Get Help From the SBA to Keep Your Business Afloat

The current COVID-19 pandemic is also an economic crisis, with long-lasting impacts felt across all industries. Therefore, businesses must be proactive now, in order to combat and mitigate potential losses.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) may be an avenue for small businesses searching for a helping hand during the pandemic, as they are encouraging small businesses to do their part to keep themselves,  their employees, and customers healthy.

Some available assistance provided by the SBA are as follows:

Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program provides small businesses with capital loans of up to $2 million in order to provide vital economic assistance to help businesses tolerate temporary losses of revenue.

Guidance for Businesses and Employers to help them develop strategies for immediate implementation, and to provide suggestions on how to respond to common issues currently faced by small businesses, including:

• Capital Access
• Workforce Capacity
• Inventory and Supply Chain Shortfalls
• Facility Remediation and Clean-up Costs
• Insurance Coverage Issues
• Marketing

Assistance to Small Businesses in accessing federal resources.

Loan Resources for small businesses to utilize when operating their business, which may offer loan amounts up to $5,000,000.

Export Loans to provide help to small businesses in order to achieve sales through exports and to overcome the challenges associated with trade.

Government Contracting assistance to enable continuity of operations for small businesses with federal contracts.

Small businesses should start preparing, if they have not started already, for the ensuing economic impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak, and ask themselves questions, such as:

• Do we have a budget to pay employees if the income stream slows, or even stops?
• Do we have a budget to take precautionary measures, such as performing routine environmental cleaning in the workplace, in order for our employees to safely come into work to perform their employment duties?
• Do we have a budget to fund remote access for our employees so that they can work from home?

Small businesses should consult counsel for assistance in shuffling through, and potentially choosing the best available financial or other aid program offered by the SBA.

By: Harsh Arora, Partner, at Kelley Kronenberg, who handles business litigation and complex and international corporate transaction matters. He represents multinational businesses as their outside general counsel.  For more information, please visit https://www.kelleykronenberg.com/covid-19/ or contact Harsh Arora, harora@kklaw.com or TEXT, 954-256-0743.

Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide you with general information regarding the impact of a potential or actual coronavirus pandemic. The contents of this article are not intended to provide specific legal advice.