Hampton VA E-Commerce Grant Receives Additional Funding
SUMMARY
HAMPTON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE PROGRAM
To assist Hampton small, minority and women owned businesses with electronic commerce technology and aid in the stability and growth prospects of Hampton companies, potentially increasing tax revenue and jobs within the City of Hampton, Virginia.
Definitions
Small business is defined as a business which is at least 51% independently owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are U.S. citizens or legal resident aliens, and together with affiliates, has 250 or fewer employees, or average annual gross receipts of $10 million or less averaged over the previous three years. One or more of the individual owners shall control both the management and daily business operations of the small business.
Minority/Women owned business is defined as one in which one or more minority individuals control at least 51 percent of the voting stock or ownership and manages daily operations. Minority groups are defined as:
- African Americans
- Hispanic Americans
- Native Americans
- Asian-Pacific Americans
- Asian-Indian Americans
- Women
E-Commerce Program Grant Amounts
- Grants are made on a first-come, first served basis and eligibility is determined at the discretion of the Hampton E-Commerce Grant Administrator.
- Maximum individual awards of $1,500 may be granted once every three years and Virginia certified minority and women owned businesses can receive a maximum of $2,500 once every three years.
- Grant amounts shall not exceed 50% of total project cost or the allowable grant, whichever is less.
- Must be a for-profit business currently licensed in and with its principal office located within the City of Hampton.
- Projects must be legal, no adult only material, ethical, and commercially viable.
- Applicants must use preapproved Certified E-Commerce Grant Service Providers.
- Grant funds cannot be awarded for a project which has been initiated prior to the approval of a grant application.
- Grants are to be used for the creation or enhancement of e-commerce sites and cannot be used for domain registration, web hosting, general maintenance services, or annual subscriptions.
- Certified Service Providers are not eligible to receive grants for their own websites or to create or make enhancements to an affiliated business website.
- Consultation Services – information technology strategic planning, ecommerce needs and marketing assessments, domain name registration assistance, hosting service needs assessments, website analytics, and website security assessments and testing tools.
- Web Design and Development Services – custom website design, information architecture and graphic user interface planning, database driven website design and development, content management solutions, usability testing, advanced scripting and programming, custom database development, collaboration and social networking (Web 2.0), website accessibility analysis, and maintenance contracts.
- E-Commerce Services – Shopping carts, donation and membership systems, and online security assessments and testing tools.
- Internet Marketing Services – email marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, eNewsletters, blogs, RSS, Wikis.
- Other e-commerce innovations as approved at the discretion of the Hampton E-Commerce Grant Administrator.
- Qualified business obtains printed application from City website or by other means.
- Applicant contacts at least two (2) certified service providers to obtain a minimum of two (2) quotes for work it wants done. Applicant, at its discretion, selects a service provider to perform the work.
- Applicant completes the application form, signs and submits the application to the Hampton Department of Economic Development (HDED) with the two (2) quotes via fax, mail, or hand delivery but no on-line submittals allowed (see attached application).
- Letter and e-mail are sent to the Applicant verifying the receipt of the application.
- Application is reviewed and is approved or denied by HDED, in its sole discretion, within three (3) to five (5) business days. (Requires checking status of Hampton Business License, current on Hampton business taxes, Small, Women and Minority-Owned Business (SWAM) status, review scope of work to verify the eligibility of services, etc.).
- Letter and e-mail are sent to Applicant informing it of the decision and, if approved, providing notice of the amount of grant funding it is eligible to receive.
- Applicant must obtain a contract with service provider setting forth the scope of the services to be performed and work done by the service provider. The contract must be approved by the IDA and will be attached to, and become a part of the Grant Agreement between the Applicant and the IDA. The contract with the service provider should be conditioned upon the approval by the IDA and the issuance of the Grant.
- Once the project is completed the Applicant must complete a “Customer Satisfaction Survey”.
- Service provider obtains application form from the City of Hampton website or by other means.
- Service provider completes the application form, signs and submits the application to HDED.
- Letter and e-mail are sent to the service provider verifying the receipt of the application.
- Application is reviewed and is approved or denied by HDED, in its sole discretion, within five (5) to ten (10) business days.
- Letter and e-mail are sent to service provider informing it of the decision and, if approved, providing it with a contract which stipulates its willingness to participate in the Hampton E-Commerce Grant Program and that it will abide by certain terms and conditions for payment and assist in the promotion of the program.
Authorized service provider completes the project as quoted and invoices the grantee for its services and a grant check will be issued to the service provider for the grant amount.
More Details can be found here or call VBWebSites at 757-271-8293.
Labels: e-commerce, hampton website design, web design grant
posted by VBWebsites, Virginia Web Design Company at
11:17 AM
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