Time is running out for small business owners who are looking to take advantage of a new change to the Small Business Administration's paycheck protection program.
The priority window for sole proprietors and businesses with less than 20 employees, will expire at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9.
The exclusive access benefit was implemented by the Biden Administration to help ensure smaller companies have an opportunity to receive funds.
Before you apply, Boca Raton PPP Strategist, Bimal Shah, recommends you have the following documents:
- 2019 tax returns
- Banking statements from November 2019 and February 2020,
- A clear digital picture of your driver's license
- A voided check, to make sure funds are deposited into the right account.
If you're applying for a second PPP loan, you'll also need your 10-digit SBA Loan number which can be found on the signed approved documents, you received from your first loan.
"That loan number needs to be on the application if you got funded and they verify in the system," said Shah. "Again everything is done through machines and automation, so the machine tries to connect with the SBA system and put this number into their system and if SBA recognizes it then yes, if it doesn’t, it kicks it out."
Once you have all of your documents together and you’re ready to start the application process, Shay says it’s important to fill out each question correctly and make sure your documents are readable when uploading them to your profile.
Shah says the most common mistakes applicants make is inputting wrong information and uploading documents that aren’t clear enough to be processed.
"A lot of times people put the wrong number because they don’t know how to read their tax returns and they don't know which number from which line they need to put on the application, so the application is very specific," said Shah.
At 1 p.m. on March 9, Shah will host a free step by step interactive zoom workshop to help business owners apply for a PPP loan.