The novel coronavirus has forced craft breweries, bars and restaurants nationwide to shut down for on-premise service, as well as small businesses deemed “non-essential” to also shutter, resulting in record unemployment and gutted revenue streams. Many of those businesses have been left seeking government assistance to weather the disruption caused by COVID-19.
Stonehearth Capital Management senior financial advisor Andrew Nadeau joined Brewbound reporter Jessica Infante for a conversation about the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) options for business owners.
The SBA has rolled out the Paycheck Protection Program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Support Act (CARES Act) — a $2.2 trillion aid package that was signed into law on March 27.
The SBA began accepting applications on April 3. After a week, the SBA had promised $182 billion of its allocated $349 billion, and that amount was depleted this morning. PPP loans are calculated at 2.5 times the applicant’s monthly average payroll costs, and 75% of all loan money must be spent on payroll.
“While I mentioned before that there is additional stimulus potentially coming down the pipeline, that isn’t anything of a given right now, so if you do need funding and you are in need of assistance, I would strongly encourage you to contact whoever your local financial institution is that you work with to inquire if they are actively underwriting these loans or to see if they can refer you to an institution that does,” Nadeau said.
With so much uncertainty, Nadeau recommends that business owners track their spending and create financial models for worst-case scenarios.
“That can provide an eye-opening analysis, but it will also kind of help put things in perspective,” he said. “If things continue down this road, if we get a situation where we all go back to work or we go back to normalcy and then COVID re-emerges, what is the picture going to look like at that point as well? It’s just preparing yourself and just setting yourself up for the best chance of success.”
Watch the video above, and look for additional video conversations in the coming days and weeks on Brewbound.com.
Brewbound will also host a live-streamed event on Thursday, April 16, at 3 p.m. EST, discussing how beer companies are navigating operations in states where statewide stay-at-home orders have not been issued.