[Update] My experience: Corona immediate help for bloggers and SEOs

Update 14.04.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX: Application approved, money is on the way

Yesterday (on Easter Monday!) I received a message from the RP Kassel that my application had been approved and that I will shortly receive the notification of approval. Here is the exact wording of the e-mail from the regional council:

Dear Mr. Kleinholz,

Your application for a grant from the guidelines of the State of Hesse for the implementation of an emergency aid program (Corona emergency aid) was granted.

The fixed grant i. H. v.

€ 3083,00

will be transferred to the specified account in the next few days.

We will provide you with the approval notification for download in a few days. You will receive a separate message for this.

With kind regards,
on behalf

Kassel Regional Council

At the old city palace 1
34117 Kassel
Web: http://www.rp-kassel.hessen.de

If the money is still trickling in in a few days, one can really only praise the government for the quick processing. Even if NRW is certainly the leader with a processing time of just one day from the application to “money on the account” (see my reader’s comment below), two weeks in Hesse are a surprisingly short processing time from my point of view. I'm used to different times from German authorities.

Update 15.04.2020: The money went into my account today ... a good two weeks after my application.

Here at the start of the actual article from April 02.04.2020nd, XNUMX ...

If you look at what politicians are saying these days, you sometimes have to scratch your head. There are statements like there is endless money available to help companies in these difficult times. The “Bazooka” should also be used to put an end to the corona virus. So, as always, there is a lot of banging on the drum and, as an entrepreneur, you should get the message that there is a crisis, but that the state will fix it.

I can't quite believe in "infinite money", but at least it's nice that there is not only a rescue package for big banks, but that small entrepreneurs are also taken care of. Whether the whole thing works in reality and whether individual companies (like me) actually see the promised money at some point remains to be seen. First of all, I would like to show you how the application works and what documents I had to submit.

Why I applied for immediate Corona aid for my company

As a search engine optimizer (I only maintain the Sir Apfelot Blog “on the side”) I am responsible for the online marketing of smaller companies and freelancers, the corona pandemic affects me just like many other companies. A number of my customers currently no longer have the opportunity to look after their existing business contacts or to acquire new customers and so they - like many other companies - are struggling with considerable financial losses.

And even if it is not always logical: advertising - and with it my service - is the first thing most companies save. In some cases I can even understand this, because why should a tour operator continue to rely on advertising if no one can travel.

Of course, my customers' savings also mean that I lose income, so I decided to use the Corona emergency aid to counteract the financial bottleneck. Incidentally, the correct name for this is “Emergency Aid Program of the Hessian State Ministry of Economics (Emergency Aid Corona)”. In your federal state it is then from the corresponding ministry.

List: Links to emergency aid programs in all federal states

Since not all of them can come from beautiful Hesse, I have put together a list with the links to all emergency aid programs here:

• Baden-Württemberg
• Bavaria
• Berlin
• Brandenburg
• Bremen
• Hamburg
• Hessen
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Lower Saxony
• Nordrhein-Westfalen
• Rheinland-Pfalz
• Saarland
• Sachsen
• Sachsen-Anhalt
• Schleswig-Holstein
• Thuringia

The process: compiling and uploading the documents

Anyone who works as a blogger, online marketing fuzzy or SEO and is on the road as a lone fighter has almost the same starting point as me. I would like to briefly explain to you here which documents I had to submit to the emergency aid site of the State of Hesse in order to fill out the "Application for a grant for commercial companies and members of the liberal professions particularly damaged by the Corona crisis 03/2020".

In detail these are:

• ID card number
• Name, address, date of birth
• tax number
• Bank
• contrary to the fill-in aid (here as PDF) was NOT asked for my last annual turnover
• When asked about the legal form, I selected “Other self-employed persons”.
• in the "Information and communication technology" sector
• a reason why you need the emergency aid (short, honest and informative, people have read enough!)
• the amount needed to bridge the financial bottleneck for the next three months

You have to upload the following documents during the questionnaire - all as PDF:

• Front of the identity card
• the first two pages of the last available income tax return

Once you have entered and uploaded all of these things, you can download the finished article and still have to sign it. I then have it (with my ScanSnap iX500) scanned in and uploaded again. According to their statement, this ensures the fastest processing.

The application itself is really easy to understand and well made. Only the last page, where you have to confirm and promise 973 things with a checkmark, is a bit complex if you read through everything.

A little tip: If you have documents or a photo of your ID card as a JPG, you can open it in the "Preview" on the Mac and then "Export as PDF" in the File menu.

Problem: Network timeout due to congestion

This morning I had collected the necessary documents for the application and put them in a folder on my Mac as PDF and text files so that I had everything I needed for the campaign. Unfortunately, when the form was called up on the ekom21 server, the error message "Network timeout - The server at portal-civ-cor.ekom21.de is taking too long to send an answer" repeatedly came up.

It was therefore not possible for a long time to call up the online application for emergency aid in Hesse at all. In the late afternoon the call finally went through and I was able to fill in and upload everything. After about 10 to 15 minutes, the matter was done.

Corona corporate aid: is money actually flowing?

That's a question I can't answer right now. In the application, I only stated 3000 euros instead of the possible 9000 euros, as I only added up running costs that cannot be averted in the next three months. A loss of earnings or the like should not be taken into account. You also have to include benefits such as rent for the office or the like positively in the bill.

I have therefore set the desired amount for the grant low so that it does not depend on an excessively high grant amount during processing. I don't know whether the federal states treat the applications differently, or whether all the states proceed like Hesse. When I receive a notification about my application, I will add it here (is done with the update above!).

What's your status quo?

How about you with corona-related business slumps? Do you also need emergency aid? I am happy if you tell me about your experiences.

Jen Kleinholz( Founder & Sir Apfelot )

Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.