April 18th Poll: CARES Money Starts To Get To Business Owners In Need

While we are deemed an essential business, general automotive repair, we like many other businesses have been severely impacted by Covid-19 seeing a better that 75% drop in revenue. The drop is due to several key factors, but two mainly: the lack of business and the lack of our trained staff at work. We are a staff of 7, 5 of our 7 are on furlough. They elected this initially to keep themselves and their families safe from the virus. Beginning Tuesday next week , 2 of the 5 furloughed will return to work full time. One of my production team member's wive's is a nurse who also have a 12 month old. He will likely not return to work until care for their toddler can be arranged in a safe manner. That time line cannot be determined so we are seeking additional staff to replace him  for the short term. The largest disconnect comes from our application for the PPP application we submitted at 9 am on April 3.  We applied through our local bank whom we have had a 20 year relationship with. They informed us Thursday 4/16 at 4:52 pm that our application had not been processed and the funds were depleted. Despite routine calls the our branch office during the period between 4/2 and 4/16, we were repeatedly informed they were working as fast as they as were able and that no specific information was available as to the status of our application.  I, like so many other small business, are in the dark as to what happened. I wonder why, if the application was received "first thing", how it was possible the application was not attended to in the order it was received. Is there or was there some behind the scene criteria the bank used to determine which applications to attend to first? If so was this an inside decision among the bank's board of directors to prioritize applications or was it a criteria the State or the Federal government set forth? Given your graph of the 71% left unfunded, what is the likelihood sufficient future Federal programs will be made available? When might they become available? As you can see, I have more questions than  have answers. I am committed to staying open and creating opportunities for our business to come back stronger than before the crisis most likely with funds from retirement accounts or home equity loans. Clearly the scope of the pandemic and its economic impact are "what happen and what's responsible" . Government is responding in ways it was never anticipated. It isn't surprising to me the smaller "main street" businesses are at the back of the line, they lack the financial and personnel resources to ensure their position in the funding process. Lessons can be learned through this experience for all of us.  

Applied the day it opened up. No collateral, no proof? Got confirmation that application was in queue, then crickets....got a hard pull on my credit by SBA weeks later....after the money had been handed over to corporations that lobbied for provisions and got them. Haven't heard of any actual small business that's received either a loan or the PPPL. Now there are special provisions for farmers, targeting the smallest? I'm sure that the money will go to more companies like Smithfield (owned by the Chinese) than any small local farmer attempting to survive, continuing to feed a herd on an empty bank account...doesn't help

The rollout of CARES was marred with ineptitude from the get go. I have no clue if I will get any money and I applied within 10 minutes of the website went active. I applied to EILD within 24 hours and still waiting to hear from it.  The state program that open on the 24th of March ran out of money and they don’t have the decency to tell you that they ran out of money nor they refer you to a lender that has money. Applied to that one on the 25th. 

Next time you choose to believe that starving the “beast” is the way to go, for situations like this, you need the infrastructure  and the personnel trained to cope with it as well as money. Nothing truer that you get what you pay for 

I applied on Apri 6th. Two days after my bank was able to accept applications. I received a notification that my application was accepted and being reviewed, almost immediately. Then heard nothing again until April 14 when I was contacted by two bankers asking for information that was already in my original application. I re sent that information to them immediately and again heard nothing. Then I saw on the news two days later that funds for the program were exhausted. I e-mailed my banker asking for status and heard nothing back. I will call again Monday morning to make sure that I don’t lose my place in line when the program is re-funded. 

Very poor communications and confusion among my bankers! Not much I can do other than push some more!

I feel the same way as others here.  Like a bait-and-switch.  I kept my employees - trying to do the right thing - with the promise of money coming quickly.  We applied almost immediately and then had to re-apply as they re-thought the application.  Nothing (no money) but I felt then and still feel terrible now throwing them (my employees) into the now more seriously over-burdened unemployment system.  Would have almost been better to have furloughed them right away (when there were fewer applicants).  At least that system still has money to disperse.  (Right?)

Horrible so far. BOA will be my Ex Bank very soon.  Many businesses with zero impact are getting payroll relief as I sit at 35 days closed.  One simple line on application would have fixed it: “Are you currently impacted by more than 50% loss of business.”  I’m hoping to get that message to politicians for second round of that happens.   

I applied with my bank as soon as they started accepting applications and heard nothing until this Monday saying money had run out. Luckily, I applied to one of the many companies I had received an email from. I applied last Monday, received an email saying they had my application and had forwarded it to SBA and should hear something within 24-48 hours. I saw the news saying all the money had been allocated and was extremely disappointed. That night, I received an email saying we had been funded and received my PPL number.  Couldn’t believe it took my bank 2 weeks to tell me they couldn’t do anything.

Most of the money got sucked up by the Airlines and GMC. Small businesses didnt have a chance to even get their applications in.

I’m a hair stylist and I’m part owner of a small Salon. We applied for the Covid19 Disaster Relief Fund through the SBA, as soon as we could. We haven’t heard anything either except for the money had run out. I was also denied unemployment. Small businesses are really suffering! I’m having to pay rent and utilities for work, as well as bills at home. I hope I don’t deflate my savings to go back to a business we don’t have any more. Our stay at home order goes through May 31. I feel so bad to hear all of these stories. I’m happy for the small business that received money. I’m not talking about the big business that claim to be small businesses. Maybe this new funding can help some of us. I pray we all get good news in the coming days ahead! Take care stay healthy and safe!

Our business put in our application for the PPP loan/ grant instantly once the paperwork was released .

Received first notice a few days later that the application was accepted . However due to high demand would take time to be reviewed and processed.

Next notice , funds were depleted.

Now , we hear of huge corporate restaurants receiving $10 million apiece ! Has anyone done the math on how many small businesses that would have given a lifeline to? My actual claim was only in the 10 thousands ! We all could have been given this financial buoy had not the greedy , selfish unaccountable hogs not taken what was meant for us . My grandfather always said “pigs get fat , hogs get slaughtered “Well  we as small business owners need to spread the word and boycott all of these unethical, immoral companies, hurt them where they’ve hurt us , in the pocket !