In recent months, Keap awarded two rounds of Keep Going small business grants.
During each round Keap awarded $100,000 total in $500 grants. For more info on the grants, see below beginning with Keep Going Stories.
Keap Keep Going Grants for Small Business
Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) develops sales and marketing campaigns for small businesses. If you didn’t get to apply for a grant, you can still check in with Keap for a variety of Keep Going support:
Free daily educational webinars to help small businesses Conquer the Chaos: For nearly 20 years, Keap has been teaching entrepreneurs how to conquer chaos via a proven method that helps small businesses get organized and create a plan to grow their businesses. Keap is now giving this away, free of charge, to all small businesses. Visit Keap’s Facebook page for information on how to sign up for these webinars.
Free daily “Office Hours” with experts: Each weekday from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. (PDT), Keap customers can call and receive expert help with their strategy and execution as they use our industry-leading small business automation software to do more with less.
Additional, free expert coaching for new customers: For every customer who signs up with Keap Pro, Keap will provide an extra hour of free coaching work. And for every new Infusionsoft customer, Keap will provide three extra hours of free coaching work to ensure they get up and running as quickly as possible.
Free daily “Automation Hour” for our customers: Keap knows automation is the great game changer for small businesses. And now is an ideal time for entrepreneurs to work ON their business and put organization, follow-up and automation to work for them. One of our experts will be joined by one of our partners each weekday to conduct a workshop on implementing automation that will help you succeed.
Keep Going Stories
Once upon a time, a gym opened with the goal of providing personal attention to its clients.
Even when the owners faced great personal challenge of their own. Such as family medical issues, the stock market crash of 2008 and a new neighbor – a “big box” gym that offered dirt cheap 3-year memberships. And then the pandemic which closed gyms.
That family-owned gym is just one of the hundreds of businesses that benefitted from a Keap Small Business grant. Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) launched “Keep Going” small business grants in May.
Why Keap Created the Keep Going Grants
Keap specializes in marketing and sales campaigns for small businesses. Keap has long recognized that small businesses are a vital part of the economy. Keap co-founder and CEO Clate Mask said that Keap wanted a way to show appreciation for the hard work and dedication small business owners have.
“This funding is really exciting to me, because every entrepreneur faces a ‘keep going’ moment – I faced mine,” Mask said. “Right now, a lot of people are facing that Keep Going moment.”
“There are positive things that are happening,” he added. “We’ll make it; we’ll get through it.”
In the first round, Keap provided $100,000 in grants and received almost 1,000 applications. Keap awarded 200 businesses with a $500 grant.
They received so many inspiring stories, Keap did another round of grants. This time, the grants were $1,000 each for 100 businesses. Applications closed July 20.
Keap, responding to current issues, set $50,000 of the grant money aside for applicants of black-owned businesses.
Keap Grant Application Process
The grants were meant to honor the grit and perseverance it takes to be a small business. To apply, businesses were asked to share their “Keep Going” story in no more than 1500 words. Keap asked for up to 500 words about the business, up to 500 about why the business was applying and up to 500 on how the business was affected.
Small Business Grant Applicants Shared Sentiments
The Keep Going grant applications had common themes. For the applicants, the devotion to their small business and their customers is consuming. And they are ready to adapt to new business strategies to help them keep going.
In their words:
“The work I do within my business is literally my entire life. The meditation techniques and relationship techniques I share are life changing. All I wanted to do in the world was share them. As the business has changed and things have gone up and down for us, I am constantly listening to the community. The Keap small business grant money would go towards continuing to pay my one essential worker who has been with me for more than six years.”
“If we can believe it, we can do it. We don’t stop helping our clients until the problems are solved. Every year our costs go up. We have had to become more creative, more efficient, and have a no-holds-barred attitude to get the job done. We love what we do, because we are helping people. We will never quit.”
What is Keap?
Keap is a company which develops marketing and sales campaigns for small businesses.
The services offered by Keap include Infusionsoft, which is the industry’s oldest and most powerful product. Infusionsoft is an all-in-one solution that provides advanced marketing and sales automation, fully customizable campaigns, and powerful app integration.
Keap Pro is designed for service-based businesses. It’s an all-in-one CRM, sales, & marketing automation software designed for service-based businesses with custom needs.
Keap Grow is business management system. The small business adds contacts and leads to Keap and then Keap syncs Outlook and Gmail to manage everything from all devices. Keap pulls contact details from an iPhone, a spreadsheet, a form on a website, even from business cards, for an up-to-the-minute picture of business relationships.
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Image: keap.com
This article, "Keap Awarded $100,000 in Small Business Grants During Pandemic" was first published on Small Business Trends
August 3, 2020 at 06:31AM
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Lisa Price, Khareem Sudlow
