Specifications include, but are not limited to: administration and implementation of funding and corresponding services in several key areas of economic recovery: Technical Assistance to Small Businesses: Maine has at least 14,000 new businesses that were started or purchased in 2020 and an additional 10,598 established through October 2021. The New Business Recovery Technical Assistance program will offer business counseling services to these new businesses, along with entrepreneurs who recently acquired Maine businesses, so that they may more readily access New Business Recovery Grants and other pandemic recovery resources. By delivering this counseling through local small business assistance programs, community organizations or by connecting professional services to support these business owners in various topics from bookkeeping to improved marketing strategies, the Department of Economic and Community Development will also strengthen the capacity of Maine’s entrepreneurial support providers. This support will be focused on Maine businesses that started on or after January 1, 2020 and have fewer than 250 employees. The technical assistance provider(s) or similar entity will document the individual business loss reason due to COVID19 in one of the approved categories listed above. Technical Assistance Diversity This support is intended to improve the acute disparities in economic recovery for small businesses owned by Maine's racial, ethnic, and linguistic minorities. These business owners did not proportionally access the recovery funds available to all business owners since the beginning of the pandemic. They lacked the meaningful connections to financial institutions, technical assistance providers and other professional services that could have guided them to various opportunities and options for funding and urgent support.
