We all heard the news – as anticipated SBA PPP funding has run out as announced yesterday, April 16th. While we knew this would happen – that funding would run out quickly – and that this program was “first come first serve”, it still doesn’t come without a bit of shock, dismay and many more questions. We understand for those clients who have not heard back from their bank having this prior knowledge of how the program was going to work does not make not hearing about if their funding was approved any easier.
According to the SBA, when it met its $349,000,000,000 (that’s billion, 9 zeros!) lending limit on Thursday, 1.6 million small business owners received the SBA’s loan commitment registration number. With more than 30 million small businesses in America, the $349B cap leaves a very wide gap between those businesses that will receive financial help to meet payroll over the next two months and those without a financial lifeline.
So, if your business is in the majority, what do you do now?
- If you’ve submitted your application through your business bank, confirm its status. Ask them if it’s been submitted to the SBA and if so, has an SBA registration number been issued. If so, your loan is earmarked for funding already and your bank should be initiating the loan’s promissory note soon.
- Unfortunately our office has no additional information regarding specific clients application statuses. The banks are not directly informing us as to what stage in the application process our clients are. You will hear from your bank before we hear anything. Many of our clients are still receiving notifications that their funding has been approved. While a few have also received emails stating funding ran out before their funding could take place.
- If you haven’t submitted your application yet, but ultimately would have liked to, or if after step #1 you find out that you were not funded – Call your U.S. House of Representative and voice your concerns and insist they take care of those business owners who are struggling to stay in business. Here’s where you may find your Representatives.
There is talk that a second tranche of funding is coming. The amount being batted around Washington DC is an additional $250B. We would like to anticipate applications that were previously submitted would be funded during this second wave but unfortunately cannot guarantee that they will.
What if I still haven’t submitted my application? We would still strongly suggest that you do so. As mentioned above there is talk about more funding.
While it’s not clear if Congress will approve additional funds for the PPP Loans – if so, the same crazy application frenzy will repeat. Prepare now.
We worked with at least 11 (ran out fingers, stopped counting) different banks on behalf of our clients. Every bank had a different and distinct process, some were “open” day one, some haven’t opened yet. Some went out of their way for their customers and were enthusiastic about the proposition of their role in providing assistance, some acted as if this was an undue hardship thrust upon them. There was certainly “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” when it came to working with the banks, and I would like to take a moment to thank a few of the local banks that we feel stepped up to meet this challenge head-on for their clients, making this unprecedented process as easy as possible and doing their best to push the applications through to ensure funding was received. In alphabetical order… Cape Cod Five, The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod, and Seamen’s Bank really worked hard to serve the local businesses of Cape Cod and have our appreciation.
Stay Healthy. Stay Well. Support Local.
Post script…
Please see our previous email blasts on all things Corona: sent 3/30 “Stimulus Economic Relief”; 4/2 “SBA Paycheck Protection Program”; and 4/13 “Now What”.
You can also see all of this on our website: https://spmandco.com/resources/ – which is continuously being updated.