April 9, 2020

News Roundup for Small Business Owners

The latest news about relief efforts for small businesses, particularly via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).

• Someone finally received a PPP! Here’s an interview with one of the first people to secure a Paycheck Protection Program loan. They already had a relationship with their bank (Live Oak), who they used before for SBA-backed loans. I urge you to read the story, though, because this is one business we can all feel good about.
• BNB Bank is another bank reporting success, having funded six PPP loans for clients. However, those six represent a very small slice of the 1,800 applications they have in the pipeline.(CBS News, Long Island Business News)
• Once again we want to encourage small business owners to help track the success of the PPP and the EIDL program. Thus far, they have amassed entries from 665 small businesses, and show a whopping one PPP and one EIDL funded so far. For those scoring along at home, that’s 0.2% of applicants who have actually received any money. I guess that’s better than the 0.0% it was yesterday. (Covid Loan Tracker)
• Citigroup has finally started accepting PPP applications as of today. The third largest bank in the country, it’s nice to have them finally on board. (Reuters)
• In related news, don’t worry about the banks; they are doing just fine. The nation’s three largest banks’ tickers were up significantly in today’s trading — Bank of America was up 6.1%, JP Morgan Chase was up 9.1%, and Citigroup was up 7.1%. So there’s that. (The Motley Fool)
• According to Secretary Mnuchen, the PPP has already approved $100 billion of the $350 billion that was allocated to it. Again, its unclear who out there has received these loans at this point; many small business owners are rightfully concerned that the funding will be gone before their application gets reviewed. And relief may not come as quickly as we had hoped; Senate Democrats have blocked the $250 billion addition to the PPP without adding money to other needed programs such as SNAP, hospitals and health systems, and more accountability. Commensurate finger-pointing has ensued. (MSN, Marco Rubio on Twitter.com)
• The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) published an interesting survey of its members today. In their findings 70% of small businesses have applied for the PPP and 50% have applied for an EIDL. There are 30.2 million small businesses in the U.S., if you’re wondering. (NFIB.com)
• Finally, one last article on the PPP from The Hill. What I liked about this article is that it summarized some solutions, not just complaining about what’s wrong with it. Namely, their proposals include direct subsidies rather than loans, a streamlined process, and using the U.S. Treasury to deliver aid rather than banks. Here, here, The Hill. Here, here. (The Hill)

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Monday, April 6 | Tuesday, April 7 | Wednesday, April 8

Masterplans is a veteran-owned business that specializes in providing the highest-level business development consulting located in Portland, Oregon. For 17 years we have helped thousands of entrepreneurs launch new businesses and put their ideas in motion. Now, more than ever, we want to see these same businesses survive the largest economic disaster of our generation.