CARES Act Passage
After taking the day to digest the information available on the CARES Act, it appears that we need to make a slight pivot. In our communication yesterday, we indicated to move forward with an application for an SBA disaster loan. It now appears that the relief on wages will come in the form of an SBA 7(a) or Express loan instead. The SBA 7(a) and Express loans are provided through local banks not through the SBA administration directly. You will need to contact your banker to apply for this loan although we have spoken with several banks today and it appears that no loans will be made until this is officially signed in to law. The bill has not yet been approved by the house or signed by the president.
In anticipation of the new bill, we found the link below to be especially helpful.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/small-business-relief-cares-act
With the above bill and provisions in the works the following questions will inevitably come up.
Question: Should I continue to pursue a line of credit for my office?
Answer: Yes, we have no idea when or if the bill will pass and even if it does the SBA loan process will inevitably take some time. A LOC will help to bridge the gap needed for expenses until this comes to fruition.
Question: Does this change the recommendation to instruct staff to file unemployment?
Answer: Not for now. Some of you have asked staff to file for unemployment, some of you are trying to pay your staff what you can, some of you are continuing to pay your staff their full wages. Our responsibility is to you and to preserve your finances. For this reason, our recommendation is still for you to instruct employees to file for unemployment. If and when this bill does become law, you should be prepared to hire all staff back. Until then, we recommend to continue our previous recommendation of instructing all staff to file for unemployment.
We will continue to send out notices to keep you informed in this ever changing environment and will continue to support you make the best decisions available given the information we have.