Federal and state agencies, as well as private companies, offer small-business grants. Here's a list of resources. From Nerd Wallet: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/small-business/small-business-grants?trk_location=ssrp&trk_query=business%20grants&trk_page=1&trk_position=2
 
The Paycheck Protection Program officially ended May 31, 2021.
 
Small-business grants provide free money for startups and existing businesses, including those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
 
It can take time and effort to research and apply for funding. To help you start, here’s a list of federal, state and private small-business grants and resources.
 
Coronavirus small-business grants
The U.S. Small Business Administration introduced new coronavirus small-business grant programs as part of the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act:
 

• Shuttered Venue Operators
• Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance
• Restaurant Revitalization Fund
  
• MORE: Coronavirus relief for small-businesses: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/small-business/coronavirus-relief/

 
Federal small-business grants
Government agencies are among the biggest distributors of business grants, supporting a range of enterprises from environmental conservation to child care services. Applying may seem intimidating, but federal grants are great opportunities for small-business owners looking to grow.
 

• Grants.gov
• Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs

State and regional small-business grants
Economic Development Administration: This U.S. Department of Commerce agency provides grants, resources and technical assistance to communities to support economic growth and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
 
Each state’s agency helps businesses find financing (including state or regional grants), secure locations and recruit employees. You can search the economic development directory for regional offices and local resources.
 
Small Business Development Centers: Your local SBDC provides support for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. They’re often associated with local universities or the state’s economic development agency, and many can help connect business owners with financing opportunities, as well as counseling, training and technical assistance.
 
Corporate small-business grants
Many corporations and large companies have a philanthropic component that includes small-business grants. While some provide grants only to nonprofits servicing specific industries, some give to for-profit companies.
 

• FedEx Small Business Grant Contest
• National Association for the Self-Employed

 
Specialty small-business grants
To help spread entrepreneurial success across demographics, many organizations focus their funding efforts on specific communities.
 
Visit www.Nerdwallet.com for more lists of:

• Small-business grants for women.
• Small-business grants for veterans.
• Small-business grants for minorities.

More info from the State Of Illinois: 
​https://www2.illinois.gov/IISNews/22388-State_of_Illinois_COVID-19_Update_-_Monday_November_23.pdf

Typical Situation: Our client has seen an increase in their Contribution Rate Determination (unemployment tax rate) that is mailed to all Illinois employers on or about December 1st every year.  They also have protested their own unemployment claims but have not been successful at getting benefits denied.
 
When you hear a business owner say:
•           “I do not understand why someone was allowed to collect benefits”
•           “I hate dealing with the unemployment office as it is a no win situation”
•           “General: complaints about their unemployment claims “
 
The Consultant educates them on the unemployment laws in Illinois and to help them reduce their state unemployment taxes.
 
How they Work: They protest the claims filed against the employer and represent the employer at all unemployment hearings and go to their locations to do training sessions to educate the employer on how to handle different types of situations.  They will verify all the charges to the employer’s account to make sure they are not being charged more than they should be charged. 
 
You can introduce them:
“It sounds like you may need some help with your unemployment claims against you. I can introduce you to someone that can help. They would be happy to have a telephone consultation to discuss your situation.   

SBA loans and COVID
The SBA will pay 6 months of principal, interest, and any associated fees that borrowers owe for all current 7(a), 504, and Microloans in regular servicing status as well as new 7(a), 504, and Microloans disbursed prior to September 27, 2020. This relief is not available for Paycheck Protection Program loans or Economic Injury Disaster loans. See link below.
 
https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/sba-debt-relief

Message to Employers Regarding Unemployment Fraud

Nationwide, bad actors are using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to file fraudulent claims for unemployment insurance benefits. Many of these claims involve the theft of employees’ identities. Personal information has been stolen from many different sources in the past years, including computer hacks into the databases of some of the largest companies in the nation. This information can be used to file fraudulent unemployment claims.
 
It is likely that as an employer, you have recently seen an increase in fraudulent unemployment claims. You are not alone – this has been happening across the country. IDES is partnering with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in response. IDES is also partnering with employers to stop fraudulent claims in their tracks. If you receive a Notice of Claim informing you that an individual with a given name and social security number has filed a claim for benefits, please confirm if that individual is still working for you. If so, please ask whether that individual did, in fact, file a claim. We ask that you report to IDES as soon as possible what information you have obtained.
 
The best way to report fraudulent claims to IDES is by filing a timely protest to a Notice of Claim, giving IDES as much useful information as you can.
 
Additionally, IDES has an established unit that works specifically on allegations of fraudulent claims. On each day that you are made aware of the possibility of a fraudulent claim, we ask that in addition to filing a timely protest, you send one email with a spreadsheet including the following information for each instance of suspected fraud from that day: The claimant’s first name and last name, the employer name, and the claim ID (all this information is shown on the Notice of Claim).  Please send your email to both marco.morales@illinois.gov and gilbert.muniz@illinois.gov. Again, please ensure this information is included in a spreadsheet attachment – not the body of the email.
 
We greatly appreciate our partnership with Illinois’ employers to help combat fraud.
​

CDBG COVID-19 Small Business Loan - COMING SOON!
 
The CARES Act made available $5 billion in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to be used to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19). The Village of Schaumburg’s allocation is $217,873. On July 28, 2020, the village approved the designation of 40%, or $87,149.20, to be used to assist small businesses with retaining their pre-COVID-19 level of employment for low-to-moderate income individuals, where at least 51% of the jobs, computed on a full time equivalent basis, involve the employment of low- and moderate- income persons. 
     
The Village of Schaumburg will provide 50% match, need-based forgivable loans of up to $7,500 for two months of eligible operating expenses and/or workplace protective equipment to small businesses (those with 1-25 full time equivalent employees) that are located within the corporate limits of Schaumburg. The village will begin accepting applications on November 15, 2020. The deadline to submit an application and supporting documents is 4 p.m. December 1, 2020. Every effort will be made to make award decisions by December 15, 2020. 
The application will be released on November 2, 2020. For more information on the program, contact Debbie Van Sickle at (847) 923-3852. 

https://www.villageofschaumburg.com/business/small-business-resources

​In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its effect on small businesses, the Village of Schaumburg has created a small business grant program. The objective of this grant is to help businesses retain employees at pre-COVID-19 levels. The village is offering small business owners in Schaumburg a 50% match of operating expenses for two months (up to $10,000 total for each business) to help retain employees. The village has allocated $100,000 to this program, with funds available on a first come, first served basis.
 
Businesses must:

• Be located within the Village of Schaumburg
• Demonstrate that the COVID-19 outbreak caused a decrease in revenue
• Employ between 1-5 employees/contract employees (not including owner/s) in total across all locations
• Have less than $1.5 million in gross annual revenue
• Have been in operation for at least 1 year
• Have no outstanding tax liens or legal judgments
• Not receive, or have received, assistance through other programs intended for this purpose such as the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program or PPP

Commit to maintaining pre-COVID-19 employment levels for a minimum of 6 months upon receipt of grant. If commitment is not met, grant must be repaid.

​The village is maintaining a webpage with links to several resources available through federal, state and trade organizations. New resources are being added regularly as they become available. Click on the link below to access the Village of Schaumburg Business Resource Page.

To ensure businesses can reopen safely, the state released a common set of standards expected of all employers, while also outlining industry-specific guidelines using a risk-based approach to support unique operational needs of businesses across the state. Industry guidance will help businesses and residents feel safe in returning to many of these new activities that have been closed for the past several months.

Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan creates safety guidelines for the following permitted activities and businesses to resume, with capacity rules in place:

• Meetings and events: Venues and meeting spaces can resume with the lesser of up to 50 people OR 50% of overall room capacity. Multiple groups are permitted given facilities have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups. This includes activities such as conferences and weddings.
• Indoor and Outdoor recreation: Revised guidelines to allow select indoor recreation facilities (e.g., bowling alleys, skating rinks), as well as clubhouses to reopen. Indoor recreation to operate at lesser of 50 customers OR 50% of facility capacity with outdoor recreation allowing group sizes of up to 50, and permitting multiple groups given facilities have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups; concessions permitted with restrictions.
• Indoor Dining: Indoor dining can reopen with groups of 10 or less, with tables spaced 6-feet apart in seated areas and with standing areas at no more than 25% of capacity.
• Museums: Can reopen with no more than 25% occupancy, and with interactive exhibits and rides closed; guided tours should be limited to 50 people or fewer per group; museums should have a plan to limit congregation via advance ticket sales and timed ticketing; concessions permitted with restrictions.
• Zoos: Can reopen with no more than 25% occupancy, and with interactive exhibits, indoor exhibits, and rides closed; guided tours should be limited to 50 people or fewer per group; zoos should have a plan to limit congregation via advance ticket sales and timed ticketing; concessions permitted with restrictions.
• Cinema and Theatre: Indoor seated theaters, cinemas, and performing arts centers to allow admission of the lesser of up to 50 guests OR 50% of overall theater or performance space capacity (applies to each screening room); outdoor capacity limited to 20% of overall theater or performance space capacity; concessions permitted with restrictions.
• Outdoor seated spectator events: Outdoor spectator sports can resume with no more than 20% of seating capacity; concessions permitted with restrictions.
  Film production: Allow no more than 50% of sound stage or filming location capacity; crowd scenes should be limited to 50 people or fewer.

Industries with revised guidelines in Phase 4:

• Youth and Recreational Sports: Revised guidelines allow competitive gameplay and tournaments; youth and recreational sports venues can operate at 50% of facility capacity, 20% seating capacity for spectators, and group sizes up to 50 with multiple groups permitted during practice and competitive games given venues have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups; concessions permitted with restrictions.
• Health and fitness centers: Revised guidelines allow gyms to open at 50% capacity and allow group fitness classes of up to 50 people with new safety guidelines for indoors, with multiple groups permitted given facilities have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups.
• Day camps: Water-based activities permitted in accordance with IDPH guidelines; no more than 50% of facility capacity with group size of no more than 15 participants in a group, unless participants changing weekly.

Additionally, retail, service counters, offices, personal care (including salons, barber, nail salons), manufacturing and other industries allowed to reopen in Phase 3 will continue to operate at a reduced capacity.

To help businesses prepare to reopen and remain in compliance with new guidelines over the next two weeks, DCEO has released a new set of downloadable materials. Business toolkits are complete with signage, training checklists and other resources to help business owners and workers implement safety procedures and adhere to the latest capacity restrictions. Materials for businesses and operators pertaining to Phases 3 and 4 of the Restore Plan, can be found at Illinois.gov/businessguidelines.

​The package includes more than $900 million across more than ten programs and four state agencies to help working families and small businesses who have been hit the hardest by COVID-19’s economic impact, which was compounded by recent property damage and civil unrest. Programs include:

• Emergency Rental Assistance
• Emergency Mortgage Assistance
• New Business Interruption Grants
• Distressed Capital
• Poverty Alleviation Strategies

 
SBA Recovery Programs
The SBA is once again offering the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and the Paycheck Protection program.

• Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program - Provides an advance of up to $10,000 and is designed to provide economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing a temporary loss of revenue. This loan advance will not have to be repaid.

 

• Paycheck Protection Program - Provides loans designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll. The SBA will forgive loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities.

 
Other COVID-19 Resources

• COVID-19 Resource Page: https://www.villageofschaumburg.com/government/general-government/business-resources

 

• Phase III Re-opening Information: https://www.villageofschaumburg.com/government/general-government/phase-3-reopening-information-for-businesses

 

• Reduced Occupancy Calculator: https://schaumburgil.seamlessdocs.com/f/occloadcalc

​The IRS has published this flowchart to help determine if employee retention credits can be used by a company. 

​It also includes a table with some differences between the current credits available for COVID related leave.

​Governor JB Pritzker released industry-specific guidelines that allow for the safe re-opening of businesses as the state progresses into the next phase of the Restore Illinois plan.

All four regions of the state are on track to advance to Phase 3 of the plan in the coming days, allowing thousands of residents to return to work, and the reopening of businesses in the following industries: retail, offices, manufacturing, barbershops and salons, summer programs, various outdoor recreation activities and bars and restaurants for outdoor dining.

Guidelines as well as toolkits for businesses can be found on the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) website, HERE. 

https://www2.illinois.gov/dceo/pages/restoreILP3.aspx

​This is what we have been able to glean so far from SBA and Department of the Treasury notices (along with CPA and Law firm interpretations).
 
The SBA will be relying on banks to gather and submit the required paperwork for PPP Loan forgiveness.  Fully expect some banks to ask for more documentation than others.  Some banks are asking for the PPP funds to go into a separate account.  Keep very good records and be prepared to submit details. 
 
Loan forgiveness will be based upon maintaining headcount, maintaining wages for each employee and payroll cost/other cost ratio. 
 
Headcount reduction is determined by dividing the base FTE headcount during the 8 weeks of the PPP loan by the base FTE headcount during the look back period.  The look back period is either from 1/1/20 to 2/29/20 OR 2/15/19 to 6/30/19 at the borrower’s discretion.  There is no definition yet of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees.  Until that is issued, the best advice is to use 30 hours of part-timers = 1 FTE as that’s been used before by the agencies involved.
 
Forgiveness is reduced for not maintaining wages per employee.  The lookback period for wage level is 1st Q 2020.  If any employee’s salary is reduced by more than 25% during the 8 weeks of the PPP then the forgiveness is reduced dollar-for-dollar by the dollar amount of the portion beyond the 25% reduction.  For employees earning more then $100,000, reductions are only considered if the employee ends up below $100,000 annualized in the more than 25% reduction.  There has been no guidance given yet on how to calculate or compare these periods, for now, best advice is to use a weekly average for both periods.
 
And lastly at least 75% of the forgiveness must be payroll costs.  Payroll costs include wages, commission, tips, paid leave, insurance premiums, retirement contributions, etc.  Wages above $100,000 annualized to any single employee are excluded.  The rest (up to 25%) must be for mortgage, rent or utilities.  If more is spent in non-payroll categories the forgiveness will still cap based upon the 75% / 25% ratio.
 
There is no final guidance on the order of reduction, but everything I have read is presuming that the headcount reduction will be first and then the wage level reduction and then the 75% / 25% calculation will be last.  In most cases this produces the biggest overall reduction in forgiveness so it’s safest for projections.
 
An example: 
A company had 10 FTE employees during the preferred look back period.  During the PPP period they had 6 FTE employees.  They reduced 1 of the employee’s wages by 30% (by reducing their hours average from 30 to 21 but keeping their rate at $11.00 an hour).  During the PPP period they spent $30,000 on payroll, $4,000 on rent and $2,000 on utilities.  They are looking for $36,000 in forgiveness. 
 
They have a 60% reduction due to headcount, therefor $21,600 is eligible for forgiveness. 
 
The wage reduction beyond a 25% reduction is $132 for the 8 weeks, therefor $21,468 is eligible for forgiveness. 
 
Their payroll was 83% of the total, so the rent/utilities forgiveness is not reduced, therefor $21,468 is eligible for forgiveness. 
 
The remaining $14,532 becomes a loan at 1% to be paid back over 2 years.
 
I don’t think I quite made the 1 sheet reference target, and even still this misses a lot of the finer details. 
 
There are a couple of ways that employers could not keep headcount or wage levels during the 8 weeks of PPP but restore them by 6/30/20 and still get forgiveness, but there are no details at all on how that works or how long after 6/30/20 they’d have to keep those levels restored so I’ve left that off.
 
Future guidance may change everything here.  Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, and I’ll do my best to help.