Verizon grants help local small businesses

May 14—Last May the pandemic inspired Tyler Stone to dream big and finally launch a small business making vegan soap products. But with limited funds, just buying ingredients was a huge hurdle for the Toledo entrepreneur.

Then Ms. Stone, who made handmade soaps at home for 10 years, got an email from Verizon urging her to seek a small business grant that the communications giant was handing out this year.

To her surprise, her Organic Glisten Vegan Skincare received a $10,000 grant — one of 910 grants totaling $10 million that Verizon is providing to aid small businesses. It has partnered with nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corp. to distribute the money.

Chris Serico, a spokesman for New York-based Verizon, said the company awarded $10,000 grants to seven Toledo area small businesses this year.

The local recipients were Ms. Stone, Crystal Taylor, of Crystal Clear Communications; Victoria Hamilton, of Hop Skip Jump Transports LLC; Elizabeth Thomas, of Queen All Occasions Specialty Gift Baskets; Kelly Childers, of Corporate Transportation and Limousines LLC; Charael L. Smith, of Little Gifted Hearts child care, and Ceaira Kynard, of Cre8tive Mindz Childcare.

Small firms in all 50 states and Puerto Rico got grants. Last year Verizon provided $7.5 million in grants.

The only stipulation is recipients must spend the funds on: rent and utilities, payroll, outstanding debt to vendors, upgrades of technology infrastructure, or other immediate operating costs.

The grant program was announced at this year's Super Bowl. In a statement, Verizon said it knows "small business owners across the country continue to face uncertainty amid the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ..." The grants will support recovery and aid through the pandemic and beyond.

Ms. Stone said she could hardly believe it when told she got a grant.

"I was definitely surprised and really grateful to receive it. The majority of the money has been directed toward being able to order more of my product's ingredients in bulk," she said.

"Also, I was able to take a small salary, something I hadn't been able to do before," she added.

Ms. Stone said she thought she was a pretty good grant candidate, but wasn't hopeful. "As a small business there really aren't a lot of opportunities out there for money. They're hard to find," she said.

"And I thought, 'In a city Toledo's size, how many businesses could they really choose?' " Ms. Stone added.

Also skeptical was Toledoan Crystal Taylor, owner of Crystal Clear Communications, an online business that provides a variety of business services.

"This being a national grant, I threw my name in the ring when I heard about it. But I wondered if they would really look at my posts, my website," she said. "It was really nice to see they found some value there."

Prior to the award she already was rebranding her business as "Crystal Clear" only and shifting from offering development strategies to expanded online services including teaching, public speaker training, and marketing.

"With this grant I've really been able to move quicker towards my shift and restructuring the business," Ms. Taylor said. "It was really a great opportunity to receive it and I guess I was really surprised to receive it.

"But because of it, I've been able to implement a new marketing campaign and have been scaling the business more quickly. When you've been a one-woman shop for years, where do you find time and money to do something like that?"