Navigating through the Pandemic with EIDL & PPP
Navigating through the Pandemic with EIDL & PPP….
As the global pandemic continues many business owners are navigating a second year of various challenges. From short falls in revenue, staff changes, and strains on processes and procedures, the navigation of maintaining a small business has truly taken its toll on local owners. However, even through the pandemic, there have been two sides of the story for businesses of various types. The smaller side is where business owners have done well and the extremities of the pandemic have not effected their business practices. Oppositely, the other side is where the daily navigation is just that, a daily challenge. It is projected that 40 percent or more of black-owned businesses may close due to the pandemic. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has expressed her concerns during a virtual meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and dozens of Black Chamber of Commerce members from across the United States. Yellen stated, “During the early days of the pandemic African-Americans were the first to lose their small businesses. They were the first to lose their jobs”.
The known effects of the Pandemic won’t be known for years to come, but we must be intentional on offering assistance and creating innovative programs to lighten the load. We must ensure that business owners are armed with accurate information to help maintain, transition, and stay in business. One way to ensure equity is to make the information accessible and free. Luckily the Small Business Administration (SBA) and other federal legislators have been directed to increase their efforts to better serve Black, minority, and culturally specific communities and organizations across America. There is a plethora of information on the internet regarding Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Emergency Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), and EIDL Advance. The Greater Augusta Black Chamber of Commerce (GABCC) is excited to track and progress the initiatives and efforts of federal agencies to ensure that no matter the size that all businesses are provided an equitable chance to thrive and serve at a greater capacity. We must lean into President Biden’s executive order on Advancing Racial Equity and Supporting the underserved community and see that this order is directly represented in our communities.
The PPP program has made several changes since February 2021, we will highlight some of these changes below
∙ Allowing sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals to receive more financial support by revising the PPP’s funding formula for theseapplicants.
∙ Eliminate an exclusionary restriction on PPP access for small business owners with prior non-fraud felony convictions, consistent with a bipartisan congressional proposal.
∙ Eliminate PPP access restrictions on small business owners who have struggled to make student loan payments by eliminating student loan debt delinquency as a disqualifier to participating in the PPP; and
∙ Ensure access for non-citizen small business owners who are lawful U.S. residents by clarifying that they may use Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) to apply for the PPP.
∙ President Biden. Specifically, the new rule modifies the loan formula for Schedule C filers to allow the use of gross income when calculating the amount of the loan.
The GABCC has been tracking business owners who have applied for the PPP, and has seen much highers rates of success by using alternative lending sources such as Womply (womply.com) and blueacorn (go.blueppp.com), rather than traditional banks. The PPP is excepted to run out of money by the middle of May if more funding is not added to the program. The PPP is scheduled to end on May 31 if not extended again. If you have not applied for this forgivable loan, do not hesitate. SBA reports an 88& forgiveness rate with $100 billion being forgiven so far with this program. There have also been multiple changes in rules and borrowers being knocked out of other programs when applying for PPP forgiveness too early. You as a borrower have up to 10 months to apply for forgiveness of your PPP load per the SBA.
The EIDL advance is the grant portion of the EIDL program. We have included a short guide to communiticating with SBA. Please see the guide below.
Search your email to ensure you have not missed your opportunity to submit information to apply for the additional Targeted EIDL Advance, the email would have come from targetedadvance@sba.gov,and now includes an additional supplement of $5,000.
The SBA also announced the opportunity to be reconsidered for the advance by emailing targetedadvancereevualtion@sba.gov if you were denied before. When emailing the SBA use the subject line of “Reevaluation Request for (insert your 10-digit application number). In the body of the email include identifying information for the application such as application number, business name, business address, business owners, name(s), and phone number. Be sure to also include the reason for the decline within your email. Businesses must be in low-income area and have experienced at least a 30% decline in revenues in any 8-week period in 2020(vs. 2019).
If you received an EIDL loan last year, you may be eligible for a loan increase. SBA increased loan values from 150k to 500k. Search you email inbox for a message from sba-oda@updates.sba.gov.
Always refer to sba.gov for the latest information regarding PPP, EIDL, and other items to have knowledgeable conversations with your lender. - Ronic West, President/Co-Founder GABCC
Greater Augusta Black Chamber of Commerce is here to service business owners in the CSRA community through advocacy, education, programming and more. Visit us at www.mygabc.org and follow us on social media @mygabc…