The new CARES Act is intended to help businesses survive this treacherous time brought on by the Coronavirus (COVID-19). To say that the CARES Act is massive and complicated is an understatement. As a business owner, you have action that you can take to reap the benefits of the CARES Act.

None of the benefits for businesses happen automatically. You must have an action plan and understand the requirements for each step of that plan. This plan will play out over a period of months as the virus subsides. With a solid plan your business can receive unprecedented “free” money from the government and come out the other side of this strong and prosperous.

The dagi team is ready to be your guide. We have established a $500 minimum retainer for assisting clients with this process. That retainer fee should cover the total project cost for most small businesses. We believe the money we can help you save/acquire will be well worth the additional expense of our fee.

Whether you choose to utilize our services or not, we want to instruct you to go to https://covid19relief.sba.gov/#/ and complete the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan using the new streamlined application process at the SBA website ASAP (the SBA updated their website late Sunday evening). If you have an unfinished application in process already, you will now need to use this streamlined application. If you previously submitted an application, it is not clear whether you can resubmit it using the new streamlined application. We do not know the answer, but our guess is that reapplying shouldn’t hurt and will make sure your information is in the SBA Loan system.

Once on the SBA website and into the loan application process, you will not be able to save as you go, so assemble the following information in advance:• Business information – name, EIN, address, business type, start date of business, current ownership and owner’s information• Gross revenue from 02/01/2019 to 01/31/2020• Cost of Goods Sold for last year (most of our clients will have $0 Cost of Goods Sold)• Number of employees your business had on 01/31/2020At the end of the application it will ask if you would like the $10,000 advance… answer with a big YES. This is some of that ”free” money I mentioned earlier. This $10,000 is a loan advance which will be forgiven, no repayment ever! It does not matter if you proceed further with the loan process, we expect most of you will not because the SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan is probably the better option for our clients. This is part of the strategy we can discuss as we move your plan forward.

The SBA PPP loan is now law, but applications are not available as of the date of this publication. The SBA PPP loan will be processed through local banks. Preferably use your bank if they are already SBA 7(a) lenders.

Please email Bonnie or Jacob to schedule a phone call to discuss specifics about your business.