PPP and SBA loans for small businesses and self-employed

First Presbyterian Church Houston in the heart of one of the the oil patches conducted a webinar on April 21 for advice how to get help for small businesses through the Small Business Association during the COVID crisis. We had a financial planner, attorney, CPA and small business owner discuss what options are out there for a small business owner, self-employed person, etc. Who is eligible, where to get forms, how to prepare if a second round of money is made available (which will hopefully be signed soon!). Our COVID-Cares team has been working on it for a while.

Folks that are royalty owners exclusively are not eligible as that is considered investment income, but it may be useful for folks that are members of the forum that have their own small businesses or are independent contractor or self-employed and are just befuddled by whole process of applying for PPP or the other SBA options. It was presented in the format of our church members who have been given God’s talents sharing with the community what their experience has been and giving encouragement in this time of stress. Round two money is pending, so get your paperwork in quickly. One of my takeaways was that having a personal relationship with a bank is helpful and some of the smaller banks and credit unions were easier to work with than some of the big banks-at least for the first round.

I am attaching the link to the webinar. If the link does not work, then look up First Presbyterian Church Houston and look for it on their website. Hope this is timely and encouraging for many of you. Houston, like other oil patch areas, is getting hit by the double whammy of the health crisis and oil price drops.

Link to the forms available as of April 21.

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I’m interested but the link doesn’t seem to work, and I can’t find it on the churches website.

" Navigating the CARES ACT: Funding Relief and Resourcing for Independent Contractors and Small Business Owners - Zoom

Sometimes the links don’t actually work. Try this and don’t pick up the quotes symbol at the beginning.

" Dropbox - Navigating the CARES Act - Simplify your life

Too bad the big banks reshuffled applications and processed higher PPP loan amounts first. So much for “first come, first served.”

The seminar suggested that people get in their applications quickly as this second round of money will also likely run out rapidly. Some of the earlier big amounts are being returned by some companies and universities, so not sure how fast that will trickle down to us little guys.

Hopefully this round goes better. As a qualifying individual, I applied for both the EIDL grant and PPP loan within the first week and have not heard anything promising nor seen a penny.

Thank you for sharing this.

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