PPP Loan Report and Webinar

Please Sir….
May we have some more?

Dear HL Clients,

It was the worst of times and…  that’s it.  No best,  just worst. I know it’s a different Dickens reference.  So sue me. Why worst?  Because no one in Washington or Albany is listening to us and every damn day that goes by that restaurants are closed puts us one step closer to shutting down for good.  That’s why. 

Listen up dearly elected.  We need money now.  Forget the forgiveness formulas and the rehiring rules. We need no strings attached money for  vendors and loans and investors and equipment and new projects and all kinds of shit in addition to the measly 2 1/2 months of rent and utilities. Can we have some more please?  Play politics with other issues but rescue the salt of the earth people who make up the best part of America and send small businesses cash money dollars soon or it’s all over.  Got it?

You bailed out the banks in 2008 without a problem.  Now, those same banks are giving us the business by slow rolling the loans and requiring a PHD in computer science to get a simple application processed.  Not enough profit in the program for them?  Just make them do it Congress, they owe all of us bigly!!!  

If you are afraid to give us ruffians too much free money, then pay our rent until we reopen and then for a few months after that. That would help.  Ease up on property  taxes to take the pressure off of landlords.  That would help.  Require insurance companies to cover business interruption claims.  More help. Get creative but there are so many things that can be done so DO SOMETHING ALREADY!

Thank you for indulging. And thank goodness for Chang and Colicchio and Andres and the other famous  restaurant people that are being given a platform on television and are using it as much as they can.  It’s appreciated but it’s just not enough. We need a way to get through to the politicians loudly and quickly.  Any ideas?

Report from the front lines…

Joey Regs says:

PPP:
Relatively quiet day on the PPP front.  Everything that has been working continues to; everything that was tedious to get through, still is.  Still no signs of Citibank or Capital One, who are now in unchartered territory as far as reputation ruining goes.  But we do hear that both of these two letdowns will be opening their proverbial doors to applicants beginning this Friday, April 10th.  And if it wasn’t bad enough that Citibank, whose slogan by the way is, “Citi is on your side when you need us most,” is so late to the party here, we’re hearing now that they will be giving priority to those PPP loan applicants who put in for $1 Million or more.  Congrats, Citibank, you’ve truly outdone yourself.  

We’ve started getting some calls finally today, from bank loan officers, in response to applications that went in on Friday.  Some have asked for clarification on documentation provided, some just called to let us know that the materials have been received, and some indicated that our clients should expect to see the money hit their accounts shortly.  We will continue to keep you posted here, so that you know what level of movement we’re seeing on our side. 

Rumor Mill:

We’ve also heard a few rumors from more than one source, so there COULD be some merit to them, and they’re worth paying attention to: 

1) Within a short while after receiving the funds, you MAY have to make an election of some kind, alerting the bank to the fact that you will be attempting to get at least some portion of your loan forgiven.  ALLEGEDLY, if you fail to do this timely, no portion of your loan is eligible for forgiveness – even if you play by the rules and use the money how you’re supposed to. Some banks are including vague language in their “additional terms” sections AKA the fine print, that allude to this, but we had this fleshed out today by a few bankers.  These bankers were admittedly pretty ill-informed though, so this isn’t quite gospel yet.  Stay tuned here for updates on that, as this could be a truly critical point;

2) The PPP money will just appear in your account, if/when the application is approved, and this could take mere days – no outward act of acceptance, no period to decide if you want to accept, no delaying the funding date.

NYC Business Continuity, $$75k interest free loan. 

NYC has paused this application process as of today. What does this mean?  If you’re not yet registered for this loan program, you may be out of luck.  Now, the City will continue processing applications, and has enough cheddar to theoretically fund all applications that have been made thus far.  If there’s residual $, they’ll “unpause” the process and begin accepting new applications again.  We’re doing A LOT of these applications for people.  And just because you haven’t received a confirmation email from us yet, that doesn’t mean that you’re SOL.  We have tons of applications that we were able to register in time, before the cut-off, so those will all be accepted. Additionally, with the NYC loans, we’ve reached phase II for a handful of people.  The online filing is phase I.  Phase II is actually interacting with a real human being, to ensure that all is in order.  So far, so good.

As for the SBA EIDLs, we’re proceeding with filing many of these as well.  The site is working, and no big issues to speak of here.  We’ll let you know when people start receiving their $10k advances though, which we hear should be soon.

Joey Regs out.

WEBINAR ALERT: HL Talks PPP

Since its enactment on March 27, the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) has raised far more questions than answers. So whether you’ve already applied for a PPP loan – or still trying to decide if it’s right for you – please join us on Friday, April 10 at 2:00pm for a webinar where we’ll be tackling all of your toughest QQQ’s about the PPP. We will cover a wide range of topics, including how you should be spending your loan proceeds, what steps you should be taking now before you even get access to those funds, and the keys to maximizing loan forgiveness. You can register for the webinar at the following link:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lucr2QDUQI6kMZ0vV5aLyw

He’s Gone:  John Prine, the great American singer/songwriter left us yesterday. See/listen to him sing “Angel from Montgomery” with Bonnie Raitt.  He wrote the song and when they perform it together it’s just gorgeous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaHNUYAKDn4

Good night,

David