As cities across the US slowly open, small business owners fight to stay open. Those who received Economic Income Disaster Loans have some more wiggle room to pay them back.
SBA announced that the deferment of 2020 loans went from 12 months to 24 months, giving small business owners another year to rebound.
“Small businesses, private nonprofits and agricultural enterprises, including those self-employed individuals, contractors and gig workers, continue to navigate a very difficult economic environment due to the continued impacts of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, as well as historic severe winter storms in 2020,” SBA Administrator Tami Perrillo said.
Since the launch of COVID-19 targeted EIDL assistance, the SBA has loaned 3.7 million businesses money who have lost considerable income during the country’s shut down. Along with businesses hurting from quarantine mandates, small business owners also had to layoff employees.
Although the Biden Administration works overtime to reform the economic recovery programs put in place during the Trump Administration, the damage will be felt for a while.
“The February jobs report showed signs of momentum, adding 379,000 jobs to the U.S. economy. This report was an improvement after multiple months of sluggish job numbers, but it’s clear that our economy remains in a deep hole . . . at this current pace, it will take over four years for our economy to recover fully,” said Chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee Chairwoman, Nydia M. Valásquez (D-NY).
| Read: House passes bill for 60-day PPP loan extension
The SBA hopes that their newly appointed administrator, Isabel Guzman onboards quickly to tackle issues that focus on getting more minority businesses access to capital. More importantly, to keep the heart of American economy—small business—alive. Said Guzman after her appointment: “At more than 30 million strong, small businesses power America’s economy – they represent vastly all of our nation’s total businesses and employ nearly half of the private workforce. But they are facing unprecedented challenges and need our support to survive and thrive again.”
In September 2020, Yelp’s Local Economic Impact Report, published that a total of 163,735 U.S. businesses on their rating platform closed down between March 1 and the end of August of last year. While there was a sign of some businesses recovering by the end of the year, according to their annual report, the changes in consumer habits show that some businesses shuttered permanently.
“Small businesses across the country have been impacted by the pandemic. We must work harder than ever, think more creatively than ever, and build more collaboration than ever to Build Back Better,” said Guzman.
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