San Francisco’s small business climate is symbolic of what many cities are facing — as COVID forced many office buildings and business and financial districts to shut down as workers went remote, small businesses reliant on office workers and tourism were hit especially hard. We’ve seen this play out through the eyes of hundreds of our clients, like Selamawet (Nani) Tsegaye and Elias Shawel, owners of Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen, a pair of Ethiopian restaurants located in both downtown San Francisco and in Mission Bay. PCV funded Nani and Elias to open their second location, which at the time was one of the very few go-to restaurants for medical professionals, local residents, and Warriors fans flocking to the new arena.
They told The SF Gate that they didn’t know if they would survive the pandemic, until the movement to support Black-owned businesses began to send new customers their way. Now business is up 200% from last spring, and their 10 employees (whose hours were reduced to part-time after the shelter-in-place order) are now all working full-time. We’re happy to see this, especially since we’ve worked with Nani and Elias for years. Nani once said, “I’m a woman, a minority, an immigrant, and a mother. I am the people who work for me, and that means I work to create better jobs because I am them. Investing in businesses owned by people of color will really pay off and create more and better jobs for people like me: people of color, immigrants, women, parents.”
We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we’re excited to let San Francisco-based small business owners know that PCV is providing restorative, affordable capital for your business — up to $3 million in 0% loans now available through the California Rebuilding Fund, thanks to the City of San Francisco.
No application fees and no minimum credit score to apply. The California Rebuilding Fund is there for small businesses that were most affected by COVID and are looking for affordable lending, even more so to help prevent further displacement of the small businesses that make our local communities unique and special. If you or any other small business owners you know are in need of truly affordable loans this year, please apply here soon, and share in your network. This special program is only available while this funding lasts.