MN DEED to Create Emergency Loan Program for Small Businesses
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MN DEED to Create Emergency Loan Program for Small Businesses

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development is creating a new Small Business Emergency Loan Program to provide financial assistance to thousands of businesses negatively affected by the COVID-19 situation. Please continue reading to learn more. 

The Small Business Emergency Loan Program was created under Executive Order 20-15, announced on March 23 by Governor Tim Walz. This executive order has directed DEED to make $30 million available to provide loans of between $2,500 and $35,000 to qualifying small businesses. Loans will be 50% forgivable with a 0% interest rate. The loans will be made through an existing network of lenders that DEED works with across the state. If you have questions regarding the Small Business Emergency Loan Program, please reach out to DEED at ELP@state.mn.us.

You can learn more about the program at DEED’s webpage on the Small Business Emergency Loan Program . You can download an application here, which should be submitted to loans@cedausa.com. CEDA is one of DEED's approved lenders for the Small Business Emergency Loan Program. Please keep in mind that at the posting of this article, the program is still in the process of being created. Check the Dodge County EDA Economic Development Resources Page or DEED’s website (linked above) for up to date information.

Qualifying businesses are those noted in Executive Orders 20-4 and 20-08, and are as follows:

  • Restaurants, food courts, cafes, coffeehouses, and other places of public accommodation offering food or beverage for on-premises consumption, excluding institutional or in-house food cafeterias that serve residents, employees, and clients of businesses, childcare facilities, hospitals, and long-term care facilities.
  • Bars, taverns, brew pubs, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, tasting rooms, clubs, and other places of public accommodation offering alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption.
  • Hookah bars, cigar bars, and vaping lounges offering their products for on-premises consumption
  • Theaters, cinemas, indoor and outdoor performance venues, and museums.
  • Gymnasiums, fitness centers, recreation centers, indoor sports facilities, indoor exercise facilities, exercise studios, and spas tanning establishments, body art establishments, tattoo parlors, piercing parlors, businesses offering massage therapy or similar body work, spas, salons, nail salons, cosmetology salons, esthetician salons, advanced practice esthetician salons, eyelash salons, and barber shops. This includes, but is not limited to, all salons and shops licensed by the Minnesota Board of Cosmetologist Examiners and the Minnesota Board of Barber Examiners.
  • Amusement parks, arcades, bingo halls, bowling alleys, indoor climbing facilities, skating rinks, trampoline parks, and other similar recreational or entertainment facilities.
  • Country clubs, golf clubs, boating or yacht clubs, sports or athletic clubs, and dining clubs.
To qualify for the Small Business Emergency Loan Program, business must:
  • Be current on financial obligations as of March 1, 2020
  • Be an existing small business (whatever the form of their organization)
  • Have been operating in Minnesota for at least one year
  • Be willing to provide collateral or personal guarantee for at least 20% of loan
  • Have been denied credit by a lender and have sought or be in the process of seeking, SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance.
  • Pay-off the emergency loan if financing is received subsequent to loan approval.
Loans cannot be provided to businesses that:
  • Derive income from passive investments without operational ties to operating businesses
  • Generate any part of its income from gambling or adult-oriented activities
  • Have no current or historical financial statements