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Sacramentans love their local businesses.

A handful of local businesses recently won $500 grants from Intuit Inc. as part of its "Love a Local Business" competition, in which customers nominate businesses for grants. Three businesses are awarded weekly, and nine local businesses have already won the grant from the software company known for its TurboTax and QuickBook programs.

"Sacramento overwhelmingly wants to support their local businesses," said Heather McLellan, a director at Intuit Inc. "There's a real wish for them to thrive here."

In addition to the weekly winners, Intuit is hosting a "Love a Local Business Event" Saturday and Sunday at 1801 L St., where local business owners can win one of five $1,000 grants and receive professional advice on running small businesses.

Eric Heffel, owner of Midtown frozen yogurt shop Yogurtagogo, said the grants are a great way to help out local businesses.

"The character of Midtown is based on independent businesses like these," he said. "In times like these when independents fail, corporations come in and take over, and you start to lose a lot of character in the area. I don't want to see Midtown become full of corporations."

Heffel was one of the first winners of the $500 grant, and he said he will use it to buy some materials he was holding off on until he had more money, adding that it was a local purchase.

"It's nice to have some money we can put back right into the local economy," he said.

Corey DeRoo, co-owner of French Cuff Consignment, also won a grant through the competition. DeRoo's shop, which she defined as a "chic secondhand boutique," hosts community events and helps sponsor nonprofit companies. DeRoo said this grant will help them continue that tradition.

"With this economy, a lot of businesses have had to cut out charity, but this helps us to continue to support the community," she said. "We believe in being a part of the community."

DeRoo said she thinks the grant competition is a great idea to help small businesses, adding that thousands of Sacramento businesses have closed in the past few years.

"I was really happy they are doing this event," she said. "It's such a perfect time to do such a thing."

Andy Smith, owner of The Bread Store, said winning a grant was fantastic.

Photo Captions

1. L Wine Lounge, photo by Rachel Valley

2. Yogurtagogo, photo by Jonathan Mendick

"Anytime you can be recommended by your peers and customers, it's very rewarding," he said. "It's going to help and will be nice to have."

The L Wine Lounge was another winner of the grant.

"We're excited that we won," said owner Marcus Marquez. "It's surprising, because there's so many great local small businesses in Sacramento."

While nine Sacramento businesses have won the grants so far, McLellan said that more than 500 local businesses have been nominated in a similar competition that will reward businesses across the nation, with a grand prize of a $35,000 grant. Competition for that grant will be fierce, as more than 90,000 businesses have been nominated nationwide.

Even with the chance of winning the $35,000 grand prize in the national competition, local business owners said they are very happy with their $500 rewards.

"We're excited to win anything," Marquez said. "Every little bit helps for small businesses."