Since the passing of the CARES Act on March 27th, the small business world has been focused on the protection of their businesses and their most important asset: people.
Small businesses face daily challenges even in an ideal economic climate. Insert COVID-19, which effectively took away their ability to generate revenue, and their challenges suddenly shift to focusing solely on survival. Once they make it out of this pandemic, how will they restart their business? One crucial part of that process is retaining the talent that you had before the world changed.
That is where the Paycheck Protection Program comes into play. It is designed to help small businesses retain their employees during this challenging time and allows them to remain in a position to restart operations once life begins to return to the “new normal”.
Since the launch, there has been a flood of coverage from mainstream media as well as a firestorm of criticism, as seen on social media. As the program details were continuing to be developed and released, one thing was evident: American small businesses needed this resource and fast.
Here at Eleven09, we have been watching the progression of the program and its implementation by the nation’s current 7(a) approved lending institutions. While initially the program was met with frustrations due to the constantly changing application process, we are pleased to see and hear about real progress being made.
More lenders are offering their PPP applications to be filled out online and many prohibiting restrictions have been lifted from larger lenders. The pipes are open and now it is the time to get your application in. Many lenders have indicated that the demand is likely to outweigh the availability of funds, as the program is currently capped at $350B. As of today, there have already been discussions in Congress and the Senate about increasing the funds available to this program from $125B to a reported $250B.
With the emergence of assistance programs like the PPP, we must remind our readers that times like these often spawn opportunities for fraud and abuse. Be mindful of third parties offering assistance in your application process. We are hearing that the application process is rather streamlined at this point in time so if you do have questions, please contact the financial institution that currently handles your business banking needs. In many instances, your accountant/CPA may be able to assist you in gathering the correct information for the application.
Stay safe and remember that we are in this together.
The latest details and updates on the Paycheck Protection Program can be found here.
