Small businesses have more help coming
The streets are empty, doors are closed and for many small businesses, it’s been a nightmare to get help from the federal government.
This is a problem for all of us because small business is the backbone of the North Carolina economy. There are more than 900,000 small businesses with fewer than 500 employees in the state and many have just been trying to stay alive
"I’m seeing a lot of small businesses who are successfully reaching out to their customers and saying this is what we are doing and this is what you can do to help support our business right now," said Cherith Roberson, Director of the North Carolina small business center.
Creativity can only go so far, and that’s why the city of Raleigh set up a seminar to help small businesses navigate the many ways they can get help.
The big thing right now is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) which ran out of money last week but is expected to get more funds from congress soon.
"That is still being discussed in congress but there is part of what passed through the senate is verbiage that allocates 60 billion dollars to lenders that would typically have a smaller small business as a client," said Thomas Smith, NC District Director of the Small business Administration.
This would be an improvement from the first round of money which ended up largely in the hands of bigger chains and not with smaller businesses as it was intended.
Once this passes Congress, the banks will again begin the process of accepting applications.
"I’ve been in banking for 30 years and it’s certainly been one of the most generous programs that I have seen in my banking career and it was a monumental task to get this money out the door as quickly as we were told it needed to be out the door," said Lisa Jackson, VP of Banking Fifth Third Bank.
The hope is that information and the next round of funding from the federal government will save small businesses, leading to more jobs and better communities when this is over.
