Like many small business owners, Tobi Parks saw her business devastated by the Covid pandemic. Parks had to shut the doors of her independent arts and music venu,e xBk, in Des Moines, Iowa, in March of 2020. It didn’t reopen until more than a year later. “It was terrifying,” said the 44-year-old Parks, who had
In the last year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has brought more than 100 criminal cases relating to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Fraud. These criminal prosecutions started at a blistering pace, with the first indictments coming within the very first months of the program’s inception. This wave of criminal prosecutions and convictions related to some
When the pandemic hit last year, Andrew Leckie, who runs half a dozen restaurants and a catering company in Edmonds, Wash., was forced to lay off more than 200 employees. Demand for his oysters and craft cocktails had dried up and his businesses were in trouble until a program intended to provide loans to small
The economic rebound powering the S&P 500 Index to almost-daily records has left large swaths of Main Street behind, with millions of small businesses waiting to join the party. The recovery may have plateaued for firms with fewer than 500 employees, recent data suggest. For the week ended April 18, 20% of small businesses reported
77 percent of small business owners expect to exhaust their second round of PPP funding by the end of June Only 26 percent expect to be able to maintain payroll without additional relief A new national survey of small business owners from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices shows that America’s Main Street businesses are
When the pandemic struck just over a year ago and stopped our economy in its tracks, Congress responded with the largest small-business loan program in U.S. history. When it concludes this May, the Paycheck Protection Program will have provided $784 billion in forgivable loans to nearly 4 million small businesses. Yet a shockingly small percentage
When your state lifts the masking mandate, how should you conduct business? According to a survey by Near Media, the majority of consumers support masking. The consumers also prefer businesses which strictly enforce it. Consumers could respond using one of four choices: More likely to do business with them; Neutral, will not affect my spending;
Before the Covid-19 pandemic bumped office workers out of the office and into their living rooms, most of them worked exclusively or almost exclusively from the office. But after a year of remote work by necessity, only 13% say they expect to go back to full-time office work. That’s according to a survey of 4,700
Despite recent moves by the Biden Administration to expedite vaccine distribution and adjust the PPP to reflect the needs of the most disadvantaged groups, 45% of the small businesses we polled last week say they remain “highly concerned” about keeping their businesses afloat through the end of the pandemic. Another 30% say they’re “somewhat concerned,”
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed into law on Thursday contains a number of provisions intended to help small businesses, especially restaurants. It authorizes another $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, which offers forgivable loans to small businesses and other organizations hurt by the pandemic. The loans will
Even if your “workforce” consists of you and your dog, you can still get a Paycheck Protection Program loan. In fact, the rules have recently changed to make these funds even more accessible for you. So listen up, solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, self-employed people, “1099 contractors” and sole proprietors, here’s what you need to know. The
It’s been well documented that the global pandemic has greatly changed consumer behavior. Most notably, lockdown legislation and the closure of bricks and mortar stores has seen a shift from physical to digital as consumer interactions and experiences now largely take place online. In response, marketers and business leaders have been working hard to find