We hope you and your families are staying safe, healthy, and sane in this unprecedented situation, the COVID-19 pandemic. We received some information from various sources that may be of help to small businesses in Maine. Check out the resources below.
The Small Business Owners Guide to the CARES Act.
This document includes some direct links to the SBA’s programs. Some of the provisions of the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act are as follows:
- It will provide nearly $350 billion in federally guaranteed loans via the Paycheck Protection Program to provide eight weeks of cash-flow assistance to small businesses who maintain their payroll during this emergency. The loans would be forgiven if the employers maintain payroll. Therefore, it would help workers to remain employed and affected small businesses and our economy to quickly snap-back after the crisis.
- The act will allow the Paycheck Protection Program to cover payroll costs, paid sick leave, supply chain disruptions, employee salaries, health insurance premiums, mortgage payments, and other debt obligations. This will provide immediate access to capital for small businesses that have been impacted by the coronavirus.
- It will provide $17 billion in small business debt relief by requiring the Small Business Administration to pay all principal, interest, and fees on all existing SBA loan products for six months to provide relief to small businesses negatively affected by the coronavirus.
- The act will provide $10 billion for expanded eligibility for SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans. This includes emergency grants, an advance of $10,000 within three days to maintain payroll. It will also provide paid sick leave and will service other debt obligations.
Frequently Asked Questions on the Paycheck Protection Program.
We hope that your small business takes advantage of this help during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, most of our insurance companies are flexible with customers about payment situations. If you have any payment situations that you need us to contact the company on your behalf to see what can be done, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are looking forward to things getting back to normal as soon as possible!
