PPP Loan

Speaker 1: 00:00 For many small businesses, the pandemic has been a crushing blow. Billions of dollars in loans and grants are coming down the pipeline to help them, but is the money getting to the right places? San Diego, small business development center says the deadline to apply for one major source of money is this Saturday, and there's still money left in the pot here to talk about what's being done to reach small businesses is Danny Fitzgerald, who is the acting regional director with San Diego and Imperial counties, small business development center network. Welcome Danny. Thank you for having me on. So now this week is the deadline on some of the federal loans available for small businesses, how much money remains to be distributed in San Diego? Speaker 2: 00:37 It's a national distribution and there's still a little over $110 billion left from the paycheck protection program. That was the program that was created with the cares act back in March. Um, it rolled out with a lot of headlines in April and then had a second round of funding in, uh, in late April. And that second round of funding still has money. Speaker 1: 00:56 How much money has your center distributed already in the Speaker 2: 01:00 So we've helped folks access here in the County, just under a hundred million dollars between the paycheck protection program and the economic injury, disaster loan. And overall it's about $1 billion that has been accessed here in San Diego County. And a lot of that of course also has done not just with our assistance, but just by the companies themselves, Speaker 1: 01:19 Has the, STBC been overwhelmed with requests for assistance. Speaker 2: 01:22 The first 60 days that we certainly were overwhelmed with requests. Um, we were able to ramp up quickly, of course, like everybody else. We had to shift all of our services online. Um, we have a staff of about, uh, about 120, uh, throughout the, uh, throughout the region. Most of those are, um, our, our business advisors that, uh, that we pay. They've been able to do the business advising either on the phone or virtually like this via zoom and be able to assist, uh, with assistant about, uh, almost 9,000 businesses between webinars and one-on-one services. Speaker 1: 01:53 Now there are so many small business programs out there that it's quite difficult for the smaller businesses to know what to apply for. And KPBS has reported that, uh, businesses South of eight have received fewer loans than businesses North of eight. Why do you think that is? Speaker 2: 02:08 Well, I think you said it in the question it's confusing and you know, that's been one of our primary efforts, a large, large amount of our focus is, um, you know, is for services for minority owned businesses. We provide services in up to 15 different languages. I think that's been a huge difference. Uh, we have, uh, one center that does provide services in, in Arabic, for example. And in that we're so unique with that. We've been able to serve not just people in the San Diego County, but nationally, just because it's virtual. Speaker 1: 02:37 What kind of outreach have you done to small businesses who have traditionally had little experience of working with banks and getting loans? Speaker 2: 02:45 So we work, you know, so some of our partners, one of our contracted partners, our sub centers is the international rescue committee. For example, um, others include, uh, the Alliance of the three ethnic chambers of commerce, the Hispanic chamber, the Asian association, and the central San Diego black chamber of commerce. Um, we've worked closely with, um, many other, uh, neighborhood organizations in particular business improvement districts, um, that it would include, for example, the diamond business improvement district, the ELCA home business improvement district and city Heights business improvement district to really try and reach those communities the best we can. Speaker 1: 03:19 And we've seen some people say that sole proprietors, you know, owner operators don't qualify. Is that true? Speaker 2: 03:25 No, that's absolutely not true. We've helped hundreds of sole proprietors, self employed individuals get the PPP loan. Um, it's based on what your, your, your 10 40 schedule C your net profit was. So the net profit that you had for your 2019 taxes, um, you divide that by 12, you times that by two and a half, and that's your loan amount. And so as long as you showed a profit on your 2019 tax return, then you're eligible Speaker 1: 03:50 Talk about the different kinds of loans. There's three different kinds. I understand, Speaker 2: 03:55 Oh, there's, there's many kinds, actually there's more than three, but the three primary, the two primary federal ones are the paycheck protection program. That was the one of course that came out with a huge, huge bang and, uh, con and has had, you know, a great success helped a lot of businesses where it's weaknesses is if you don't have significant payroll, it's not as significant loan. Uh, the other program that's federal is the economic injury disaster loan, um, that came out and right as the disaster was declared, cause it already existed. The trick with that is of course that there've been over 8 million applications. So of course there's been been some delays. Then there's been some, a number of different local programs. Uh, the city of San Diego's had their small business relief fund and had a couple of different rounds of that. We've helped a number of businesses apply for and receive that. And now San Diego County, uh, they have two programs. One that's kind of been going on for a little while through Acciona of San Diego for unincorporated areas. And then also the new cares grant program that you apply with your specific supervisorial district. And we're helping a number of businesses do that application Speaker 1: 04:57 With the federal money. Is it a problem that a small businesses with just a couple of employees are competing with businesses of up to 500 employees for this money? Speaker 2: 05:05 It's not a problem that they're competing. I think it was initially, but what it does do is it impacts the total dollar amount. Since the loan is based on two and a half times, your average monthly payroll, if you don't have a significant payroll, you're not getting a significant sum of money and certain businesses that operate, maybe not with a lot of employees, but do have other significant overhead costs. And that's a common issue, uh, with businesses that are South of the eight. They, they're not going to, you know, the PPP is not enough money for them. Speaker 1: 05:35 So what are the main barriers that you're seeing to businesses getting accessing the money? You see this money sitting there, what is it that you feel is needed to get it to the right place? Speaker 2: 05:45 The main thing is to, is to apply with the lender that will work with them. We've seen the nonprofit lending organizations such as like CDC, small business finance, uh, industry, um, opportunity. Those are three very good nonprofit lenders here in California, CDC, small business finances headquartered here in San Diego. They've done an amazing job, uh, working with them. Uh, some other small local community banks have done that. And even some larger banks such as us bank have ever justed their operations to help more and more businesses be able to access it. So I think, um, it took time for banks to do this. The whole program rolled out in six days and banks being large conservative organizations that they are, they can't turn on a dime like that. And I think that caused a huge amount of the barriers and the confusion early on. Speaker 1: 06:31 So who do you want to reach, who you think is not being reached at this point with the help? Speaker 2: 06:36 Um, in particular, very small businesses that maybe don't have access to a lot of marketplaces, you know, so they may not have, uh, be receiving emails. They may not be seeing the different information, but it's ones who think they try to get the loan and were denied, turned away from their bank. Um, in April, please come see us. We can help you find a lender and get alone. Speaker 1: 06:57 We've been speaking with Danny Fitzgerald, who's acting regional director of San Diego and Imperial counties, small business development center network. Thank you so much, Danny. Thank you.