This week is International Small Business Week (June 27th to July 1st), and to mark the event, Google has announced a range of SMB support tools and offers to help small organizations maximize their opportunities to stand out and attract customers online.

First off, Google is offering exclusive discounts on a range of digital tools designed to help SMBs operate more efficiently, reach more people and stay in touch with their customers.

As you can see here, Google’s offering:

• Three months free of Google Workspace
• 40% off of a domain from Google Domains
• $130 off a Chromebook
• 60 days of Shopify Free and a free Shopify-built store

Those are some enticing offers – the only catch is that they’re only available to businesses in the US and Canada, and they’re only available this week. You can learn more and redeem these offers at Google’s Small Business Week mini-site.

In addition to this, Google’s also running a new ‘Heroes of Small Business’ campaign, which aims to recognize the SMBs that go above and beyond for their respective communities.

Customers can nominate a small business of their choice, with $10,000 in prize money for the selected companies. You can find out more about the campaign here.

And finally, Google’s also looking to provide additional support for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs via a new program in partnership with StartOut, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit organization that helps to facilitate mentorship, access to capital and other business tools.

As per Google:

“Through StartOut’s Acceleration Initiative, Google will fund more than 60 scholarships to help Black, Latinx and female identifying LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses.”

Businesses can apply for the program via the StartOut website.

Small businesses play a critical role in the economy, with 99% of all businesses in the US considered to be in the SMB category. Those smaller operators have also been hit the hardest by the pandemic, with fewer resources and support available to withstand the financial hit that came with the various lockdown and other COVID mitigation measures.

As such, it’s in our best interests to be doing all that we can to support smaller businesses, in order to solidify economic strength, which also helps to provide more support for people within our own communities, and provides more avenues for entrepreneurial success.