some good news recently from the city's Metro Council. The city has an incentive program for small businesses with 100 or less employees to qualify for grants up to $750. Recent changes in the program makes it even easier now for small businesses to benefit from the program.
Qualifications
The previous qualifications required small businesses to create 20 new jobs over the next 12 months in order to receive a $500 grant per new job, or a $750 grant for each job filled by a U.S. military veteran. Since the program was not generating the results they expected, the city decided to make it easier for small businesses by lowering the qualifications.
Now, small businesses only need to create 10 new jobs over a 12-month period in order to qualify for a grant. Grant amounts remain the same, $500 per new job or $750 per new job given to a veteran.
Other good changes
Other changes in the program is that new jobs being created will only have to pay salaries at 80 percent of Davidson County's median salary; formerly they had to match it. One part of the program that has not changed is the maximum payout for a single company, which will remain at $50,000. The city's Mayor Karl Dean is optimistic that the new changes will encourage more small businesses to participate in the city's Small Business Incentive Program.
Read more about the Nashville Small Business Incentive Program at www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/20/nashville-lowers-bar-small-business-incentive-program/22082013/
