Right now, it is critical for business owners to stay as connected as they can with employees, even if they had to furlough or lay them off, advised Saratoga Human Resources Solutions consultant Kathy Hanlon.

“They’re out there, they want to be in the know of what your business plans are and when or if they may be hearing back and getting called back in,” she said during a ROOST (Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism) community update Wednesday.

Employees are part of the team, Hanlon continued, and businesses will want those people at the ready for when the time comes to reopen.

She pointed out that pending federal legislation would bring continual changes to loan opportunities at the federal level as well as unemployment benefits and health care initiatives.

“There’s going to be a lot of information. It’s probably going to take days if not weeks for it to be fully disseminated and understood.”

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SBA loan eligibility

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Daniel Rickman, deputy district director for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Syracuse District Office, gave an overview on the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which small businesses and nonprofit organizations across the state are eligible to apply for.

He explained that agricultural enterprises and speculative real estate development companies are not eligible for EIDLs, but that agricultural cooperatives and businesses engaged in aquaculture are.

Essentially, if 50% or more of a business’s revenues come from non-agricultural productions, it should be fine, Rickman said.

He added that the SBA encourages people with questions about this to apply and leave it up to personnel who process the loans.

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Fixed operating expenses

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“Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available to cover specifically the financial obligations that the business needs to continue operations until we get through the disaster,” Rickman continued.

Those include fixed operating expenses such as payroll, employee benefits, mortgage, debt service and utilities.

EIDLs cannot be used for expansion, purchasing equipment or improving real estate, Rickman added.

Businesses that borrow temporary, micro or bridge loans from local municipalities, governments and economic development organizations to cover fixed expenses can use EIDLs to pay off that short-term debt.

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Flexibility

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Rickman spoke to the flexibility of EIDLs: currently, all payments are being automatically deferred through the end of 2020, terms are automatically 30-year notes and there are no pre-payment penalties.

Businesses and nonprofits can borrow up to $2 million; loans below $25,000 do not require collateral and can be processed more quickly.

Rickman said the typical processing time for loans is three weeks, and funding happens about a week or two after that depending on how quickly closing documents can be sent.

“Certainly if it’s more than $25,000, it’ll take a little bit longer to process.”

Due to the volume of loan requests and the number of people trying to log in, the SBA website struggles at times, Rickman continued.

The SBA is expanding its capacity on an as-needed basis by taking the website down for short periods of scheduled maintenance.

Rickman advised any business owners on the call, since they are on the east coast, to apply earlier in the morning before the rest of the country wakes up and tries to submit applications.

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Unemployment

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-Questions came up about what employers should be telling employees about applying for unemployment benefits and what options are available to those who are not laid off, but are afraid to work because they live with people who are vulnerable to COVID-19 and do not want to risk exposure.

Hanlon explained that the one-week waiting period to apply for unemployment insurance has been waived.

She noted that there is a backlog on the Department of Labor’s website. People are being told which day of the week to apply based on what letter their last names start with.

Those who do not want to work in order to prevent exposure to other people or COVID-19 will not be eligible for unemployment, Hanlon said.

“They have to have had some type of instance where they’ve been laid off, furloughed, terminated … it has to be a sever of employment in order to be eligible.”

Those fearful of coming to work can be directed to other New York State programs they do qualify for, Hanlon added.

Rickman noted that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which has been signed into law by President Donald Trump, included payroll tax credits for employers who provide sick leave or paid family leave to employees due to COVID-19.

He added that EIDLs could also help cover paid sick time for staff unable or unwilling to come in to work under the circumstances.