 Good morning. Welcome to the City of Columbia Office of Business Opportunities, PPP, Eligibility and Understanding the Application Process, a virtual workshop. I'm so happy today to have our Electress Mayor with us. He is not only an advocate for our small business community, he's also someone out there trying to make sure that resources come into our community to help us at all times, not just during the pandemic. So I'm going to turn it over to him and let him welcome everyone. Thank you. Now Melissa, thank you so much to you and your incredible team for constantly working your right pre-pandemic to ensure that we're prepared for these challenging times and which we're living in. But really since the pandemic, you guys have shown the incredible leadership reaching out to the private sector, reaching out to partners not just in the city, the municipal corporation that we are but also other governments to try and make sure we do everything we possibly can to help businesses through what for many of them is probably the most difficult time they've ever seen. We all watched the last round of PPP. A lot of our small and more vulnerable businesses were not able to participate in the program for a number different reasons. Some didn't have significant banking relationships, some even when they had banking relationships that were long-standing, maybe the bank partner didn't think it was important enough to make sure that they had access to the capital. And then also just as almost everything that comes from the federal government at times, it can be tough to navigate the process of not having a clear understanding of the program requirements and application process. So the purpose of this webinar this morning is obviously to address some of those issues so that we can at the end of the day see more of our small businesses from across Columbia and across the region for that matter, be able to access PPP funding. So today you're going to hear from Greg White, who's a district director of the SBA. He's done a great job partnering with us over the years and we're going to learn a lot about PPP program eligibility requirements. And then also you're going to hear from Dominic Mjartan, the president CEO of Optus Bank, the only African-American on bank in our state, the only CDFI bank in Columbia that's participating in the PPP program. During the last round, Optus not only stepped up in a meaningful way to the plate to provide PPP loans to minority-owned businesses, but also to provide smaller loans in amounts that the larger banks sometimes didn't think was worthwhile just to be frank. So lastly, you're also going to hear from partners that are also able to provide assistance as you prepare your application. So take good notes, share them widely and hopefully at the end of this process we'll see a significant amount of capital flowing into your businesses and allow you once we come out of this pandemic, which we will, to thrive and fully participate in the American economy. Thank you. Melissa, thank you again to you and your entire team. Let's go do some good. Thank you, sir. I'm going to turn it over to Aisha just to give you an overview of our office and some of the resources that we have available through the City of Columbia Office of Business Opportunity. A lot of people are not aware of the different services that we have. We have a loan program here. We have a number of different types of loans and we also have our resilient Columbia EDA, Economic Development Administration loan that we just seen and this has been received directly in regards to COVID. So Aisha, can you go over some of those things with us this morning? Yes, ma'am. So first we're going to get started with our commercial lending program, which has been pretty popular of course lately. We provide financial assistance to startup and existing businesses for growth expansion, retention, and the creation of new jobs and assistance in the redevelopment of commercial corridors. Most of the funding that we've received lately will go through our commercial lending program, which our loan officer is Fred Whiting and he'll be happy to assist you if you have any questions about eligibility or any further information you need to look for funding that may be available through our office. We do anticipate additional funding to come through us through the next few months for that. Our resilient Columbia Revolving Loan Fund, we receive some EDA funding that goes through our commercial lending program. It is a revolving loan fund, so as those funds are paid back, we will be able to put that money back into the community through that program. We also have our contractor and supplier diversity area. It provides training and support for city initiatives that's designed to increase local contractors capacity to compete for government contracts and other procurement opportunities. It's really important to the city that our procurement process reflect the diversity of our great city, so we're proud to offer programs such as the subcontractor outreach program, mentor protege, our local business enterprise preference program, and also our Columbia Disadventure Business Enterprise. Juliet, Nellie, Latanya, Jeremy, and Kalina Gignard are in that contractor and supplier diversity area and they're happy to help answer any questions about doing business with the city or any other type of business that you would like to do. We encourage people to diversify their clients, so with the city, the county, federal government, we're happy to assist in that area. We also have our technical assistance education advocacy. It is a business development assistance and offers courses for startups and existing businesses looking to grow and expand. We offer webinars throughout the year. Before last, those were in person, but now, of course, due to COVID, we offer those in a webinar format, which has been pretty successful and allows us to reach a greater span of audience. We include topics such as marketing, the use of social media, business plan development, finances, legal issues, and more, and we're always open to other training opportunities that your business may be interested in. You can contact me directly at aisha.draggers at columbiasc.gov and I'll be happy to discuss some additional training opportunities. We partner with the vast majority of our community partners, so we'll be happy to assist you in making that connection with those partners or offering trainings with our office. We also want to provide our, although our physical office is closed, I guarantee you, you can contact us at this number 803-545-3950 and our staff will be available to assist you in any of the areas that I listed, or even if you don't even know where to start and you're an entrepreneur, just contact our office and we'll be happy to help you through the process. Our email address is obo at columbiasc.gov and Colleen is going to share our resilient Columbia brochure in the chat room. Also, if you have any questions while we're going through this, if you could just type them in the chat, we'll be happy to get, we'll have opportunities for questions throughout the programming today. So thank you for being here, and we're going to move on to Mr. Greg White. He's the district director of the Small Business Administration, SBA, South Carolina District Office. Greg, you want to get started? Good morning. Thank you, Melissa, Mayor, and Aisha. Thank you very much for allowing me to participate today. I want to go over a few things that may interest everyone about the SBA itself. We provide three to four areas of assistance to small businesses. The first one is counseling, and then the second is federal contracting and capital, and as we're talking about today, one of the major things we do here recently is the disaster assistance. With our counseling programs, we have small business development centers, core chapters, and women's business centers across the state, which are providing free service for business planning, assistance with your applications, whether it's a financial application, whether it's an application for a license, whatever. This is available to any small business free of charge. All they have to do is contact one of our advantages. We opened up a brand new Women's Business Center yesterday, and Charleston will start the groundbreaking for it yesterday in Charleston. So that's our third one in South Carolina. We have one in Columbia with Benedict College, which has been a very good success in partner community works, which operates statewide and also down the new one in Charleston. Our contracting programs consist of our women-owned small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, services-abled businesses, hub zones. Last year, we did approximately about $8 billion in federal contracting across the state, and we would like to see South Carolina obtain more of those funds for small businesses. Federal contracts are a tremendous ability for small business to grow wealth and increase the business for small business in contracting areas. And finally, the capital side of it is we have guaranteed loans. We have 504 direct loans with low interest rate, long-term financing, microloans. We have a small business investment corporation. So we have all types of financing that's available to small businesses. But let's talk about what we're here for, mainly today's disasters. Kind of give you an overview of what's been in the background recently. We've had economic injury and disaster loans under the first program. We've put out 47,000 applications in $2 billion in South Carolina, with the PPP-1 loans. We put out 67 applications with $5.8 billion worth of funding. Now that we're in the process of the PPP-2, we've nationwide, this is a nationwide number, 60,000 applications with about 3,000 lenders. We've grown more than $5 billion worth of application funding right now, but that's where we were last week. I want to go in and encourage you now that if you have some applications of any fraud through your applications, please contact our office and I'll give my contact information a little later. We will refer you to the proper process if you have some concerns about your social security number, your credit being enhanced by someone who should not have it. So please do so. If we could go, let's go to the next slide. As Mayor Benjamin mentioned, one of the things that was instrumental in this first round application was to just to get the money out as quick as possible, and we did in about 14 days, what usually takes us about 14 years to get done. The second round, the Congress wanted to make sure that we allocated funds to underserved segments of our society, including women's minority and veteran owned businesses, and they did this by initial open applications to community financial institutions and with smaller lenders. So we've done that. If you could go next slide, I appreciate it. On January 11th, it was open for the first round PPP loan applications just from community financial institutions so that it could get out to these rural areas, minority areas, underserved areas, so they could have first access to these funds. Then on January 13th, it opened for second draw PPP loans, which if you've got a first draw PPP loan, you could then apply for a second one to get additional funding, again, only from the CFI's community financial institutions. Then on January 15th, it opened up the first and second draw applications to lending the institutions, which were less than one billion an asset, and that was your community banks, typically your credit unions, community banks, but typically ones were less than that. Then on January the 19th, opened up the second draw first and second to all of application and lending institutions. And I'll go ahead and apologize, my dog always howls when an ambulance or a train goes by, so if you hear a howling in the background, that's what that is. Then finally, now that it's all open for all second draw, we open all applications to come in. A key date to remember is March the 31st, all PPP applications, whether it's the first or second round PPP, must be submitted at that time unless Congress desires to extend it, that application process will sunset at that time. Next slide, please. Awesome changes between the first draw and the second draw, new eligibility consists of housing cooperations, destination marketing organizations, 501C6s, which includes your chambers of commerce, eligible news organizations. So that's a change we did not have, 506 really implanted a lot of the chambers of commerce, that was something that was not covered before. Still eligible or your business entities, sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, LLC, those are still included, along with your 501C3s, your veteran organization, tribal businesses, including faith faith organizations. So that and that is for the PPP and for the EIDL loans, economic injury and disaster loans. Next slide, please. What is the second draw on PPP? What it consists of is if you got a PPP loan, the first one, and now that you have had 300 employees or less, so you had a 25% reduction in gross receipts, you can apply for a second round PPP if you had the first round. Typically, the average loan is 2.5 times the average monthly payroll. The maximum is $2 million loan, previous loan was $10 million, so a lot of funds got distributed to larger businesses. This time it's restricted to $1 million, so hopefully we'll see about a more smaller businesses. If you are in a small business and it's in an Xcode 72, which is your accommodation services, your estimated loan would be 3.5% time your average monthly $219 or $220 payroll, again, up to $20 million. There is new forms, and I encourage you to go to our website because the new forms are posted there when applying to your lender. Let me emphasize this is a lender-driven program. The lenders take the applications and submit the applications to SBA, and the forgiveness aspect of it is almost like a grant, although it is a loan for 1% for five years. If you meet the requirements for forgiveness, then it is like a grant, the total loan would be forgiven. Again, about 60% of that loan must be used for eligible purposes, and those are listed too. We'll talk about that a little bit later, but most typically is for rent, mortgage payments, utilities, etc. Next page, please. Second draw, eligibility. You must have previously had the first one. Again, you can't have more than 300 employees, and I think we're done here. You have to demonstrate a 25% reduction in gross receipts between the comparable quarters. That means if you had a gross income in 2019, in the first quarter, you have to use the first quarter in 2020 to compare it to, and that's you can do it for the first, second, third quarter if you need to, but you can do that if necessary. Next slide, please. Another change is in this new round of the disaster assistance program for COVID. Previously, the economic engine disaster loan advances are no longer deducted from the forgiveness payments. Previously, they were deducted, and if you did have it deducted from your forgiveness payment, that will be reimbursed back to the small business. We'll go ahead and say right now there's proposals to have additional EIDL advances out there. We don't have directions currently from SBA to how that is going to work, but that is something that's in process, and we hopefully see that in the future. Previously, the forgivable PPP loans are not taxable income. We're taxable income now, they're not, and the expenses paid with the PPP loans are now tax deductible. Again, make sure you contact IRS or your CPA to make sure you meet those requirements. Expandable forgiveness is expendable or permissible for loans that have not been forgiven, and there is currently, it's already out there, a simplified application for the PPP loans for $150,000 or less. Next slide, please. What you can do now, again, this is a lender driven program. If you don't have a lender, we have a program called Lender Match. You can go to SBA.gov, Backslash Lender Match, put in your information. What happens is a lender has a certain timeframe to respond to any applications that are out there, and if they're just, they'll send you a direct email asking you to apply through their loan. It's a great way to match up, and I know it's been very successful. Go to our website, SBA.gov, Backslash PPP. We have current information on the PPP programs and all the COVID funding opportunities that are available through SBA. Also, go to our district office. Our phone number is below 765-577. Our staff is readily available to pick up and talk to you about problems or issues you may have or give you direction for to get assistance, and you can also go and subscribe to our website and our newsletter, which is there, and get updates on a regular basis or go to our specific, our own website at www.sba.gov, Blackslash SC. I wanted to mention one other program that's in the work right now is called the Shutter Venue Operations Grant. This is a grant to certain venues, entertainment venues that may need assistance theaters, theater attachments, the venue operations, some movie theaters, et cetera. There's a grant program out there proposed. $15 billion, $2 billion goes to 50 employees or less, and $10 billion for the larger ones. So that's in process. We don't have final regulations on how that's going to be distributed, but you cannot use this in conjunction with the PPP loans. One other thing that if you haven't, if you haven't current SBA loan, the payments have been made for you by SBA over the last five to eight months. They're going to extend it for another three to five months. So that's in process too. And with that, Alicia, I will stop and answer any questions that may be out there. Yes. Thank you so much. That was some great information. And Kalina shared the contact information for USBA in the chat. So does anyone have any questions currently? I don't see any in the chat. Oh, so Rosalind Goodwin has a question. What determines if the SBA loan extension is three or five months? It depends on when the loan was made. That's pretty much it. They'll look at when the loan was made and how far your extension can go. Are there currently any additional questions? No additional questions at this time. Okay, well, we'll keep it moving. And if you think of any, please add those to the chat and we'll have another opportunity to ask any additional questions. Okay. We just got one that just came in. Okay. Rosalind Goodwin wanted to know when will the EIDL be open? EIDL is open right now. It has really actually never closed. They ran out of funding periodically, but right now the EIDL loan applications are available. The EIDL advanced. We don't have any direction or timeframe when that will open again at this point. Greg, this is Melissa. I have a question. And maybe I think you may have addressed this, but can you tell us the difference? I know all the issues that we face and our small businesses face trying to understand the actual process before. And it's my understanding SBA has in their due diligence went through and made some corrections and tried to streamline some things for this round of PPP. Can you explain the difference? Are there are there any differences between the submittal requirements from for PPP to PPP for this round and EIDL versus previously? Mainly the biggest differences for the lenders. A new platform was created making it more simplified for the lender. They're also been simplified applications that have been processed for it. Just the volume of loan requests we had through the economic engine is actually kind of backlogged it for a number of period of time. They have worked through a lot of that, so they've caught up with that. That process really has not changed and we don't expect it to change. But the lender side of it, and Donald will speak to this, I'm sure, has gotten much more simplified application. They have a much more simplified platform to submit borrower applications into SBA and receive the approval and a guarantee. Again, this is a 100% guaranteed loan by SBA, 1% for five years, 100% for a given bullet. They meet the requirements and submit the proper documentation. Thank you. And what about a list of those participating banks? I'm sorry, Kalina. They can go definitely to our, the lender matches a key place to go. They can also go to our website. We have a list of our lenders through our website that are available. Okay, and we just got another question in the chat from Ms. Rosalind Good, when she wanted to know, can a business reapply for an EIDL if did not before? And can a business apply for a second EIDL? You can only get one EIDL unless there is some problems with the first one as far as incorrect submission of data, income verification, that you could go back after the expiration to get one economic injury that's passed below. But if you haven't applied before or you've either got turned down before and you want to apply again, yes, the portal is open for applications. Okay, and we just got another question from Pamela Kempse and Matt. She wanted to know if you could tell the audience the difference between the EIDL versus the Paycheck Protection Program, PPP? The EIDL is a loan. You see, it's not a grant. There's no forgiveness of it. There is a grant. Again, there was an advance early on up to 10,000 max for each business, but that advance has not been initiated again. So that is a loan. It can be 30 years, low interest rate, up to $150,000 right now. The PPP is a loan, but it's a forgivable loan, 100% guaranteed by SBA and can be forgiven by the bank. So it actually ends up being like a total grant once it's completed. So if the documentation is provided to the lender, then the loan is forgiven 100% so it actually becomes like a grant. Okay. There's no more questions right now, but if there are more that come up, we will answer them when we get another break. Thank you, Kalina. Thank you, and I'll be on the online and we're ready for any additional questions. Thank you, Greg. All right, so now we're going to move on to Optus Bank. Dominique Yarten is president and CEO of Optus Bank, a U.S. Treasury certified Columbia Community Development Financial Institution and a MDI, which is an FDIC designated minority depository institution. Dominique came to Optus Bank in the fall of 2017 as president and CEO. He, along with his family, joined successful entrepreneurs Chairman Mitchell and Director Lloyd as an investor to build the bank into a transformational wealth building ministry that serves all people regardless where they are in their wealth building journey. Under his leadership, Optus Bank reached over 185 million in assets up from the low of 47 million while directing nearly 90% of loans to underserved communities, businesses, and people. Thank you so much for joining us, Dom, and we look forward to hearing your presentation. Well, thank you very much. I'm most grateful for this opportunity to hopefully share some helpful resources and tips for the small businesses in our community. If we could jump to the next slide. The next slide, please. Just as a backdrop, and I appreciate you sharing the kind information about our history, but we are very proud of our legacy as the only African-American bank in the South Carolina and one of 18 nationally, but also we're the only bank in Columbia today based in Columbia. So we really have benefited greatly from our relationship with Melissa, with Mayor Benjamin, and of course, the leadership of the SBA with Greg for the state has been instrumental in our growth and allowing us to bring over 200 million in capital into South Carolina and much of that into Richland County in Columbia. So we're really grateful for the leadership and opportunity to participate in the economy in Columbia and have such a strong support from the city of Columbia in particular and the other institutions like the SBA. Next slide, please. So the purpose of our discussion today is really to provide some helpful tips to speed up the process and channel more capital to our small businesses. Joining me today is my most capable and experienced banking friend and colleague Reggie Weber, who is our Chief Credit Officer. And Reggie and his team have been working just about 24-7 over the last few weeks processing PPP loans. So he's going to join me and provide his expertise and input on each of the each of the points and hopefully make it as productive for the team here and for everyone joining us. The key points I would make at the outset is really the purpose is not to promote office bank or offer more capacity of our capacity, although we are wanting to serve as many businesses as we can, it's really to make sure that the small businesses are equipped to pursue the funding. And I will tell you every day Reggie and I find new businesses that are still not aware that they even qualify or they think they don't qualify. Everyone from sole proprietors to independent contractors, they just don't think that they are qualified even though they suffer greatly under the pandemic. So part of our mission today is to build awareness and make sure that we channel as much capital into businesses as we can to help them make it through the pandemic and also be positioned for growth and success and job creation in the coming weeks and months. So with Reggie's leadership, we were able to launch a very streamlined application process and as Greg pointed out, our applicants are now able to access a really a five-step application and we'll walk you through it. Again, what we're going to show you is Optus Bank portal but it is very relevant to any other financial institution that you would be seeking a PPP loan from today. Most of the steps are very similar so we want to make sure that we give you all the help and advice we can. There are three different pathways, as Greg mentioned. There are first-time PPP applicants that did not receive a PPP application last year for whatever reason they may not have been aware of it or they may not have qualified for reasons that may not be related to the qualifications we'll talk about. Then there are returning PPP applicants which those are those that did receive a first draw PPP loan and have continued to suffer under the pandemic and now qualify had an experience to draw in their revenues and qualify for a second draw and then there are those that did not get along with Optus Bank in the first place they received the PPP loan from another institution but we're seeing a good influx of those as well that just simply want to work with us for various reasons and so we're seeing three types of applicants today. Next slide please. Okay so in general terms on our website you will find overview of the required documents one of the key obstacles we're finding this is a key issue for our customers and our followers is they start the process and don't have all the documents ready and then they get halfway through it and cannot complete the application we have to reach out to them and really slows down the process so I'm going to pause here and ask my colleague Reggie to provide any highlights from this particular document screen but to just find out what are the issues that we're seeing the most and what should small businesses make sure that they have ready before they click the link to apply Reggie. Thank you down for introduction and hi everyone the biggest thing that we're sort of seeing is to your point is they're starting the application without reading the resources that are actually on our website to help them complete the application meaning the documentation requirement and so what we're sort of seeing is they'll start an application and realize they need documentation that they don't have readily available and they're stopping so we're having a call out and reach back out to them again to clarify what's missing versus you know reading on the front end what's on our website and here's there about eligibility and documentation. Okay let's go into the next slide. We'll quickly walk through it and really take a little bit more time on the actual application screens but on our website you will find the resources whether you're a first time applicant or returning second or applicant we try to make it as streamlined as possible. Let's go on to the next slide. Again we want to highlight the areas that create the most confusion and we're finding ourselves answering those questions for our small businesses so I'm going to see if Reggie if you have any guidance for the returning second draw applicants and what are the greatest issues we're seeing with those applications. The biggest issue that we're seeing is you know the questions we get around what is used to substantiate your your reduction and the reduction itself is what qualifies you for the second draw initially meaning you have to have 25 percent reduction from the equipment quarter in 2019 or you know on an annualized basis and so the documentation you know really varies based on the the entity type and how you you hire taxes but that's sort of the biggest thing we're getting is if bars are asking well what particular documentation do I need to substantiate that reduction and that's gross revenue so it's not net income it's gross revenue is what qualifies you initially for that second draw. And Reggie can you also educate us on what documentation is required for those with 150 thousand in the amount and in lower or above 150 thousand dollars. Well you know according to the the guidance that was put out you know documentation under 150 thousand has to be submitted to the institution prior to the forgiveness. So that's one of the the streamline areas that the SBA has put out there but any loan amount above 150 you're required to substantiate that you know prior to receiving funds from the SBA and the biggest thing too is you know office is here to help so we want to make sure that what you're what we give you you qualify for and what you what you get you're able to get forgiven and so that's the biggest thing you know one of the the challenges would we would face would be if if you received a an advance from the SBA and you were not able to get forgiven you know that can be a burden later on if they want to make sure that we're we're there to assist you along the way. Great thank you Reggie next slide please okay so let's launch into we just want to walk through quickly our process but like I said we've seen some other banks portals and they they look very similar for all the general same same path and and I will say from my experience we're finding the biggest challenges is customers are trying to quickly apply and miss a two field and then really slows them down so we're encouraged everyone to please look at the every every field on this application and completed so that your application doesn't get slowed down or rejected because you missed something we have a whole team that is following up with each customer but as you can imagine that really slows down the the process and funding to the to the business so we want to make sure that we give you the resources needed to to make it as seamless as possible so the basic basic components of the application are really information about the business any personal information about the borrowers the guarantors depending on the type of business and the way that we built our portal it's pretty intelligent in a way that it really tries to select only the fields that are relevant to a particular type of business so you don't have to really answer questions or provide documents that are not necessary for your situation um Reggie would you like to comment uh just kind of on the flow and then also um how you design this process to minimize that hardship on the businesses in terms of documents certainly down so the application isn't intuitive and it'll it'll change based on the that you submit whether not your first draw second draw um it's going to change the information it's asking for uh along the way and for existing customers um who had a pvp loan uh with us prior uh we're able to send out a link which partially filled in your application to help streamline uh the process as well great um next slide please some of the information we already already talked about but this is this is an input screen we tried to make it against very seamless next slide please dom I have one question um can you go back two more slides right here the the sections that are left blank is that okay um this I know this is a test so does an applicant need to complete these if they have their tax ID number they need to make sure that's in there and the industry code that's based on the type of industry that they're in correct can you share share that they have to complete every one of every one of the fields and I just looked at a few minutes ago before the webinar and application that someone couldn't complete because they didn't complete their NICS code so that's a that's a robot they don't complete it it won't let them move to the next screen right do you have anything else to add on that no you're correct dom they uh there's required fields in the application and uh it won't let you go through the submission um without completing it so you do you do not need to um complete your tax ID number your gross annual revenue you do need a tax ID number yeah so those fields actually even though they're blank here they actually need to be completed on your your actual application yeah that's a test file there okay yeah every field you see especially those that have an asterisk by them typically they have to be completed all right let's let's get back to the additional info i'll go back once like this okay right here um so the forms are pretty helpful where anything that is critically important and will typically be highlighted in red as you are navigating through the screens so we're finding customers ignore it and then they can't get to the next screen and again it slows down the whole process so uh we're just asking everyone to really make sure they complete it because it's not something that if it's not required we're not we're not asking for it we're not trying to get any more information that than we are required to gather so this is not something that the bank required this these are a lot of the news that we're trying to follow that were issued by the SBA oh let's go on to the additional info and then a next slide please okay perfect this is where we need to be so um Reggie if I can ask you just to talk about the different types of businesses that are applying and what documentation they need because we're finding some confusion about it but even this this form should make it a little streamlined so we're not asking for documents you don't need uh Reggie yeah so as I said uh you know this is a test account um so it's slightly different but the the actual documents change based on what you input um so the biggest thing that we're seeing is you know the revenue reduction which varies by entity type and there's a lot of um information about the particulars on what qualifies you so for instance a lot of our borrowers happen to be a schedule C file or meaning they file on the schedule C of their personal tax return and so with that we're able to utilize the gross revenues from there to uh to indicate the eligibility for the either their second draw and actually if it's the first draw as well and so that's one of the biggest things that we're seeing um from our borrowers is the particular documentation to substantiate any reduction in the gross uh revenues and also uh any particular uh additional documentation such as if their payroll information changed from uh 2019 to 2020 so the bar has the ability to elect which period to use and so uh we've had some confusion around that as well very thank you Reggie we'll come back to that if there are any questions specifically about it but let's go to the next slide okay we're finding also um a lot of customers will get to this stage and then they forgot to click submit application so please please if you get to this stage you see a message of congratulations but you still need to go ahead and submit it and then we are also finding a lot of customers are are checking back you know if the application was submitted our system generates a confirmation email that you should receive once you actually successfully submit it so if you don't see that confirmation email go back you can log in back into your application you don't have to call us or email us you can log back in and go through that process to make sure you actually click submit let's go to the next slide and we'll open it up for questions after that so these are a few quick guidelines that are our pp processing team generated and Reggie already covered the first one um and and the second one we want to make sure that we minimize the hardship but at the same time we don't want to have to go back and chase documents later on so it's better if the customer's complete everything up front um if you receive an email or question from your lending institution you know time is of the essence please respond quickly to it because they're they're they have your application in the queue and are ready to submit it to the SBA we're finding that it is it is generally taking a few days to gather all the documents to do quality control and then the SBA is also unlike last time SBA is taking a day or two to review each application before the numbers where the approval numbers were issued almost automatically that's not the case this time so we're hearing some lenders are telling their customers that you get an instant approval or same day approval well that's that's really virtually impossible so if you're hearing from the lender out there saying get a same day approval uh i don't see how they're doing it maybe there's some magic we're not aware of but but the SBA is taking some time to approve applications so please be patient know that that your lender is working on it for you and if you have any questions about our uncertainty feel free to reach out Reggie anything else that you want to highlight or or um or additional information would be helpful no i i think you covered uh you covered it well down you know the biggest thing is is information and access the information right and that's kind of why we're here is to help disseminate some of the misinformation out there but also to help you uh be able to uh get access to capital and so um you know certainly appreciate the time that uh that you gave us and um you know we'll be here to answer any questions as well and Dom and Reggie thank you so much i have one question i know for us with our resilient columbia loan um applications that we're receiving one of the problems that we have is the documentation and making sure you submit that so even though you think you submitted everything and you get that congratulations button up there there's still maybe some things that are missing correct or you may have some other clarifying questions that you may need to ask them can you go through the documentation for us one more time just so people can see that list again and and they need to understand that it's not just you asking for that information it's it's part of the requirements for the program itself do you want to highlight the the ones that most common documents that we are those documents that you really need yeah i don't know if you want to go back to that slide or not either you or Reggie that i think that may help us um so most of the most of the applicants that we see are either partnerships or frequently are scheduled to see you know sole proprietors we have some uh some customers that have actual payroll that have W2 payroll those are those are those can be very complicated so the documentation melissa really depends on the type of business so you know if you are if you receive your income through a partnership then your k1 is going to be the the key driving force for that documentation on in terms of the loan amount okay for the qualification like Reggie mentioned we're looking at uh comparison of the income or in in the in terms of the second draw we're not looking at the bottom of an income unlike it was in the first round we're looking at the top the gross receipts so what we're trying to verify is that the customer knows that they're their gross receipts dropped by more than 25 percent in any quarter or two parallel quarters between 2019 and 2020 so the documentation does depend on a type of business uh we're finding some businesses don't have quarterly statements but they have annualized statements between 2019 and 2020 uh we're also offering some businesses a just a sample form that they can complete and a test that it is correct because a lot of them don't have their 2020 taxes done yet most most don't so the documentation is really self-prepared frequently so again it depends on the type of business on how they file the taxes and how they treat it how they track their their gross revenues or receipts to show that decline of 25 percent uh Reggie anything you want to add to that no i i think you covered it well you know it varies and there's a lot of guidance out there um from the SBA on on specifics but what we're seeing ourselves is really a lot of scheduled seed businesses um you know primarily in a lot of second draws so the the guidance is a little different for second draws meaning you have the revenue component um whereas in first draw you know depending on whether or not you have employees uh or or not you're really looking at the net income thank you and we have um i'm sorry before we get to the questions in the chat i think Ruth has a question i yes i was going back to the um background of the business and i was wondering i saw a little small paragraph there uh what if you have a business plan and you've updated it uh for this year and you know it's a couple of pages but it's very detailed is that beneficial in getting the loan if you uh not just uh background of the business but you have a business plan with specific numbers in there for a PPP loan are you asking specifically about a PPP loan uh yes the PPP loan uh yes yeah for PPP loan we don't really have to consider anything regarding um the business plan other than the documentation of the financials uh financial condition of the business the existence of the business and if you're applying for a second draw we're verifying the decline in gross receipts between the two years but business plan doesn't have any any direct bearing on any of that so submitting that would make any difference okay my other uh about the loan authorization an agreement uh doesn't that have to be within the um board resolution when you have a meeting don't you have to have an authorized signature based on your board resolution and on the type of business uh again if you're a non-profit you know who is allowed to sign and commit the organization to this it just depends on the type of entity whether you need that uh resolution to verify that you're the appropriate uh and and write the signer on the loan agreement because i didn't see that as a download document but and um i i i was a chime in here so so one of the certifications you're making on the application is that you're authorized to to conduct business as well so you know if if if you're unable to do that you wouldn't be completing that application please oh so that's an assumption when you sign off on it one of the certifications you have to attest to i see and uh with uh that list of additional information you had uh tax years 2017 16 and 15 what years are they actually um requesting is it 18 19 or is 17 18 19 instead of 15 16 and 17 was on that um sample it would only be 19 and 20 uh this is a test account and so it had some right a little little bit of uh different information in it but it's 19 and 20 depending on uh you know first or second draw uh huh because most people have not finished the 20 i know it just ended and you know you're given a tax lien till february or something to file that but so you you send in 19 and then you're waiting for 20 before any loan is um money is issued is that correct it would depend on whether or not it's the first or second draw so the you know you you have an option using either period but uh we understand that the 2020 tax returns for most people are not filed and so uh part of the requirements of um that has been put out in their huge recently is that you know you have to attest to it i you by signing it um that you know essentially you intend to file that so okay that's it thank you you clean it you want to go to our chat yes um i have two questions the first one is from Mr. Andrew Smalls with um the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs he wants to know is this process the same everywhere i don't know if you want to be a little specific yeah i'd like to i'd like to hear a little bit more what the you know the PPP process generally speaking you know is is is very close but the rules are the same right so it's how the lender chooses to follow those rules in terms of what sequence or what that internal process i can't comment on that so i don't know if it's the same uh if i understand the question correctly i'm sorry he just replied he said every institution i can respond to that sba issues regulations that are nationwide uh and they have to comply with those regulations in each state each district office so if they would like and treasury gives us the approval for that so they can either go to treasury back slash dot gov or either sba dot gov and find the regulations that apply nationwide okay thank you great and the next question is from Ms. Naidra Edwards she wanted to know what if my business opened in the third quarter of 2019 and my gross comparisons don't accurately reflect true decline numbers compared to 2020 i don't know Greg i might have to defer to you on that one uh but but that's you know there are specific guidelines that we're following in terms of what what time period can use um so i don't know Greg or Reggie you want to comment on that uh there they have to be at least a comparable quarters or either an annualized basis uh there's no exception to that it's pretty much the way it has to be okay um we have someone that has their hand raised um iPhone if you could go ahead and ask your question yes i was wondering i i got a second round first draw and so what would i go for after that it was uh 20 700 on the ppp loan can you hear me yes i saw you got a second loan or a first loan so i put in for it uh the very first loan and i never got anything for the d i l or whatever that is called and then i put in for the second round first draw for the ppp loan um just recently and got the 20 700 but i have a loan at bank of the west and um they are what i wanting to do is just use the money towards their the loan we owed there we was uh we was very you know difficult paying just the payment so they wanted us to try to get this loan to you know go towards that note another note and so and can you clarify your question please my question is what would be my next step to be able to get another ppp loan to go towards it because that's uh the payment alone was 80 000 a year okay i see what you're saying well i'm not aware of uh that you could have again apply for another ppp loan that's what i was wondering i don't think you can get another i'm pretty sure you cannot get another ppp loan other than the second draw so you could you could theoretically get up to two ppp loans one in 2020 uh in the last round and one this round okay so you're saying i can't do another one then from from this point on no okay thank you okay we got another question in the chat from sus and such llc they want to know how long is the typical loan process from origination to funding a lot of that depends on the application how well it's completed we we've done some in less than three days and we have some that we've been trying to do for 10 days because the documentation is incomplete so a lot of it just depends on the on the on the how complete that application is but the sba typically reviews them i don't know Reggie maybe you can comment on it but generally two or three days we've gotten the feedback from the sba is that correct Reggie or what else are you seeing yeah that's correct the sba is taking anywhere between you know two to three days to to give us a decision on it um or resolve any any sort of issues that may come up so one of the things that uh they're they're also doing with the new processes doing more verifications to make sure and help eliminate you know fraud and so it's taking a little bit longer to get a decision from them um in the prior round okay um there are no questions coming up right now and i don't see any other hands raised right now oh wait a minute just one just popped up from i'm sorry ish from djto is it best to apply with a bank that you have a relationship with yes we are we're advising customers if you've got a first ppp loan from one lender we love your business but um also we want to be transparent that the best chance you probably have is go back to the same lender that you got to be first ppp loan because they should have all the information on file so the general advice we get go back to your existing institution they're more likely to to um have all your information not necessarily they're more likely to be responsible but they should have more of your information to make it easier and also one tool that um reddy did a great job building for us is a lot of our existing customers actually receive a personalized link to their to their application that's uh has some of the information already in it so it minimizes the hardship on the borrower uh to apply so if your lending institution did your first loan go back to them for the second loan if you didn't get a first loan somewhere else go back to an institution that we have a relationship with we can call someone and and they will take your call you're not just a number you actually have a relationship with someone so if you do have some trouble or need guidance or support you know who to call and they can help you through that process okay um miss baronda like you had another question you're muted miss baronda okay um my listening to the other answers uh i was thinking about okay if you said two to three days that um some loans have gone through up to 10 uh would a problem be the amount of money requested was too much or that's not the case it's always documentation yeah the money has nothing to do with it in our case i can't speak for the other lenders but we treat all borrowers the same first come first serve we process it as quickly as we can and uh what what we are finding is some of the smaller businesses have more difficult time getting all the information so there there may be a correlation which what i think the mayor was referencing too that some small businesses really did not get served as well and the big reason they didn't is because you know they don't have the the fancy accountants and lawyers to do their applications so that that could lead to a slower process for the very small businesses that may not have all the information as readily available as the large businesses but in our case what i can speak to is what we do adopt this bank and to us the loan amount the type of business makes no difference to us okay and my other thing was um if you have a relationship with the bank that you are currently trying to refinance a mortgage is that going to affect your need for your company for this ppp loan i don't know if it's going to affect the need for the the ppp but um we have customers that receive ppp loans and subsequently refine refinance their their properties or their loans with us again it should have those two should have nothing to to do with each other so that has happened at the same time with your bank oh yeah we we've done we haven't like recently we've done some of that where we we had a customer with a ppp loan and they wanted to refi their loan or their loan matured they were um refinancing it so yeah it's not it's not unusual so i was just saying so if you're applying for refinancing you should still stick with your bank for the ppp it depends on your relationship with them i can't speak to that you just you have a relationship with the lender that you can call and they will help you then i'd go with that i see okay thank you okay we haven't this is greg if i could step in just a minute um people who are looking for additional loans one thing that i didn't mention on my first in my presentation about the spa loans if somebody's looking for a new loan in there are a lot of new loans still going on saccharine is very favorite in that our economic conditions a lot better than some of the other states but uh our loan guarantees have increased where it's a 90 guarantee on 7a loans and we've increased our small business express lending from 350 to a million dollar loans and we're considering uh reducing our loan fees uh too so if you're looking for just a loan outside of the ppp or the edl something to grow your business or refinance your business etc there's some advantages there to continue to stimulate the economy okay um thank you greg our next question is from jennifer she wants to know so if you get the second loan for the first loan that you did not receive is there still a ppp loan that i may receive because basically it's the first one don i can try to do that if if if you applied for one and a ppp loan and you return down initially you can reapply for the second round it doesn't if you did not receive one you'd have to apply for the ppp too but if you did not receive a ppp one loan you can reapply for this round okay thank you greg um next question is from djto and this is a three-part so y'all bear with me please so if you never got the ppp loan at all go through your bank to apply and if you've never gotten it at all are you able to apply for both or more this time or is it the case if you miss the last application process you just apply for this round um greg i feel free to comment on it um why why don't you take it out to me yeah well yeah that's if if you never applied uh for ppp loan you you have the opportunity to apply for ppp round now um you cannot have um apply for the ppp two unless you apply for the ppp one same thing for the economic entry loan if you did not apply for the economic injury loan earlier you can apply for one now that that portal has been open and will stay open it doesn't restrict you for it but you um that's the only limitation out there don you want to add to that yep yeah we are getting questions about the rules to you know what what's changed with the rules if you didn't get along in the first round and and now you're coming back you know the rules generally apply that apply in the first round um they're still based on the essentially what would be equivalent of wages it's a paycheck protection law so we're answering some questions for customers about if i didn't get the first one you know first one do i still qualify and so what do i need to do to qualify okay um we have a first round the first round regulations are still in place for ppp one ppp two bases that on the loss gross revenues in the loss over a period of time where the previous one was basically uh payroll okay and thank you greg and dominey um we have another question for iphone iphone you had another question your hand was raised okay i guess they don't have any question and there are no more questions in the chat right now aisha okay thank you kalina you always do a great job with those questions um anyone has any additional questions for dom reginald or greg um please feel free we just had another one pop up in the chat box kalina what um this is also from says and such what is the minimum approved loan amount and is there a dti guideline there's no no so the answer is there's no minimum and there's no guidance we've had loans as small as five hundred dollars and um on the ppp loans we're not required to calculate any debt to income or underwrite the loan in the traditional way okay greg and you want to add to that i know it's these that's it there's no minimum maximum is a two million dollar for the second round it's uh was a 10 million max for the first round okay and the last question um from zenata from zenata we will have this available um our participants will be receiving this later on today aisha the presentation yes yes we will send a survey uh link to the recording and the presentation to everyone who registered if you didn't register and you need this information just contact our office you can send us an email at obo.columbiasc.gov and we'll make sure to get you that information we'll also have it available on our facebook page and our website thank you kalina um so feel free that while we go through there we have a couple more slides if you have any questions please add those to the chat um the city of columbia our office of business opportunity is proud to have so many partnerships with our business community so i did want to give an opportunity i think we have some representatives on the call if they would like to share any information um the first one is south carolina nvda business center and they are available if any business needs assistance in preparing their ppp application or if they have questions on how to qualify or get started or if their loan will be forgiven they provided a link to get assistance and set up an appointment and i believe we have a couple of representatives if they would like to unmute their mic and just introduce themselves um thank you aisha this is camille shaw and i serve as the project director of the south carolina nba business center um i think you explained it well our role is to support the minority business community so we are available to provide support if you need assistance um with your ppp application process um if you would just follow the instructions on the slides um someone will reach out to you and support you um with your endeavors thank you thank you camille we appreciate that um also the benedict college women's business center is another resource we're proud of our partnership with them and i believe sharyl sally may be on the call let me see if she's still on here yes good afternoon and thank you all so much um to everyone for such a great presentation and much needed information about the loan and this process we're here at the benedict college women's business center to assist through this process as as the other resource providers but i'll put our information the website for anyone who wants to sign up for consultations and my email address as well as the phone number um you know we provide general business development services our focus is on women on small business particularly women of color in underserved communities but we do help anyone in business small businesses and minority businesses um we do a lot with business planning business development positioning for um lending you know getting the loans traditional and alternative lending but we're here to assist thank you so much thank you sharyl um and then also i don't think um we have anyone from spdc on here but i do want to provide their contact information they all are also a great resource um to entrepreneur entrepreneurs or small businesses that need assistance whether it be with their business plan aren't preparing the ppp application as well so i've provided alan brown's contact information here um and he can be contacted by via email our phone he'll be happy to provide assistance to you as well um so that's all as kalina said we will provide a survey also the slides and a recording of today's um webinar and i'll also provide some additional links to upcoming webinars if anyone's interested in receiving our weekly newsletter please contact our office at obo at columbia sc.gov we provide a lot of great information regarding resources to business upcoming webinars and funding opportunities so we'll be happy to um add you to the the newsletter um melissa thank you thank you aisha kalina and um our team um i want to say a special thank you to aisha kalina for getting this done so quickly um i want to thank our panelists uh the mayor uh dominique you're always our great partner um sba we work hand in hand with you also i want to encourage you uh not to be discouraged and i have dogs too so i apologize every time i start talking they want to talk and they're outside um but i want to make sure to encourage you about not being afraid of this application process you have a number of partners that are available for you through the window um that are available to help you and walk you through the process um we're here we if we have a question or we can't not answer the question for you we'll direct you to an appropriate partner that can um the women's business center excellent excellent resource uh sharyl sally and her staff sba is again a great partner of ours and you have score um so we have a number of resources available for you all you have to do is reach out to us and we will connect you um i want to again thank dominique thank you so much greg for always being there and your willingness to partner with us to make sure that we're getting access getting access to those that don't often have it um that's the purpose of our office i know that's that's the core of what dominique does at optis bank is to make sure everyone has access to opportunities to grow develop and and be a contributing um um citizen here in columbia and we encourage you to do so i want to also recognize brett whiting i want to give him an opportunity to talk a little bit about the resilient columbia since we have a little time left our resilient columbia loan program kalina do you mind showing that brochure on the screen we have thank you ma'am we have some resources here not only our resilient columbia application that we just received our resilient columbia loan program that we just um initialized today this year um i'm sorry not in october in october flashed year but we have loans available anywhere really there's no real minimum amount um but they go all the way up to 200 000 um we have about half of those resources left right now we have about a little left to still end we have set aside some funding especially for those small businesses that need um access to funds right away it's not a whole lot of money that you need say you only maybe need ten thousand twenty thousand dollars uh we have that for you um again our parameters for lending is very very very small and i'll let brett just talk a little bit about that program while kalina tries to bring that up all right have it up thank you kalina well right now we just see your um your file screw we don't actually see the document oops my bad that's all right let's try it again brett are you still on the line yes can you all hear me can you all hear me yes you can thank you okay okay yeah i'd like to thank um everyone that's on the call and thank you melissa the introduction um yeah we have uh eda cares act funds that are available um to anyone uh that that is has a business and and the business is housed within the corporate limits of uh the city of columbia as melissa said uh we have uh these funds available we have streamlined the application process we have also streamlined the requirements uh to qualify for lina still i'm sorry go ahead i'm sorry we have streamlined the process uh so these these funds are readily available and the qualifications as i stated earlier are um have been eased uh we're we're we're intending to get these funds in the hands of many of the folks that haven't or won't necessarily qualify for some of the other lending such as the ppp program uh for whatever reasons uh so again we're we're trying to help as many people as we can um we receive these funds and you know it seemed like a generous amount that we um initially received but we uh found pretty early on that the need outweighs the the the amount that we have but we're we're working as quickly and as efficiently as we can to get these these needs addressed um i am available and have been available um for any questions any any follow-up uh we we as with other lending institutions run into the same sorts of things with lack of proper documentation and uh expressing the need one of the things that's most important uh when applying for these funds is tying that need uh to the to the purpose of the or the intent of these funds and the intent is to um relate these fund needs to um something that's been negatively affected by the CARES act uh or the i'm sorry the COVID-19 pandemic so uh if the business has been negative negatively affected uh we would like for you or we need for you to um associate that with um um it being negatively affected by the CARES i mean by the i'm sorry COVID-19 pandemic um but uh again if there's any more specifics uh that you have uh please feel free to reach out to me uh i'm available um most most every day um so and if if i'm not available at that time i will get back to you by close of business the very next day are there any uh question to anyone has for me nothing in the chat right now but i've provided the link to our website and um it's columbiasc.gov for slash obo and at the top of the page there's a commercial loans link and we have all the information on the resident columbia CARES at revolver loan fund at the top of the commercial loans page and i also provided the contact information i just gave our general number 545 3950 and our general address if you have any questions for bret regarding the revolving loan fund thank you bret i also want to reiterate the documentation required um for loans under $50,000 or less is much uh less paperwork um or we're actually requiring less documentation there um than those requests over 50,000 so again do not be afraid of the process for either this application or ppp um everything's been simplified because we know that our small businesses need these resources right away um i think that's all that i have i want to ask dominique or greg if there's anything else that you would care to share um before we close i would just like to take this opportunity to thank us y'all for participating let i want us to participate and really do want to encourage you if you've got any hesitancy about filing the application please go to one of our um partners women's business center score chapter spdc they can assist you with the application and gather them the financial information so that when you do go to a lender such as dom that is prepared and they're in their best shoot uh you know your first impression is always the best impression so if you get it together and go in there you'll have a good chance of getting successful so thank you very much alicia mayor and uh melissa thank you very much for this opportunity thanks greg dumb i just want to reiterate the appreciation melissa for your leadership at the city to channel uh support and capital to these businesses and please reach out to us if we can be helpful i look forward to another opportunity to speak with any and all of you thank you so much i want to let everyone know mbda um they also they're excellent excellent partner and they're also available if you need assistance in preparing your ppp application and also assistance in preparing any type of loan application that you're trying to submit for funding be able to look out for additional webinars that will be forthcoming um not only in regards to ppp but also some you know programs to help you strengthen and build your infrastructure your financial infrastructure making sure you have that part of your business in order as you go after these funds the better prepared you are the more successful you will be at securing capital for your business so aisha i want to turn it back over to you the real boss of this webinar to see if there's any other things that you would like to say again thank you so much for joining us aisha great job kalina great job and thank you our small business community um for always being there and keeping your your your support strong um but we're here to help you if you need anything thank you melissa i just reiterate if anyone on the call needs additional assistance or you have a question and you don't know where to start please feel free to contact our office and we'll connect you with the appropriate um agency if it's not us also we want to say thank you to the columbia public relations department for helping us share this on our columbia youtube page them that they do a wonderful job of making sure that we promote our um activities that are going on with the city and we really appreciate that also the additional city staff that i didn't mention earlier um tanya port of da berry um carla eichelberger and la petra collins um they they touch all aspects of our department so sometimes i forget to mention them but we appreciate all of our city staff so with that i hope everyone has a great rest of your day and um look forward to an email from me um in a couple of hours thank you so much and stay safe