Hey Small Business Owners...What are you doing to ride the storm out?
 

How are you handling HR issues?

Are you applying for SBA loans?
There are several types of loans. And new info is appearing daily.

Capital up to $10MM.
Up to 30 years to repay. Some actually are forgivable.
3.75 to 4%

https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/

https://www.inc.com/kevin-j-ryan/sma...incthismorning



My world: Everyone at the software companies are working remotely. The chocolate factory shut down yesterday due to not be considered an essential business. The chocolate elve had already left due to health concerns. I handle all the commercial rentals myself so no impact:

I don't intend to lay-off anybody...if this stretches into June or July...then we may look at cutting salaries by 25 to 50%. With the $1,200 everyone is getting already from the gov, and the 4 month unemployment (+$600/week additional), if we have to do layoffs, then the Team will not be totally without funds.

What are you doing to ride the storm out?

Hunkering down, cutting costs where it's possible, using 2019 reserves to pay most bills and salaries, staying in constant contact with customers and suppliers, keeping my eyes open for other business opportunities that may arise as a result of all of this mess, and trying to be as good of a human as possible.

Same as ChiTown, hunkering down. I've got reserves to get me thru a few months if need be. I am looking at the SBA stuff if it'll cover salary and such.

SBA will cover everything except lost sales.

How do they determine how much of a loan you will get?

same here.

People aren't driving as much so you might slow a little. When things get moving again you will probably be overwhelmed.

We are booked over 2 months out right now, and all houses are empty (lucky as hell), but I haven't been receiving as many quote calls. I don't think people want strangers coming into their house, and they really don't want their house tore up when they are stuck at home.

If this is still going strong into May it will suck. I have plenty saved up, but the summer months are when I really make a lot of strides forward.

I'm just kind of waiting to see what's gonna happen with the disaster relief stuff.

My biggest client was deemed "essential" so, for now, I'm good. Should sh*t hit the fan I'd be okay for up to about 6 months. I can always reduce my salary if needed and work with my mortgage lender to reduce my mortgage temporarily. I applied with Kabbage for a line of credit over a week ago and still haven't gotten approved or denied. I know they're getting bombarded with requests but their system is 100% automated so I don't know what's going on and the CSR can't tell me anything.

I would look into the SBA loan as an alternative. Also have plenty of equity in our house so if we had to sell, we could easily do so.

We have options but none of them are ideal.

We've been deemed essential so we are still working. Part of the office we moved to remote.

Smoking. Suddenly quite heavily.

Great time to pick up that habit.

According to the SBA webinar I just attended, they decide how much your financial information allows them to lend..they have formulas.

I think I remember seeing a check box for amount requested, and their website is down, so I can't double check on the form right now.

Wife works for a therapy clinic. Fortunately they are doing quite well through this. They are doing a lot of teletherapy for certain types of therapy and retaining about 75% attendance, so hopefully they don’t need it.

This crisis is definitely going to change the way certain therapy is conducted. Teletherapy will be huge in the coming years.

For the most part, business as usual. Our business doesn't rely on walk in customers, but instead a handful of project cars that are built over the course of 1-2 years. We've collected all past due invoicing and brought our build customers to zero balance. We wanted to collect everything owed to us in case shit went south.

We've checked with our build customers and asked if they still want us to proceed or just hold off on their projects and it seems to be all systems go.

We also sell parts online and we're heavily involved in social media. All that stuff is still going. All my national suppliers are still supplying, though one took a 5 day hiatus. A lot of my national suppliers are working from home and then sending the order into the warehouse to ship.

All the local suppliers are business as usual as well. Napa, O'reilly's, Ford etc are all still delivering me parts daily.

So should I just go ahead and apply?

i'm lucky ive got a couple weeks sitting here. the phone hasnt hardly rang in a week. 2 other shops in town have just closed for now...

SBA has stated repeatedly "the sooner the better."

Asking for $25K each to keep under the collateral threshold. We have 4 applications to submit. GREAT! :(

I contacted my banker to ask about info on it. She says they're still waiting.

So is this the 25k that is forgiven?

is it better to apply directly through the SBA or your local bank after this bill passes?

She said that local banks aren't doing this yet, but no one seems to really know anything.

my banker said the same thing yesterday when he called to check up on me

The money is coming directly from the SBA for the EIDL loan. No banks.

the SBA states they expect the loans to be serviced.

However, several talking heads have stated they expect the loans to be forgiven. The problem is then the student loan forgiveness issue is raised.

Damn, I might go get a loan and build a steel building.

Either way it's low interest, and if it's forgiven that's gravy.

and thats different than the ones they say are coming available through this new bill?

You have to fall within a declared disaster area for EIDL. They might declare the entire US as a disaster area.

kansas and missouri are both in it.


but during the presser yesterday they specifically said to go to your local bank and they should be able to service and pay out most loans in the same day by the end of next week or the beginning of the week after

Still paying employees. We will see how this shakes out with the money.Hoping we can get back to work sooner rather than later. We can do a lot from home.

Oh wow.

I didn't know they have declared disaster areas already.

Don’t dare do that, stop ASAP, you need your lungs more than ever.

Take up dip. I’ll mail you some Skoal.

That's the one I'm watching for. Not sure on the specifics, but I believe they said you could take out 200% - 250% of your total monthly payroll as a loan. Then if you used it for employee salaries, benefits, or to keep your business open that it would turn into a grant rather than loan.

That may be way off on what it actually is, but it's what I remembered hearing.

Goodness sakes.

Any business can manipulate numbers to make it appear like it went to employees.

Normally, SBA loans are done in partnership with a bank or CU; in case of the EIDL loans as part of these bills; $$ is processed, approved, and given by SBA.

actually they said you can get 2 months payroll and all overhead covered. and if you didnt let anyone go or called them all back its going to be forgiven

In Wisconsin, we are being directed straight to SBA. I hate banks anyway.

I don't disagree. But, in our situation I would see most if not all going to those criteria. Since our office is opening & running as normal, we aren't in danger of letting people go, etc. Our biggest issue is our customers that have been closed being able to pay their bill so that we can pay our employees.

i'm pretty sure we are talking about 2 different loans.



sba loans say they will not be forgiven and directly from sba, the stimulus bill says they can be forgiven and come directly from your local bank

Thanks. I knew I was close, but wasn't sure how close.

at this point EVERYONE is being directed to the SBA ( But their site says their loans cannot be forgiven)

BUT the bill hasnt even passed yet so the banks have no idea whats even going to happen there.


i think i'll wait to see what happens when the bill gets passed

yeah i think KS and MO were declared monday, maybe even sunday

[QUOTE=SAUTO;14869116]i'm pretty sure we are talking about 2 different loans.

It appears you may be right!! :)

The Small Business Administration, under the stimulus package, will oversee the Paycheck Protection Program, which will distribute $350 billion to small businesses that can be partially forgiven if the companies meet certain requirements. The loans will be available to companies with 500 or fewer employees.



https://www.marketwatch.com/story/he...ses-2020-03-26



• A $350 billion forgivable loan program designed to ensure that small businesses do not lay off employees

• A 50% refundable payroll tax credit on worker wages will further incentivize businesses, including ones with fewer than 500 employees, to retain workers

• Looser net operating loss-reduction rules that will allow businesses to offset more

• A delay in employer-side payroll taxes for Social Security until 2021 and 2022

• Sole proprietors and other self-employed workers could be eligible for the expanded unemployment-insurance benefits the bill provides

• A portion of the $425 billion in funds appropriated for the Federal Reserve’s credit facilities will target small businesses

How does the $350 billion small-business loan program work?
The Small Business Administration, under the stimulus package, will oversee the Paycheck Protection Program, which will distribute $350 billion to small businesses that can be partially forgiven if the companies meet certain requirements. The loans will be available to companies with 500 or fewer employees.

“The SBA loans strike a balance between loans on favorable terms and grants by providing forgiveness to firms that use loaned funds for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, and utility payments,” said Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

There is a risk that some small businesses will be left behind. They include those that do not have access to a regular line of credit, work with rapidly changing staffs, or do not have a close working relationship with a lender.— Stan Veuger, American Enterprise Institute resident scholar
This ensures that the firms “have skin in the game” while also giving businesses a better chance at surviving the pandemic, he said.

Loans will be administered by banks and other lenders, which American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Stan Veuger said “will hopefully speed up the process.”

Businesses can receive loans up to $10 million, based on how much the company paid its employees between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29. The loans will carry an interest rate up to 4%. The bill provides for an expedited origination process.

If the business uses the loan funds for the approved purposes and maintains the average size of its full-time workforce based on when it received the loan, the principal of the loan will be forgiven, meaning the company will only need to pay back the interest accrued.

well i watched the press conference where the head of finance laid it all out. other than that i posted what they said already

thats all i really got.


i think i'd wait until the stimulus bill gets finalized and see whats available then, but i guess that could be taking a risk that the sba runs out of money if that is the fall back.

Yeah, Trivers that's what everyone is waiting for.

That's what i'm gonna try and get. Then I'm gonna lay everyone off and pocket the cash.

No not really.

Details on the forgivable loans:

https://www.bclplaw.com/en-US/though...rgiveness.html

You are supposed to insert an evil laugh at the end of this post.

:)

Mortgage must be in place before Feb 15 if you want a loan to cover it.

My scheme is in shambles already.

Actually I wouldn't. I'd gladly scale way back on work.

You guys think I wanna be digging around in peoples mouths right now? **** that. Give me capitol to pay everyone and keep the business up for a few months and I'll lock myself away at home.

Yep.

I am a lawyer, and I do divorces. My income from that has dropped by 82% since March 6th. Much of the income that I have had since then has been from pre-existing clients making payments on their accounts.

My phone is usually ringing off the hook but it's been so quiet the last 3 weeks that I actually checked with my Google guy to see if he had done something to the advertising. It turns out that nobody is even clicking on the ads right now. People are just too worried about getting by to bother with any extra expenses.

I did some research, and divorce rates typically increase after a crisis like this (as do marriages--evidently people get more emotional in both directions). When the dust settles, I do expect to get a lot of calls from people who have been forced to stay home together.

However, if everyone is out of work for a long time, I don't know how they will be able to afford a divorce even if they want it. This could end up impacting my practice for a long time.

Is that true when the crisis might still kill your spouse? Leaving you not to have to deal with divorce and a bonus possible fat life insurance check?

Screw divorce, Id be praying for the Rona to take her.

Never took you for a smoker.

As an asthmatic and a guy that’s seen family members die essentially from smoking I’d urge you to quit. Do something else. Anything else.

Agree 1000 %

Eh - 3/day during the weekdays.

So...kinda.

But yeah, the last two weeks have been just about on the hour. I've spent the last two days trying to anchor myself to the chair to just not go outside. The fact that my actual day to day workload has petered out to damn near nothing combined with the stress of all this is just a real bad combo.

Should probably go get sunflower seeds or something and then just use little 10 minute intervals to chew on 'em.

Any ideas on when this is going to come available?

I’ve paid rent through May already. Just staying on top of bills for now. I cut directv after ten years. Refinanced credit cards are now paid off and paying a lower interest rate to pay off the loan in 2 years

Just talked to two bankers....they are waiting on guidelines from SBA....who is waiting on House to agree/change Senate bill...they had no clue how soon SBA guidelines will be ready.

Still trying to figure out how much one can borrow under this Paycheck Protection Act...I read that 2.5 times your average payroll amount of the prior 12 months???

Thats what I'm trying to figure out.

Sounds like it will be administered through the local banks.

So...maybe make an appointment quickly.

There's so much shit in there to parse through and dissect that it's still going to be difficult to figure out how it works in practice. But hey, if worst case scenario I end up w/ a 10 year note with no personal guarantee that is 100% backed by the SBA at a rate not to exceed 4% for a million bucks....ugh...that'll suck dicks. But I can proooooobably make that work.

That's another $10K/month I'll have to find in the budget. So...y'know...no profit for 5 years. But it's workable.

The only thing that has me spooked is backing. If I gotta pay it back, I gotta pay it back. Shit happens. But I at least need to GET it first and if banks tighten up and I can't get the engines re-started, that's the nightmare scenario.

From what I've read I think we'll try to reduce any buyout payments by as much as we can, reduce all salaries by 25%, move on from college and part-time staff and let the chips fall where they may. I think that gets us quite a bit of cover here but it's hard to know exactly how much.

But if I can combine that cover with the security of knowing there will at least be the "well now you have to pay this back over 10 years" fallback, so be it.

Sunflower seeds, coffee, gum, video games, guns, whatever.

I’ve had decent luck fighting anxiety and uncertainty by tying onto some big project and grinding. I used to do pretty well with exercise but since my knees are shot it isn’t the same. Sucks ass when your workload has dried up, but find something and plow hard. Revise your project tracking system, billing system, run some numbers on advertising, put together some proposals, just find something that will make you grind and go get it.

In my line of work there are a lot of uncontrollable variables that can **** up a guys business. So I can relate. And just the way I’m wired I’m not built to just sit back and rely on my risk management strategies despite putting a lot of work into them. I have to go somewhere with that energy. I’m guessing you’re the same way. Even if you’re not wired like me, smoking still isn’t it.

Last thing then I’ll shut the hell up. When I was a kid I was big and strong, pretty decent athlete could do a lot of things. Most kids that would lead to being cocky and feeling indestructible. But not me. I have a specific allergen that ****s up my life and I get asthma. I haven’t had an attack in years and medication has come a long way since then, but I had an attack when I was probably 12 that I thought was going to get me. I was working as hard as I could to catch my breath. Seriously. I was laying down giving it everything I had and I was just getting further behind. That’s the most scared I’ve ever been. Couple fairly serious car accidents, a damned close call on the farm almost falling off a roof, nothing compares that fear I felt. Accordingly, I’m fairly sensitive to lung issues and why I’m so passionate about what you probably think is a nothing deal.

I’ll crawl off the soapbox now. All the best man. You seem like good people. Best of luck.

Yeah, it is what it is. It looks like alot of it will be forgiven if used for certain things so hopefully that will help.

I've put all my energy into masturbation.

Being in the dental field I was my hands so so many damn times a day it's like sandpaper so the lotion from rubbing one out is multifaceted in it's benefits.

This would all ****ing happen during shark week in my house, wouldn't it?

I am not fond of 2020, lemme tell ya.

I think, from what I read, that the stress of the crisis tends to make people more likely to make major life choices (such as marriage and divorce).


I'm sure there are people out there hoping the virus will make the choice for them (as terrible as that sounds). But with a fatality rate of 2-4%, that will still leave a lot of people married and needing divorces.


I'm just not sure how they are going to pay for the divorce when the economy is a train wreck. Assuming that we get through this crisis in 6 months or so (hoping for the best here), I don't expect my practice to recover for probably a year at the earliest.

Just called my local banks and both said the loans will be ran direct through the government.

I was a bit tongue in cheek there. Aren't money problems/stress at the root of a lot of divorces? Maybe you'll see a surge once things smooth out a bit. Good luck

Looks like it's just really ramping up funding and de-regulating 7(a) loans through the SBA.

Those have always been administered by the banks themselves but ultimately backed by the government. From what I can see, the SBA will essentially 'purchase' the forgiveable obligations from qualified lenders in the event that they certify that the funds were used by the borrower on allowed expenses.

I just don't see how this can be a direct loan program - who in the federal government has the infrastructure for that? The Treasury department damn sure isn't geared up to accept millions of credit applications.

That just cannot be right.

Those are the sba loans already available

yeah Mnuchin yesterday said that you will go to your local bank and should be able to apply and get money same day.

I went back to work...
Brick and stone dont lay themselves.
It was a nice break though.

Only way I could see is if they use existing USDA/HUD/whatever infrastructure. If so watch out.

My bank told me the same time yesterday, notorious.

They know very little about what will be available until the bill gets passed. I asked while I changed his oil today.

Thanks again to SAUTO for pointing the Paycheck Protection loan...

I've lined up two banks to compete on this SBA 7)A loan.

2.5 X average monthly payroll is for us not a large number, but if it has a path to be forgiven, then is worth the trouble.

Hang in there, everyone.

Neither does pipe.

It's a rough job, but someone has to do it.

Thanks.

I deal with small town banks. They know farm loans and home mortgages. That's about it. :D

I just wish they’d hurry the **** up woth this

People can’t wait forever on it

I'd be on the phone with Aspen Dental's HR if I were you..

Yes sir