Keeping Lafayette's Businesses & Non-Profits Strong

In March 2020, a national emergency and a county shelter-in-place order were declared due to the global spread of covid-19. Several Lafayette businesses were immediately impacted by the shelter-in-place order and had to temporarily cease operations. Other businesses had to severely limit their operations. Local non-profits were also restricted in their ability to raise funds necessary to offer their programs and services.

 East Bay Small Business Development Center

The East Bay Small Business Development Center (East Bay SBDC) is available to assist Lafayette businesses with business resources, counseling and online business support as we continue in the recovery from the covid-19 pandemic. 

• Small business resources and one-on-one counseling: East Bay SBDC provides one-on-one counseling services for free in all areas of business, financing, accounting, marketing, business plan, operations, etc.
• Assistance with applying for available covid-19 relief grants and loans: SBDC has advisors to help your businesses with applying and getting the grants and loans as part of our free service to businesses.
• Online business support & website assistance: Business Analytics students will be available to work on helping businesses become eBusiness with digital storefront and digital marketing capability.

 Lafayette business owners and entrepreneurs can sign up on the East Bay SBDC website. On the upper right hand side, there is a red Sign Up button. Click the Sign Up button and put in some basic information about your business. Our intake team member will contact the business for a quick interview to identify their business needs. After the interview, the business owner will come to the SBDC office. They will be assigned an advisor to help them on their needs right away. Currently all advising is done virtually. East Bay SBDC is planning to open up the in-person advising at our campus locations in the near future.

Lafayette Business Assistance Program - Now Closed

The City of Lafayette established the Lafayette Business Assistance Program in January 2021 to provides local businesses with critical information   regarding federal, state, and local COVID-19 relief resources as well as to assist Lafayette businesses and non-profits with their applications for various covid-19 relief funds. The program ended on March 2022. To see an overview of the services that were provided by the Lafayette Business Assistance Program, watch this webinar: https://youtu.be/G0iPKkePjsw.

 

Local Business Recovery

Visit our Local Business Recovery webpage for information about what the City is currently doing to support local businesses.

For the latest coronavirus information, including resources for Lafayette residents and businesses, please visit Contra Costa Health Services covid-19 webpage at www.coronavirus.cchealth.org.