Navigating SBA, EIDL, PPP & All These Acronyms
By: Greg Horn
Tags: Startup Lessons, Sustainability, Startup, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been wondering how the heck we’re supposed to navigate this time and ensure we can still put food on the table for our families and our teams’.

Because of what we’ve done to support local small businesses through the Catch A Wave Business Competition, I’ve been receiving emails like this one:

“I’m writing to inquire about local homegrown small business assistance programs that may be on island and not something we have yet explored. I would also welcome any insights from local leaders about navigating the opportunities that may be coming on line at a Federal and State level during this crisis.”

Over the weekend, I completed my application for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) from the Small Business Administration (SBA), which claims to offer a $10,000 grant that is forgivable, meaning it doesn’t need to be paid back.

Let me back up and make something abundantly clear…

I am not an accountant, I’m not an attorney and I don’t represent any banks or government entities. This email is simply me sharing my experience as a fellow Business Owner in the hopes that it can help someone. I’m not recommending you do anything specific for your business — that’s up to you and your tax and legal professionals. I simply want to serve Kauai’s business owners in navigating this economic storm as painlessly as possible.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way…

The process took me all of about 5 minutes, which totally amazed me for something that the federal government has put together.

So, I wanted to share to encourage you all to hurry up and apply.

According to everything I’ve read, there is a limited amount of money available for each of these programs and it’s being given out on a first come, first served basis.

Here’s a great article summarizing what’s happening:

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/3/21196191/cares-act-apply-small-business-loans-grants-ppp-eidl

“In this guide, we’ll focus on the two that allow businesses to apply for new loans, though the full menu of relief options is available on the SBA’s website. The first is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which enables organizations to obtain up to $10 million in loans that are 100 percent forgivable if they do not lay off any employees or if they rehire employees they’ve already laid off.”

“The second is the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL), which includes a $10,000 grant that businesses can apply for and which they do not need to pay back. The rest of the EIDL loan, which caps out at $2 million, is not forgivable but can be more flexible than PPP in the types of expenses it covers.”

I’ve been telling friends and family to hurry up and apply for the EIDL right now. Head over here to do that:

https://covid19relief.sba.gov/#/

In my opinion, the government has done a decent job of making the application process as painless as possible, but there is still due diligence you need to make sure you have in place.

I’ve been poring over this stuff and getting up to speed as quickly as possible because folks continue reaching out to me. If I can help in any way, don’t hesitate to reach out. Once again, to be clear, I’m not an accountant, attorney or serving in any official capacity — I simply want to serve Kauai’s business owners in navigating this economic storm as painlessly as possible.