Paulette Boghosian, a Concord small business owner, says she may have to permanently close her store after making a small mistake in her application to receive a grant from the state’s Main Street Relief Fund.

Boghosian opened her custom gifts shop, Who Doesn’t Want That? last October. Business was thriving, she said – at least until the coronavirus pandemic forced her to shutter her doors. Now an appeals process for the relief funds may be Boghosian’s only chance to save her store.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced in mid-May the creation of the fund, which set aside $400 million to help small businesses across the state recover from coronavirus pandemic-related losses.

Boghosian saw it as a lifeline. She prequalified for funding and applied before the June 12 deadline.

But she incorrectly responded to one question on the application, a mistake she said automatically disqualified her from receiving any money.

The question asked if her store had closed permanently. She thought it was asking if she had complied with orders to close during the statewide shutdown. However, the purpose of the question was to determine if her store had gone out of business. She incorrectly replied yes.

Realizing her mistake later, she reached out to Sununu’s office, the Department of Revenue Administration and others, who told her the application could not be changed.

She posted a tearful video on Facebook saying she feared she would lose the store.

“I don’t even know what to do with myself, because we were really relying on that to keep the store open,” she said in the video.

Her video received nearly 200 comments, from community members and customers offering their support. Rosie Speidel, a recent Concord High graduate, started a GoFundMe donation page to keep the store open. As of Friday, the GoFundMe had raised over $2,500.

Boghosian said she was humbled by everyone’s kind words.

“To have people say all these nice things to me, it just makes me melt,” she said.

The Main Street fund was carved out of the $1.25 billion New Hampshire received in federal CARES Act funds. It was specifically designed to help small businesses like Boghosian’s that have less than $20 million in annual revenue.

So far, 5,466 applications have been approved for relief and will receive payment in a matter of days, Sununu announced in a press conference Tuesday. A total of about $340 million will be awarded, with an average grant of $61,905.50.

Boghosian said when she heard how much other businesses would be getting, her “heart dropped into her shoes.”

While thousands of businesses are getting funds, even more are not. An additional 7,040 businesses applied but did not qualify – many because they did not meet grant requirements. Another 569 applications were incomplete. The governor did not say how many businesses were disqualified because they filled out their applications incorrectly.

Other business owners took to social media complaining that they applied for the funds but were not notified whether their application was approved or denied. As a result, they don’t know if they are getting funds or not, or if their application was even considered.

The governor’s office announced Wednesday it will establish an appeals process for the Main Street Relief Fund for business owners who did not receive funding because of application mistakes.

It’s unclear how quickly appeals will be granted, though the process will be “expedited,” governor’s office spokesperson Ben Vihstadt said.

“All businesses that get notified of a denial will receive instructions (on) how to appeal,” Vihstadt said. “This will ensure no one is penalized for mistakenly disqualifying themselves while filling out the final grant submission incorrectly.”

Appeals will be handled by the Department of Revenue Administration, he added. All applications will be reviewed to weed out any fraudulent claims.

While Boghosian said she is grateful for the chance to appeal, she remains apprehensive. If she doesn’t get the grant by August, when her lease expires, she may still have to close down.

Boghosian worries other businesses like hers may face a similar fate.

“The small businesses are all suffering,” she said. “And that just makes me upset, because I know I’m not the only one.”

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