Livermore Businesses Need a Boost from Community

Eight Livermore small businesses are hoping Livermore residents will help them win a $250,000 grant this month.

Cynthia Foreman's Signature Products, Fire Stations 4 Hire, In Between Stitches, Nottingham Cellars, The Purple Orchid Wine Country Resort and Spa, SMD Concepts Inc., Superior Building Maintenance and Tuff Girl Fitness have all registered for the Small Business Grant program by Chase Bank and Google and are in need of votes.

According to the site, the grant is offered to small businesses throughout the country that have been in business for a minimum of two years and have less than 100 employees. The winners pool is $3 million and will be awarded in $250,000 increments to 12 businesses to aid them in growing their businesses.

Voting closes Nov. 15.

"As you can imagine, such an award would be a boon both for the small local business, as well as the community as a whole (creating or expanding jobs and hours, increasing our respective footprints in the community in terms of expense spend for services we consume, that sort of thing)," says Paul George, owner of Fire Trucks 4 Hire, a Livermore local company that allows private parties to get hands-on with fire trucks and equipment.

In order to qualify for second-round consideration, each business must submit five essays as well as gather 250 votes of support on the sponsors' web site, with voters validated though a Facebook account.

"We’ve got a nice space and nice landlord, but we can always use the extra space and hands," George says. "If we won, we would invest into our building, make things comfortable for our clients. We would be growing Livermore’s footprint, hire a few more people and put Livermore on the map!"

Additional information on the contest, participants and rules, visit https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com.

The businesses from Livermore who submitted entries:

• Cynthia Foreman's Signature Products
• Fire Stations 4 Hire
• In Between Stitches
• Nottingham Cellars
• The Purple Orchid Wine Country Resort and Spa
• SMD Concepts Inc.
• Superior Building Maintenance
• Tuff Girl Fitness