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ZIONSVILLE — No Label Studio Hair Salon is one of the first businesses in Boone County to receive loan money from the economic relief fund. The owner said if it wasn't for the help, she doesn't think she would be able to reopen her doors.
"It's amazing to be in the heart of Zionsville because it's so close to my heart," Rio White, owner of No Label Studio Hair Salon, said.
Three years after opening her business in the community she grew up in things were looking positive for White.
"With the pandemic it was kind of scary thinking we are on track, our salon is doing so well," White said.
A schedule full of clients suddenly canceled, White made the decision to close her doors before the state's order to protect her stylists and their families.
"The impact was major," White said. "We went I think eight weeks without any income."
While they couldn't do hair, they were able to still sell products curbside.
"We were selling color for people so they could do their roots at home and toners at home," Cassidy Stonehouse, assistant and stylist, said.
But even with the product sales it wasn't enough to pay the bills. White was considering every option possible. That's when she learned about the Boone County Small Business Economic Relief Fund.
"That was lifesaving at that point," White said. "I already spent all my savings."
The county's economic development corporation is granting loans up to $10,000 for small businesses with fewer than 30 employees that have been open at least two years.
"We want to make sure we can help as much as possible during this time," Molly Whitehead, executive director of the Boone County Economic Development Corporation, said. "It is a smaller loan but we believe it can serve as a bridge or a supplement to money they may have already received."
"Without that we definitely would not have been able to reopen," White said. "We would've just been waiting for these bigger loans that may or might not come through."
The loan is helping White with everything from rent to stocking up on products and masks. It is money she didn't have that has allowed her to now reopen and welcome clients back inside.
There is $140,000 available in the economic relief fund. Some of that money must be used in Whitestown and Lebanon. Both governments donated $50,000 to help small businesses reopen. The rest has come from private donations and money the development corporation already had.
