As more federal loan money becomes available for small businesses, there are important tips to consider when filling out applications. Small businesses in the U.S. can apply for up to $2 million in loans and grants from the Small Business Administration (SBA) to help during the COVID-19 crisis.
The SBA disaster loan application can be found here: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/disaster-assistance.
The following tips were provided by the Black Car Assistance Corporation:
- While applying online, make sure you hit the save button on the SBA application site often as you fill out the forms, so you don’t get booted off. If you get kicked off, you will have to start over.
- Some operators recommend using Internet Explorer as your browser while accessing the SBA site and hitting refresh often.
- Put all of your documents supporting the application in common formats, such as PDFs, that can be easily retrieved and are ready to send. If you don’t have them ready for attachment and take too long to link them, the SBA system will time out after a specific amount of time and interrupt the process.
Among the documents you need:
- Two-page loan application.
- Personal financial statements that are ready to be electronically forwarded and attached.
- A schedule of liabilities, which the SBA will use along with your credit ratings/worthiness to determine how much of the maximum $2 million loan amount you will get.
- Two years of complete, up-to-date tax returns for both your company and you, personally. (If your returns are too lengthy and the file is too large to use as an attachment, indicate that you will FedEx them to an SBA branch office where they will sign for it and verify. This will allow your online application to proceed.)
- IRS form 4506T, which gives the SBA authorization to go to the IRS and review up to three years of tax returns.
- Any business partners with ownership stakes in your company will have to submit income and financial statements and personal tax returns.
Follow through and make sure you have provided all the information requested. Incomplete information will delay the process and your application could get cast aside. At some point, the available loan amounts will run out.
At the end of the process, be sure to acknowledge the perjury warning and then hit “submit”. You will be given a preview of what you’ve prepared before you send it.
Source: Black Car Assistance Corporation
