Small biz money could go quickly

CLOVIS — Sandra Taylor-Sawyer rarely gets a break these days.

The director of the Curry, Roosevelt and De Baca County Small Business Development Center has been answering more questions than usual.

Not surprising. These are not normal times for the local counties, the state of New Mexico, the United States and the world because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Businesses are in trouble. And though New Mexico’s coronavirus cases are relatively low compared to the rest of the nation, even lower for the local counties, it is still a serious situation here.

To help contain the virus in New Mexico before it spiraled out of control, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a stay-at-home order two weeks ago, causing all non-essential businesses to close. Even the essential ones have had reduced availability, reduced hours, reduced staff.

To help save businesses from collapse, federal stimulus money by the trillions is available, which has Taylor-Sawyer hopping as she answers questions about it all. On Monday afternoon she was crazy busy.

“You caught me at a good time. I was just coming up for air,” Taylor-Sawyer said by telephone. “I would rather not be as busy and we weren’t in this issue. But we are and so, yes, I’m glad we’re here to help small businesses.”

And small businesses that could use her help should probably get it fast. A release from the governor via public information officer Bruce Krasnow, dated Saturday stated the following:

“New Mexico small businesses in financial distress due to the coronavirus crisis are encouraged to apply as soon as possible for loans made available under the federal stimulus bill. The stimulus bill, or Cares Act, allocates $349 billion for loans to small businesses. But businesses have until only June 30 to access the money, and loans will be made on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“This money will go quickly. …”

That last part should jump out at any qualifying business owner hoping to get some of the available funds. And that’s where Taylor-Sawyer and the SBDC are helping.

“We are resource partners with the Small Business Administration and that also includes SCORE (the nation’s largest network of volunteer business mentors) and our women’s business centers,” Taylor-Sawyer said. “We are the ones who can help with their questions, help them complete their forms and plan for what they need to do now. And after this issue is over, we also provide business training and counseling assistance to small business.”

Taylor-Sawyer said the definition of “small business” is 500 or fewer employees. Any in that category, she says, “would be able to participate in either all or some of the programs with the Cares Act. … Over 90 percent of the businesses in New Mexico would qualify.”

Taylor-Sawyer said anyone with questions can reach out via the SBDC website — nmsbdc.org — or can call 575-769-4136.

They can field a variety of questions. “Really anything dealing with business,” Taylor-Sawyer said. “We’re not lawyers or accountants, but we can provide some of the basic information on some of those issues, really any business issue dealing with the financials; really everybody is dealing with that right now. Employee issues — some may not have a sick-leave policy. We can provide them with a general overview of what they’re needing.”

On the website, people with questions can choose training sessions, economic injury disaster loan and paycheck protection program (PPP).

“These are great overviews of what’s involved in the stimulus package,” Taylor-Sawyer said. “And not only the federal portion of that but also the state of New Mexico, because the state is offering some incentives. We are encouraging businesses to first seek assistance at the federal level but also the state. This is the first time in the 29 years that I’ve been doing this that they are looking at having unemployment (insurance) for business owners, which is huge. But this is a huge issue.”

Regarding the emergency economic injury grant, Taylor-Sawyer said it is literally a grant of up to $10,000 that doesn’t have to be paid back. It’s available for small businesses and for private non-profits that are categorized as 501C, D or E.

With so much going on, and so much aid available, there are plenty of questions.

“I think the biggest question is that businesses think they can ask the government for one program or the other,” Taylor-Sawyer said. “A small business that has employees can basically apply for what I would call the four bags of money. You have the economic incentive grant, you have the disaster loan, the paycheck protection program, and then you have the small businesses tax provisions. If they have employees they can use all four of those; if they don’t have any employees they can definitely participate in the emergency injury grant and the disaster loan.”

Among the other significant items Taylor-Sawyer mentioned was that any business that had a Small Business Association loan prior to COVID-19 will have its principal and interest payments deferred for six months. “And that’s huge,” she said.

Another super-important item is that “there cannot be any duplication in the use of funds,” which Taylor-Sawyer read aloud directly from the guidelines. It’s not that business owners can’t apply for more than one of the programs, they can. “It’s saying (for example), on the disaster loan, if you’re going to use that money to pay March and April’s salaries then you can’t use the PPP loan to pay for those same salaries. You’ve got to use it for a different month’s salaries. We can explain that to them.”

And the explaining is available for the foreseeable future. Even beyond.

“It’s a totally different time, different atmosphere,” Taylor-Sawyer said. “We’re going to be here after our new normal begins.”