This year NASE will award $48,000 total in grants to twelve small businesses to support their growth and expansion of business operations and help support their emergence from the COVID pandemic. 

“Our nation’s small business community, including self-employed and micro-businesses, helps fuel the American economic engine.  As our community begins to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are proud to do our part to help the American small business community get to the other side of this crisis,” said John Hearrell, Vice President of Membership and Affiliate Programs.  “From each side of Main Street to every corner of America, small businesses are delivering unique goods and services to their customers. Since 1989, our mission is built on the cornerstone of supporting these businesses to grow and thrive.  It’s an honor to make an investment of $4,000 in each of these Growth Grant recipients, bringing our total grant awards to date to over $1,000,000 since the program’s inception.”

The recipients of the first quarter 2021 NASE Growth Grants are:

• Be Strong Therapy, located in Tallahassee, Florida, owned by NASE member Amber Swords, was awarded an NASE Growth Grant in March 2021. Swords is the owner of Be Strong Therapy, a therapeutic services company that works with patients through the entire cancer process helping to regain strength, range of motion, balance, and maintain health into recovery.
• Baby Back Shak, located in Dallas, Texas, owned by NASE member Clarence Cohens, was awarded an NASE Growth Grant in February 2021. Cohens is the owner of Baby Back Shak, a restaurant that not only takes a bit from the past and the present, but also merges the two king cities of barbeque, Memphis and Dallas, to provide customers with the perfect combination of flavors.