 Hello, this is Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. On behalf of our great city, I'm excited to announce the availability of our Resilient Columbia CARES Act Loan Program for Small Businesses located within the city limits of Columbia that have been impacted by the pandemic. As our city recovers from the unprecedented challenges caused by this national crisis, we understand that our small businesses are struggling on multiple fronts, some more than others. We're also aware of the strength and resiliency of our small businesses and the vital role that they play in creating a strong, diverse, yet inclusive economy. The purpose of these funds is to give every business in our city an opportunity to survive during this pandemic. We hope this funding will assist your company in overcoming the economic injury attributed to the coronavirus. With that being said, the city of Columbia has streamlined our loan application and added even more flexibility to the lending process. Any business within the city of Columbia may apply for these funds, especially those businesses that may have had difficulty obtaining financing in the past. Our success as a city is dependent on the success of our small business community. We're confident that by working together, our local community will prevail during these challenging times. We are a Resilient Columbia and we will recover together. Good morning, everyone. We're gonna go ahead and get started. My name is Melissa Lindler. I'm the director for the Office of Business Opportunities with the city of Columbia. We're so happy to have all of you with us this morning. Can't say enough about the importance of the relationships that we have with our business partners throughout the city and all that you do to keep our economy strong and going. The Resilient Columbia Cures Act Loan Fund application actually will open today. It's on our website as we speak. And we're gonna go through some different sections of that application and make sure that you understand the purpose and intent behind the funding as well. I'm getting some feedback. Can everyone mute your phones unless you're actually speaking? Thank you. I wanna take a moment just to thank our partners, our community partners that are gonna help us through this process. We know that the need for immediate assistance because of the coronavirus is great right now within our city. And we wanna make sure that we're not only providing the resources that you need to take advantage of all opportunities that are out there, but also that we're being inclusive and making sure our partners are at the table to help you through that process. A number of great resources that are in the city of Columbia that a lot of people are not familiar with. The Minority Business Development Agency is working directly with us as well as the Benedict College Women's Business Center, the South Carolina Small Business Development Center and the South Carolina Community Loan Fund as resource partners, but not only that as your partner to help you through this process and to make sure that your loan application packages are complete and that you're learning something about your business and the business infrastructure of a successful business model through this process. So you're gonna hear a great number of a great amount of information today from our speakers. I wanna also make sure that you know that we have great resources here all year, every day at the city of Columbia, specifically made for our small business community. I hear some backup, so I'm not sure about the delay, but one of the main mission and purpose of the Office of Business Opportunities is to provide support and services through technical assistance training that support the growth and development of our small business community. There are three different areas that we have within our office. We go by OVO, Office of Business Opportunity. The first one is commercial lending and that's why most of you are here today to hear about the financial assistance that we have available for startups or existing businesses that are trying to grow or expand within our city, but also the important role that you play in creating jobs in some of our more needed areas. We also have a contractor and supply diversity initiative through the city. And again, this is something that we are very proud of. This is one way that we can make sure that we are not only diversifying our procurement process, but we're also making sure that our community, our business community is a part of what we do at the city on a daily basis. So many of you that are joining us today are participating in that program through our subcontractor outreach program, our mentor protege program, our LBE or local business enterprise program and our Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. So those are just a few programs that we have in place to help make sure that we are bridging the gap that it may exist between our minority business suppliers that we have in the city and making sure that they have opportunities through contracts and other procurement opportunities at the city of Columbia. I also wanna mention just another something that we don't talk about a lot, but it's been a priority of our city council and our city manager and our mayor to make sure that on a daily basis, when it comes to ordering supplies or materials, our departments are utilizing our minority businesses as well. So we have 15% citywide goal across the entire city where we're encouraging our departments to make sure that when it comes to working with and buy supplies materials services that you are utilizing our minority vendors that are locally here in the city of Columbia. Something else that we do also, the third and final aspect of our office is our technical assistance, education and advocacy. And this is an example of that today. We provide a number of workshops, not only hosted by OBO, but also hosted through a with in collaboration with our business partners, our community partners. And so you'll see a lot more videos, training opportunities, technical assistance opportunities, counseling one-on-one trainings that we're gonna be doing as a result of this opportunity here, the Resilient Columbia Cares Act funding, but also it's what we do every day. We can't do what we do own and we realize that and especially during this time in our nation's history, we are all experiencing limits. We're all learning how to operate in this new normal and we know that we cannot do it by ourselves, but we're greater together. And that's another reason for our partnerships with our different partners that you're gonna meet today. Next slide. Thank you. The purpose and intent of the Resilient Columbia Cares at Long Fun, we were actually solicited by the Economic Development Administration, part of the US Department of Commerce to actually submit this application because of our ability to provide funding to our community and because of our past history of being effective and efficient at administering federal dollars when it comes to helping our small business community. So the purpose of these funds is to provide financing options to our small businesses in an effort to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the economic injury attributed to the coronavirus, COVID-19. These funds are the second federal funds that we received from the EDA within the last 20 years. So the last time that we actually received EDA funding was 20 years ago. So these are brand new funds in the amount of 2.9 million, 2.7 of which will be lent out directly to our small business community. One important aspect of this, in order to apply for these funds, you must be located within the corporate limits of the city of Columbia and you have had to have demonstrated that you've been impacted by the coronavirus. If you are uncertain about where your business is actually located, if you're on the line or just not sure, you may have an address that says the city of Columbia but you actually have to input your address into our GIS database or website page and that link will be in the presentation that we're gonna send this out to you later but it's also gonna be in the loan documents that we're gonna share with you shortly in the chat room. You can enter your address and it will tell you exactly where you're located and if you're actually within the corporate limits of the city of Columbia. And that's very important. Next slide. So under this RLF, our loan ranges will be from 10,000 to $200,000 and we're gonna go into some more specifics shortly. Mr. Brad Whitey will share that information with you and a very important aspect of these funds and it's something that we've done because of the flexibility allowed by EDA in the federal regulations. We are providing these loans at a 0% interest rate for the first year and after that it will be at a fixed rate of 2.5% for the remaining long-term. So that's great and there's no penalty if you wanna pay this off within the first year which means that you would pretty much have received this money at no interest but we encourage you to do that if someone may be in need of immediate financing just get some things off the ground or get moving or you have other funds that may be coming in and this can help fill that gap in the meantime. This is a perfect opportunity for you to actually access some funds and be able to do that and pay it back if you would like but you're not required. The long-terms will depend on the amount of money that you take out which mean how long it's gonna last or how long your payment period will be will actually depend on how long, I mean I'm sorry how much money you've actually financed. Okay, next slide. And Melissa, I believe Carla put that GIS link in the chat if anyone wants to check their business location to see if they're within the city. Right, I also wanted everyone to have the loan documents, have we done that also? We'll post that as well in the chat. Thank you. So I'm gonna turn this over now to our loan officer, Mr. Brett Whiting. He's gonna walk you through the uses of the long funds and application process. And I also wanna also acknowledge Aisha Driggers who you're hear her voice throughout this presentation. Also Carla Eichelberger, she's in our office as well. Brett Whiting, I just mentioned he's our loan officer. We also have Tonya Porter-DeBerry who does a lot of behind the scenes for the OVO office. Many of you who have worked with us because of our desire to work with our local businesses, you have communicated a lot with her when it comes to your payments and when you get your payments. So she's someone to know if you have not spoken with her a great, great person and she's been with the city now for a very long time, almost 20 years. We also have Kalina Gignard. She actually monitors our supplier diversity piece within the Office of Business Opportunities. Latanya, Germany is with us as well as Julietne Nellie, she's with us and those are our compliance staff members. Thank you. Brad, it's all yours. Brad, you're on mute. Sorry, I'll start that over. I'm Brett Whiting. I'm the loan officer with the Office of Business Opportunities. I will be discussing, as Melissa alluded to, I will be going over the acceptable uses of our loan funds, the ineligible uses of our loan funds, followed by our, I'll cover the loan application, the expedited slash cover sheet with our loan documentation checklist. And lastly, I will speak to you guys about the loan process. So with the usage of loan funds, they can be used for development of crisis management plans, the COVID-19 testing for employees, employee safety training to prevent the spread of COVID-19, needed modifications to business operations and facilities to accommodate social distancing, purchasing of personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and materials or services, inventory purchases, technology, signage, along with more traditional usage, we utilize our loan funds for financing, building, construction, conversions, expansions, acquisitions of land, buildings, machinery, equipment, supplies and materials, or in particular cases of supply working capital. In addition to those things, many other usages will be considered. So don't feel that if it wasn't mentioned during this presentation that it won't be a considered item. The ineligible activities, commercial revolving loan funds cannot be used for activities listed below. City staff may reject applications for ineligible activities. These activities may include but are not limited to the following, direct or indirect refinancing of any preexisting debt or subsidizing interest payments on an existing loan. Payment distribution or as loan to owners, partners, shareholders of the applicant's business, except as ordinary compensation for services rendered. Acquisition of an equity position in a private business cannot be used for loan guarantees or promised by one party to assume the debt obligation of a borrower if the borrower defaults on a loan. Also finance the acquisition, construction improvement or operation of real property, which is to be held for speculative real estate ventures. Finance the creation, dissemination or distribution of materials deemed patently repugnant by commonly recognized community standards of decency or which has the effect of denying anyone their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Other activities prohibited by the US Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, the funding source of the Resilient Columbia Cares Act. The next section I'd like to- Hey, Brett, can I say something? Sure. This is Alan. Sure. For those of you who are business owners, basically what Brett just went over is, he showed you what you can and cannot use the funds for. If you know what you're planning on using the funds for just to give the city and those that are gonna be working with them an idea of what to expect, will you mind putting that in the next section? Then I'll deal with that issue with these applications. So if you know, if you're looking at acquisition, if you're looking at working capital, if you're looking at purchasing equipment, just put that in the chat box and that'll give us some idea of what to expect. Thank you. Thank you. Just so you guys know, that was one of our partners, Alan Brown. He's with our Small Business Development Center, someone that we rely on heavily for advice. I'd now like to go over the application. The application components, there are actually six components of our application. The first section is ownership information. The next section is principal, officer and managers of the business sources. The total project cost, what you're looking at. Construction project section only use that section if construction is part of the intent and your overall estimated cost. Lastly, we have upgraded our application process and for those of you that have the capability, the actual application document can be electronically signed. Hi, Brad, this is Melissa. Could you mind going over the sources of total project costs and what we're asking for in that section of the application? And as Brad mentioned, we have this application in line. It is a PDF-affiliable form. You may also be able to sign it as well. Well, you will be able to sign it as well electronically or you can print it out and sign it. We want to make sure that this application process was as user-friendly as possible. So if there's some technical issues that you are having, please let us know and we'll certainly walk you through the process or get you a hard copy of the application directly. But Brad, if you could please just go over a little bit the sources of total project costs and what we're requesting in that section. Total project costs, the first line of that section as for the overall cost of whatever you're trying to do. So that's the total cost, everything that it's going to cost. The next line is owner funds. Those are the dollars that the business owner is injecting into that total project cost. In this case, with this program, that's not a requirement. But if you do intend to put in some of your own dollars, that would be listed on that second line. Bank loan, that would be an outside bank that is participating in your overall project. As Melissa mentioned, earlier, our limit on our loan funds is $200,000. So in a situation where you have a project that's $350,000, of course, we can only max out at $200,000. So if there was another bank that was part of this project and they were, infusing another $150,000 to cover the total cost, that would be listed on that line. The sitting loan amount would be the amount that we are infusing. That would be the $200,000, I just discussed in that scenario. Purpose of the loan, that's where you spell out what you're going to be using the money for. What the purpose of the loan is. The target date of the loan, that basically when you plan on utilizing the funds that were issued. Representatives name, address, and phone number, that would be your bank information, your primary bank information. We're asking for that. Your primary bank information. We're asking for the contact person of whoever you use as your primary bank. An attorney. List an attorney if you have one for your business. The accountant that you use for your business. Please note on the section just below. This section where it says construction projects only, only use that section. If you're doing a brand new buildup instruction, we, we don't need that section. If you're an existing business. And you're using the funds to. Upgrade your current property. That wouldn't apply in that section. If you're doing a brand new buildup instruction. On the next page. There is a listing of. Most commonly used. Project costs. The first one on that line is land acquisition. So if you're buying a property that would go in there. That next line. If you're buying a property that would go in there. That would go in there. And then you would build up the section. That I just. Discuss before that. That would go in that line. Land and building acquisition. That would be the total of. The land purchase and the building that sits on that land. Acquisition of machinery. So if you're buying machinery, you would put that in that line item. That would go in that line. Inventory purchase. If you're buying computers, that sort of thing. That would go in that line. Working capital. That would be funds that you're using for. Various reasons to. Enhance the business. If you are. Acquiring another business. That would go in the acquisition of existing business. And you're using those funds to. To acquire the business. Debt reduction. Only under certain. Scenarios would we. Use our funding for your debt. Reduction, as you heard earlier, one of the. Ineligible reasons for lending is to pay off existing debt. But there are scenarios where. You know, it may be some consideration. Space upfit. That's what I was alluding to earlier. If you have a business and you needed to. Enhance the business, the exterior interior of the business parking lot, whatever. That information would go into the. Space up. Are there any questions about the loan application. Right. I just wanted to let everyone know I have uploaded the actual application into the chat box. For you to look through. I want to give everyone an opportunity just to click on that now our next. Segment we're going to have questions. We're going to take a brief pause and answer any questions that you may have. But. Give everyone opportunity just to go to the chat box and open up the actual link to the application so you can look at it. In the meantime, I'm also going to go ahead and upload the. Business narrative template that you're going to hear about next. As well as other components of the application. Listen, you want me to go ahead over the, um, and go over that business narrative now. You on mute. That was the. Thank you. I wanted to. I wanted to pause. I think that we have the question section next. Correct me. Yeah. Yeah. For questions. Um, Aisha, can you start reading the questions for us? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The question is asked about the application and seeing the application. Um, now one person. Let's see. I think Alan asked the question earlier, um, for people to say what type of, um, assistance they would need. Um, so working capital is listed equipment. Um, Um, one of the questions asked does working capital include leases? Um, I would ask to clarify what you mean by leases. Right. Oh, you, oh, you did. You made lease payments. Yeah. Yes, you can. Yeah. These funds may be used for operating. These funds may be used for operating expenses. Related to operating your business on a daily basis, which would entail lease payments, payments to your employees. Um, Utilities, anything of that nature that will help you or even financing of the equipment. Our purchasing equipment. Um, those that those are acceptable uses of these funds. Um, someone asked, I want to purchase land and build offices for two of my business. What's that? I'm sorry. I want to purchase land and build offices for two of my businesses. Would that be eligible? The short answer would be, yes, as long as the purchase. Uh, and the buildings are not going to be used for speculative. Uh, purposes. So. If you're. Buying. Land. And making. Building something on that land and it's your business. It is an eligible. Um, Uh, Request. Um, If you are, this is an ineligible. If you're buying the land and you're building something on it to flip it, that would be something that wouldn't be. Um, Allow. But the short answer is if you are just building. Buying a building building, uh, building on it for the purpose of your, um, Business to be located there. Yes. Right. I mean, these are not, um, real estate investment funds. Right. These funds can't be used for real estate investments. They're, they're intended to help you, um, whether the challenges that your business has, um, have been experienced as a result of COVID-19 coronavirus. Um, and so, you know, there, there's some limitations. Um, On how the funds can be used because the city has to, um, Answer to EDA about how they have used the funds. Um, But even in that, based on what Brett has presented. Um, There's a large latitude. Um, That they've created on what they will allow the funds to be used for. And, um, If Brett went over something and it didn't seem like your, your question or your project, um, Or your need for your business was answered in that, you know, Reach out to Brett on a case by case basis. And, um, Based on his knowledge, His team's knowledge, And, um, There's, they'll see where you can fit in, you know, um, Brett, um, I'm going to go ahead, you know, um, since I'm already talking, Melissa and her team, Melissa and her team made a specific, Um, Intentional effort, um, To make sure that they were, um, Including as a result of COVID-19. Um, Intentional effort, um, To make sure that they were, um, Including as many business owners and business types, Um, Within the guidelines of the EDA, um, To have access to these funds as they pretend as they could. Um, Brett and I, you know, um, Pulled the hair that we had out, You know, trying to figure out how to make, Um, Um, Guidelines, um, That were defensible, um, To be able to keep these funds in play, Um, For you all who are on the call. And so, you know, um, please, if it, Please reach out to them. Um, I just want to go over one more thing about the city limits. There was a question I'm going to, I've been posting PDF documents, But apparently you all cannot get them. You cannot see them. So I'm going to send the links. I just posted the link for the actual application itself. So make sure everyone can access that. Um, I'm about to send another link with the other documents so you can Actually see those as well. There was another question here in here about the clarification Regarding whether or not you're within the city limits. So you have to be, Your business has to be physically located within the city, Corporate city limits of the city of Columbia. And in order for you to determine, It's not just based by zip codes because I'm zip codes that have, That are both within the city limits and we have zip codes, The same zip code that may not be within the city limits. So you actually have to enter your address into. Um, our G GIS website database. And there, when you, once you enter that address, It will come back to as whether you're in the city or not, Who you are within the city, what district you're in. So I'm going to send that link as well. Um, one question I see for Mr. Mary Grant, If I'm outside the city limits, Does that make me totally ineligible for this long? It does. Unfortunately. Um, you must be within the city limits to actually qualify. Um, for this funding. Um, let me see again for clarity, You must be within the city limits. Your business must be physically address address physically within the city limits. In order for you to purchase these funds. I mean, I'm sorry, in order for you to utilize these funds, I want to purchase and improve existing property for rental. Perfectly fine that that is an approved expenditure for these funds. Um, I just want to go through, make sure everyone's questions are answered. Before we move on. Everything that we're talking about today, These applications are on our website. I'm going to actually put that link. On here, Carla actually, uh, At 1114, she actually put in the chat box, The actual GIS website that we're referencing in order for you to utilize to figure out Whether or not your business is physically located within the city. Uh, limits or not. If there are no more questions, you see. There's one about at 1137 Melissa, I'm a sole proprietor. Okay, then a salon and I'm now wanting to open up the fast. I'll be able to shut this type of business in the city of their current. If this within the city limits. Yes. You apparently she's in the county or he's in the county mark. You're in the county, which is fine, but you definitely need to make sure where you're planning to locate that business that is within the city limits. planning on applying for these funds to help you do that? Let me see. Can you apply for separate loans for separate businesses? Short answer is yes. However, not for not for the same pot of money. If you are an existing revolving loan fund applicant or recipient and you're in good standing with your loan payments, you may apply for another loan under this program. So if you're currently paying back a loan to the City of Columbia that you received previously and it's under a different program, you are eligible to apply for funds under this new program. You are not eligible to apply for two separate loans under the same pot of money. We're trying to make sure that the funds are available to as many businesses as possible. And in many cases, if you request the largest amount, that doesn't mean that we're going to be able to fund it at that amount. Even though we're saying that loans can be made up to $200,000, we are really, really trying to stretch this money out to serve as many businesses as possible. Not to say that we won't provide the $200,000, but what we are saying is that we're trying to make sure that as many people have access to these dollars as possible. Although banks are not required, bank participation is not required. In many instances where your project or what your, the money, the request is made for, if it exceeds $200,000, either you will have to, you know, come up with that difference out of your personal funding or you will have to get additional assistance from a traditional or non-traditional financial institution, a bank, in order to do so. And Melissa, an example of that project, an example is the T&D that put the project in that they're looking to acquire land and build two businesses, two buildings on that land. That's probably larger than $200,000. You know, so a project like that would probably require some participation. So that's the type of project where she's making a reference to where it's just going to require more than the funds available that the city has. And so you need to keep that in mind. Exactly. Thank you, Alan. If you're trying to purchase, like you said, a proper building and the building cost is $250,000, we would only be able to actually finance up to $200,000 of that purchase. And you would have to seek other sources to cover the difference. Another great question on our credit score. I think we mentioned that and we're going to actually get into that in another part of the presentation. Credit score, we have weighed the 600 credit score requirement for this program. However, because of COVID and because we know that a lot of people, businesses, financial positioning has changed over the last couple of months, we're going to be looking at credit scores, but we're looking at it on a case-by-case basis. And we're looking at it from a historical basis. So the 600 credit score is not a requirement as it has been for other funding provided through the city of Columbia. Another great question, Theresa Joiner, can the funds be utilized for startups that were in the process of starting the business but got put in place on hold due to COVID? Excellent, excellent question. And the answer is yes. The funds may be used for startups. We have a number of business owners that are having to pivot, maybe changing or, you know, adjusting their business model. Maybe they're changing all together and starting brand new businesses because of COVID. So of course, these funds may be used for startups and they may also be used as you pivot your business to change your business model and your business product or services. So that's a great question. If I purchase a business via owner financing and I still have a balance, would I be able to use the funds as acquiring the rest of the business or would that be considered long repayment and not eligible? I'm thinking that that would probably would be if you have an agreement in place and it's a financial agreement where you've already agreed to pay a certain amount. We will have to look at that on the case-by-case basis. Jonathan, I would encourage you to contact Brad and let him work with you directly on that. His information is going to be in the PowerPoint presentation later and he can talk you through that. Can you use funds for payroll? Yes, you may. You may use funds for payroll. Keep in mind, again, we're trying to help you recover, prepare for and respond to the economic impact caused by COVID. So they want you to be able to retain your employees. We want you to be able to bring on and employ more people. So, of course, yes, these funds may be used for payroll. You may have answered, but if we apply for, say, 100,000, we either approve or deny the full amount or approve a lower amount. It just depends on, again, Brad went through the layout or the cost breakdown of how you're planning on using the funds. If the 100,000 that you're requesting are eligible expenses and are eligible uses of the funds, more than likely we will approve you. If there's something in there that more than likely, let me correct that, more than likely we will recommend you for approval. The OBO office, we actually make the recommendations for approval to our Commercial Evolving Loan Fund Committee and it's a committee of community members, business community members, lawyers, different sectors that compose of that community and we make that recommendation to them. So depending on what those, the breakdown of the cost that you're requesting the funds for, if there's an item in there that's not considered eligible or if the committee does not want to approve that because of is not eligible, then we would probably more than likely take that out of the request before we present it to the committee so that wouldn't even be a factor. We will let you know that beforehand. Did I cover everything? All the questions? I think I did. Someone asked how if it would be recorded and we are our City of Columbia Public Relations Department is live streaming this in our city so we will provide that to everyone attending. If you register with Event Bright, I automatically have your email. If you don't, if you did not, I will put our OVO email so you can send me your email address and that way we can send you a copy of the presentation, a survey, and then also the link to view this at a later date. Thank you. One of the things I'd like to interject if you guys will, we're going to go or there will be presented various scenarios that we won't be able to cover every possible scenario today but we encourage you to present those scenarios to us so that we can discuss, you know, whether they fall within the parameters or not, this is something that we might be able to refer you to one of our partners to address. So basically what I'm saying is we encourage you to present any scenario that you think might fall under our program objectives. Okay and I also want just to take a moment just to thank Columbia PR. They are instrumental in making sure that all of our community, our entire community, our business community is always engaged and they have access to the great resources provided through the city so I definitely want to take a moment to acknowledge them and we will now hear from Mr. Allen Brown. He is the Midlands Coordinator and Business Dissultant for the Columbia Area Small Business Development Center and as he mentioned we actually reached out to him. We reached out to our the South Carolina Community Business Fund, Small Business Fund also to Mr. James Chapman to help us put this application together and to make sure that we made it as accessible and as easy to read and streamline as possible so that everyone will have access to to completing and competing for this fund these funds. So Allen turn it over to you. Thank you Melissa. So I just want to reiterate a key point in reference to these funds that under the RLF, business owners may apply for a loan range from $10,000 up to, I want to say that again, up to $200,000. So that won't that's not necessarily that you'll get the full amount but it means you can apply for that amount and their loan committee will make adjustments as they as they deem fit. But the key point is pay attention to what I'm about to say. Come close to the screen pay attention to what I'm about to say. These loans will be 0% interest for the first year of repayment. This is the key part because that's the only 12 months and then 2.5% fixed. I want to say that again 2.5% fixed for the remaining loan term. Right? If y'all not clapping, y'all should be clapping. Right? That's right. That's that's as close. And I'm gonna say this word because people call me all the time asking for this. That's as close to a grant that you're going to get in this environment. So let me say that again. That says close to a grant that you're going to get 2.5% fixed. Right? So don't call the city saying, you know, I heard y'all got a grant. No, it's not a grant. It's a loan at 2.5% fixed for the term. Right? That is huge, particularly if you're looking to acquire real estate or some fixed property or build a building, you know, 2.5% at a 10, 15 year term. That's that's awesome. Right? So, you know, I just want to reiterate that. So one of the things that we're going to talk about now is we're going to talk about the business narrative. And Aisha, if you don't mind, I'm gonna ask if you could while I talk about this to bring up the actual form. Now, when we devise this business narrative, you know, we intentionally did not want to make it long and complicated. We wanted to make it something that you could basically turn around in a day to a week as opposed to spending, you know, three weeks, four weeks trying to come up with the information that you need to complete, that you need to put in this particular document. Can you do it full page size? Aisha, you know, go to the the PDF and just do full page so they can see full page in there. And I'm gonna talk through those components. The other one next to the left of it right there. Thank you. Right? So, so I'm not going to read all the different components of the plan because the narrative because you have it attached. It was posted into the chat. You can download it and follow along with me on your own screen from that particular perspective. Right? But, you know, but starting out we have a company overview, right? So, this is a very simple company overview of your business. Right? You know, we want to find out what inspired you to start your business and what are your business objectives. Right? It's important that you have a goal or objective for your business and we want to understand that because that will help us understand why you went into business and the purpose of the business. Right? And then we also want to know in relationship to COVID-19 and involved in the Revolving Loan Fund, you know, what are you going to use the funds for? Right? And I like, you know, how OBO has said, you know, how will RLF funding assist you in preventing, preparing for and responding to. Remember those words. Preventing, preparing for and responding to the economic injury attributed to the coronavirus. Preventing, right? Meaning preventing your business from going out of business, right? You know, preparing you for sustainability, right? Responding to any issues that's related to your business, any contact changes that might occurred as related to COVID-19 that's causing you to have to expand additional capital. Those are the types of things that we want to know about, right? Because it helps us to understand what it is that you're really going through and how you're going to use those funds, right? Go to the next page for me. Right? And so in relationship to your business, we also want to know what are you doing? Like, why are you in business? You know, who are you serving? What problem are you resolving, right? And are you taking advantage of the opportunity through your solutions, through your services, right? And so oftentimes you hear it say what pain is your market having, right? What reasons are they coming to you saying I need some help with? You know, I'm looking for somebody to do this. We want to know what that is. And that's what we're asking in this next section. It says, you know, what current unmet need that's your idea of venture address? You know, what is your unique opportunity? Right? So we want you to share with us that information there. Right? And then we want you to tell us about your product or your service, right? We want you to tell us about your solution, right? This is the thing that most business owners want to talk about the most. They come into the office and they say, I don't, I got an idea. And I'm like, well, who are you serving? I don't know yet, but I got this idea and I think it'll work. Well, let's find somebody that needs your great idea so we can make it work. And that's why we're going through this process, right? Because one of the things that the city has decided to do is that as you're going through the process of applying for these funds, if there's an additional need for marketing support, for financial support, for bookkeeping support, for additional services that would help you sustain your business through this pandemic, the city is making allocation to be able to bring those resources to you. Right? And so here's that's what some of the things we want to know. You know, I like what it says in there, you know, if you have a secret sauce, right? We know McDonald's has that secret sauce, right? Coca-Cola got that secret process, right? That secret ingredient that makes you better than everyone that makes your service or your product better than your competitor. You know, we want you to share that with us, but if it's, you know, but if it's intellectual property, don't put it in the document. Say I have a special secret sauce that I've applied for IP protection for, right? And if you need some assistance with intellectual protection, right? Those are some additional resources that, you know, we can bring to bear to help you protect your secret sauce, right? And then we get down to the marketing components of it, right? You know, the marketing themselves, right? And so we talked about who your customer segments are in relationship to what problem exists, but now we want to dig a little bit deeper and have you to help us understand how to pick your customer service or your customers out of the marketplace, right? We want to understand who your customers are to the point where we can pick them out of a crowd in the marketplace. And that's what customer segments is going to do. It's going to, you know, help us identify who's going to pay attention to your problem, to your solution, to your secret sauce, okay? So go down, if you go to the next slide, right? You know, and I'm going to say one more thing about customer segments, but, you know, if you are a B2B business, we want you to communicate to that, right? Our customers are other businesses. If you are a mass market business, we want you to say, we want you to say hello. Melissa, thank you. Melissa's so important, she getting calls during the presentation. Man, I want to go up and be that important. I saw that face, Melissa. Look, so then we get to, on the third page, we get to market channels, your marketing channels, right? So how are you going to reach your customers, right? Are you going to use social media? Are you going to use search engine optimization? Are you going to use blogs? You're going to, you know, do networking and referrals? Are you going to do exhibit, trade shows, right? Affiliates, public speaking, whatever it is that you're going to use, whatever those channels are, methodologies that you're going to use to reach your customers, we want you to depict that to us. We want you to share that with us. Now, you might have noticed that some of those boxes are small and some of them are large and they are stuck that way. So that means whatever you want to tell us, you got to get it in those boxes and it has to make sense when we read it. So that means some of y'all might need to get somebody to help you proofread this document before you send it over to us and to make sure that it makes sense. You know, I believe that, you know, some, our writing should be easy enough for a sixth grader to understand, right? So some of y'all that know 11-year-olds, you know, put it in front of an 11-year-old and say, this just makes sense, right? Because if it don't make sense to them, it's probably not going to make sense to us, right? And so we, I saw that small box and that made me think about that. Now competition, you know, I've had people say, man, my product's so good, my service is all so good, I don't have no competition. You know, nobody can do what I do. Yeah, nobody can probably do it, how you do it, right? But they can probably do it, right? I heard somebody say, they might have your ingredients, but they can't bake your cake, right? So just because you have a secret sauce doesn't mean you don't have competition. And in this section, we want you to identify some of those businesses that are potential competition, you know, whether it's direct, indirect, or if you're established business and you mature, you've been in the marketplace, right? A future competitor, someone that, you know, so that we can identify that you understand how your competition looks and where they are. And then we're going to ask you to take that secret sauce that you shared with us earlier in the narrative, notice I didn't say plan, in the narrative and help us to understand how you're going to use that to make that, to make your business different than your competitors. You know, one of the tools that we use at the SBDC, I'm sure Camille uses it at MBDA and I know Cheryl uses it at WBC is a competitive matrix, where we line you up against your competitors and we score you, right? And ideally, you should score higher than your competitors in the categories that you're ranking, right? And so you can just write that down on a sheet of paper and then describe that competitive advantage here in this document, right? And then, you know, so two to three attributes of why you are better than, are different than your competitors, right? And so your business and operation model, right? And so when you think about your business, right, you think about the fulfillment component of your business, you know, one of my good friends, Cheryl Sally over WBC, she talks about systems and infrastructure, right? And we don't want you to lay out your entire infrastructure on your entire systems, on your entire processes, but we do want you to give us an insight of what systems, procedures and processes that you are looking to implement that's going to help you run your business efficiently, right? And it's going to help you make money and keep money, right? You know, as I said, make money and keep money. So that means at the end of the week, at the end of the month, at the end of the quarter, you know, as I hadn't got to the year yet, we want you to make some money. We don't want you to wait till the end of the year to show a profit, right? And we definitely don't want you to wait till the end of the year for you to have a positive cashflow. So understanding your business and your operational model is extremely important, right? And then I'm going to cover this last page and this next page and then we're going to move through the next page quickly, right? And so management team, basically we want you to tell us about your experience. And a key point I want you to pay attention to here that's underlying, it says include your resume, bios in accordance with the checkers, right? So you don't have to tell us all of your accomplishments in this section, right? We want you to tell us the key components of why you are the person to run this business, right? The key components on why you are your team are the people that should be running this business and include the litany of your accomplishments on your resume as an attachment based on what the checklist is required. Right? Now as it relates to finance and accounting, right? What we want you to know and identify and share with us is we want you to share your revenue streams, right? And so if you if you sell products, right, we want you to aggregate those products, you know, into a couple of categories and identify that you have multiple product lines, right? If you sell products and you have services, we want you to identify I'm selling this product and I also have this service, right? If you're a restaurant, you know, for example, you know, some of your services or some of your revenues come from alcohol sales and some come from food, right? So those are the types of things in your revenue streams that we want you to tell us, right? But we also want you to tell us, you know, if you have a subscription model, right, that provides recurring revenue. That is huge, right? Because that's built-in income, right? As it relates to cost structure, one of the key things that we want you to tell us is your burn rate, you know, how fast are you using your money, right? If you're spending, you know, $30,000 a month, you know, then we need to know that, you know, because that speaks to the need for your working capital, right? And some of those other things are listed there, like your fixed and variable cost, your customer acquisition cost, distribution cost, etc., right? And then finally on the last page, we want to know some of the key metrics that you're going to use to help you manage your business, right? I had a command, sorry, major tell me a long time ago, right? A short pencil beats a long memory any day. And what he was saying was, he wants to know, right, and you should know what are the key characteristics of your business and how they're performing, right? What things do you need to be aware of? Like how many units per day do you need to sell? How much cash do you have in the bank on a weekly basis? And how much do you need on a weekly basis, right? You know, if you're building a building, right? And you have some milestones, right? You have different phases through that process, right, that we want to have an understanding of how those are and what those are. The number of leads that you need to generate a week, those are the types of things that fit in that category. And then, you know, challenges that self-explanatory, right? And that's something that only you as a business owner can explain to us the challenges that you're going through and you anticipate having to deal with in the next 12 to 24 months, all right? So that's the application, right? We're not expecting that to take you two weeks, right? A week at max, and, you know, and we have a number of resource partners on this call. Camille is on this call, I think, Tangy's on the call with the WBC myself. You know, we work together as a team to support our community to help you get the things that you need so that you can become a viable business, all right? If there are any questions, you know, post them in the chat and Aisha, just let me know if there are any questions that I have or we have regarding that, and we can address them. And if there are any other questions in general, you know, I'll turn it back over to you, Melissa. Thank you, Alan. Aisha, can you just go back to the beginning of the narrative for me? I just wanted to review the different components. I just wanted to go over the different components that he just went through. And I want to encourage you to not look at this as it's being very difficult. We have deliberately, as Alan mentioned, made the process very, very simple. You can either submit a business plan or you can submit a business narrative. If you are submitting a business narrative, you will be required to use the business narrative template that we have provided in the chat box. Again, all the documents that we're talking about today are available on our website, and we will send out links and the documents to everyone on the call this afternoon, so you'll have them available at your disposal. I just again want to just go through the different components. You do have the company overview, as Alan mentioned. Next is the problem opportunity, and this is the single most important aspect of your narrative here, and the solution. Next page, the marketing sales competition. Next page. Next page. It might be a lag, but it's the next page. Business operational model. Yes, it's not coming up. It's not coming up. Go for it. Yeah. It's there. So finance and accounting, traction, key metrics, milestones, and the last one are challenges. I just want to bring attention to this section right here. Keep in mind when you're responding to this section here that you talk about how COVID, again, you've already mentioned it at the beginning of the narrative. Tie it back in at the end about what other significant challenges or barriers or obstacles that you're going to address because of COVID, and how these slides will help you again prepare for, respond to, cover from the implications of COVID. Melissa, I see a couple of questions in the chat. Sure. Ola Comaristas Maricio. He asked if the application is available in multiple languages. That's about as good as I am in Spanish, man. Hopefully, Melissa got somebody on her team that can translate the application into, at least into Spanish, right? Because we have a large number of Hispanic, Latino business owners in our local area that we want to make sure that we support. Yes, Alan, thank you for that. We are going to make sure that language that we have, the application and the documents in multiple languages, we are working on that now. And if there's, we will have Spanish, but if there's another version, I've asked that you send that to us if you need it in a different language. Let us know. But that is something that we're certainly going to work on and make sure that it's available in multiple languages, as well as our other upcoming training opportunities that we'll have over the next couple of months. Another question, I think I've answered most of the questions in the chat box. When does repayment start after loan is acquired? It's going to depend. It's going to be depend on the business nature, what you're requesting the funds for, what stage the business is in, and that will be determined on an individual case-by-case basis. So it just depends. And we'll be the same for everyone, I think. Is there a deadline for applicant? Yes, Alan? You started to read it. Is that question, is there a deadline for the application? Look, I'm kind of tongue-in-cheek when the money is gone. Kind of tongue-in-cheek. Look, if the money is gone, right, it's no more available. Well, that's true. But I will say our disbursement period for these funds is we have a two-year period to disburse the funds. But based on our need here in Colombia, we do not think that it's going to take us two years to get this funding out. But again, as Alan mentioned, it is pretty much based on when the funds have already been disbursed, when all funds have been disbursed. Keep in mind that this is one opportunity that we have. And of course, the parameters regarding this loan program, this new loan program are much more flexible than our other programs. But we do have other loan opportunities through or commercial lending opportunities through the city of the Office of Business Opportunities that you can take advantage of. So even though what these funds are exhausted and all the great benefits that come with them are gone, we do have other opportunities that may not have the interest rate, the better interest rate, but our interest rates are still low. And our terms are still much easier to handle than your traditional and non-traditional lenders. So there are other opportunities for you. Is there a deadline? Yes, sir. And I posted in the chat, I failed to remember this earlier, but I sent the email to your team early today. Upper Savannah Council of Government and the Catawba Council of Government, which serve multiple counties across the state. They have similar funds. Now, their structure is nowhere near the city of Columbia and how they structured the loan. But they do, they did receive funds and have the same mission as the city of Columbia. And so if you're outside of the city of Columbia, and if you go through that process and you see you're not within the city of Columbia and you can't apply, reach out to myself or some of the other partners and we may be able to help you. But I did post those flyers in the chat box at about 11, 25 or so. That's great information. Again, we want to help. I know these funds are only for city of Columbia, actual people or businesses located within the city of Columbia. But we certainly will post that listing out for everyone to have access to. So if you know of a business in another area, you can certainly share that information with them. That's great information, Allen. Thank you. Yeah. And I'll say if I was starting a business and I wasn't in the city of Columbia, I would move to the city of Columbia. Okay. So far in that statement, one thing we cannot use the money for is to deliberately, when you can, if you want to, if you've been planning on moving or locating your business within the city of Columbia, that's fine. But we definitely do not want you to just relocate just because of the funds. But you have a strategic reason. That was my keyword. Starting, starting, strategically starting. And you do your research and you have the proof that this is why you're moving your business here. But yes, thank you, Allen. We appreciate you. Any other questions at this time? Okay. But we certainly, the city of Columbia is a great place to start your business. Or expand your business, just to put that plug in there. Okay. Thank you, Brett. Okay, guys. The next couple of sections relate to the, she took it down. Okay. The cover sheet or cover page or the loan documentation checklist. And we'll go into the loan process. The required, well, before I go any further, this document will spell out the things that have to be accompanying the loan application and documents. I ask that anyone that is submitting the application and documents do so with this as a cover sheet, followed by the application, followed by the required documents. And I'll ask that you present all of those together so that I get an entire package at one time to start the evaluation process. So to go over the cover sheet or the required documents, the first one, of course, is the loan application. We also ask that you provide us with a copy of your business license. That license has to be a city of Columbia business license. The next document we will need is your proof of business insurance. I do not need the entire insurance policy. I simply need the declaration page within that set of documents. A copy of the primary business owner's license, driver's license, or other government issued photo ID. And that would apply to anyone that is a primary owner on the video that's listed on the application. The other requirement is to produce a business plan or a business narrative, which Alan did a great job of filling out that document. We will need two years of your most recent bank statements, personal and business, a resume of the applicant. As Alan alluded to earlier, we don't need a resume of 20 years ago. You just need to know how it relates to your ability to function in the business that you're either acquiring or starting up or what you've been doing within your current business. We need business cash flow projections for 12 months. Either your startup balance sheet, which is a business that hasn't actually started yet, or is just in the process of starting the business, or the projections for an existing business. These documents, I just want to let you know that these documents will be available to you on our website later on this afternoon. You can use your own if you have them, but you can certainly use these documents and produce those to us. If you're an existing business, we will need your balance sheet and income statements for the past two years, fiscal years, not less than 60 days old. Again, the template will be available to you on the website. We also will need two years of your most recent tax returns, personal and business, with all schedules and W-2s for all fliers. Lastly, we will need a time and dated personal financial statement. Again, I'll reiterate all of these documents will be available on our website for you to use later this afternoon. Next, I will be discussing the... Yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can we go back? I'm sorry. I just want to make sure that we highlight one thing. In regards to the business license, the City of Columbia business license, we need a current business license. So make sure if your business license has expired. I know that a number of people have not had a chance or were not able to actually review earlier when COVID first happened with the shutdown and everything, but make sure you get your current business license to us. We do need a current business license. The business narrative template is a required template if you choose to use the business narrative and not a business plan. And the financial statements are the optional templates that you may use on our website that will be available this afternoon. So just to reiterate, the current business license is needed. Also, your business insurance declaration page, it should also be current. Your driver's license, I should have to say this, but that should be current. It should not be expired. And if you choose to use the business plan, that's fine. But if you do not use a business plan, you must use the template, the business narrative template that's on our website. But the financial documents, and I want to thank the South Carolina Small Business Development Center, Allen Brown for sharing those documents with us. So those are actually products of our Small Business Development Center, which is another reason that we have our partners at the table because they're familiar with these documents as well. And everyone that we are going to share with the resources and referrals that we're going to share with you, they can help you complete these documents as well. Thanks. Sorry, Brett. No, no, no. That's great. Great. Thank you. Okay. The next thing I want to discuss with you guys is the flow chart, how the application process works with us. Once you have produced the application with the cover sheet and the accompanying documents, once that package is received, that's when we start the evaluation process. After the process of undergoing the evaluation, I then review the application package with the evaluation that I've done with my OVO director, who you've heard from today, Melissa. Melissa then reviews the package. And at that point, the application is then presented to our CRLF loan committee. Now, let me say this, that if in the review process, we find that there are things that are not, that the package lacks the required, if there are things that are lacking in the package that is presented, we will have resources as Alan alluded to earlier. We will have outside help available to try to fill in the needed compliance elements that will bring the package to where it needs to be. So it's not dead in the water. It's just something that needs some additional work. We then present the loan package with a recommendation to the CRLF loan committee. They are ultimately the deciders of the yay or nay on the loan. If they find at that point that there are things lacking, they may require conditions on the loan. They may say we need additional, this loan needs additional help with, I don't know, I'll just throw something out with the financial structure or the numbers. And we will try to help with outside sources like CPA or Alan and his guys or his folks and other resources with the small business development center to help individuals that need that additional. The conditions may be that we, the committee has the option of saying, okay, we will approve this loan for this amount of money. However, the applicant must attend some sort of counseling or seminars or something that we would produce to help them out so that the loan committee would feel better with okaying the package. If the loan and in most cases this happens, the loan committee approves our recommendation. What is then produced is a commitment letter. That commitment letter is given to you. That's basically telling you you've been approved for the loan. You then sign that commitment letter, get that back to us. I did over, I passed over one thing. When the loan is presented to our loan committee, I go before the loan committee, I give them all the financial background of the package. Each applicant must appear in front of that loan committee. The applicant will basically come to tell the story of the business. You won't have to, you won't have to go over your financials because in many cases they want to talk finance language. I take that off your plate. I'll discuss that with them. Then you guys will say, well, this is my business because nobody knows your business better than you do. You will discuss your business, how it's going, how it isn't going, how you plan on a new startup. You will tell them that, what your plans are, and so forth. So you will present. Once that presentation is done, the loan committee will decide on whether they approve it or not. Once that approval is done, as I said, the commitment letters sent to you. At the point that we sent, or you have given us the commitment letter back, at that point you all will choose your own closing attorney and establish a closing date with that attorney. You will advise us of that that attorney and that closing date. We will communicate so that we can set up the date and time with the attorney and we then have the best day of all for a long process. That is the long closing and that's when you get your funding. The wires will be funded to the closing attorney. The closing attorney will cut a check. That check will be issued to you at that closing. As I discussed a little bit earlier, the conditional approval, this is something that is unique to this loan program. Because many of, as we've discussed, the variances in our guidelines where we're not looking at stringent loan requirements in the traditional sense, many of our loans will be approved outside the standard underwriting guidelines. And as I alluded to earlier, as a result of that, the loan may be continued on training or counseling before we do the closing and disbursement. If it's necessary, any required training or counseling will be provided by us at no cost. Okay. At this point, Brett, we want to take some questions. Okay, sure. And while we're looking at the questions, I just want Brett, great job with that, presenting that information. In regards to the conditional approval, one thing that we did very deliberately as we stated throughout this presentation is making sure that these funds are accessible to any, everyone, especially those that may not have qualified for funding over the past couple of months through other sources. And by doing that, we have also looked at it as an opportunity to help strengthen our small business community and help our small businesses build their infrastructure. So after COVID, because it's going to be with us for a while, you're going to be able to be stronger as a result of getting the funds, but also it will be about sustainability after COVID's gone. So we're looking at this as an opportunity to build the capacity and strengthen our small business community, especially those small businesses that in the past have traditionally been left out of the process. So again, we're going to work with everyone as much as we can to get you ready if you're not already ready to access these funds. And hopefully, there will be opportunities in the future. There's a lot of money right now coming down the pipeline from both the federal and state level to help our small business community. We'll be able to direct you if we don't have those funds directly. Hopefully, we can direct you to those that do have the funds so that you can take advantage of those funds as well. So I just wanted to reiterate that and not make sure that doesn't share, you know, steering went off. The conditional approval doesn't mean that you won't get the money. It's just that we want to help you strengthen your business model as a result of this funding so that you are successful. I do want to go into this one last statement before we go into the questions before we finish. I just want to again thank our partners for their invaluable. As Melissa discussed earlier, the small business development center, one of the things as a loan officer, I have to do the evaluations. So I can't produce what they give to me. I can't evaluate my own stuff basically. But the work that Allen does, the work that the folks over there at the Benedict College Women's Center, the Small Business Minority Center, interacting with James Chatfield over there at the Community Loan Fund, these folks make my life and job a lot easier. One other shout out that I'd like to give is all of this stuff seems like it just rained down from heaven that the EVA just looked at us and said, well, they did invite us to participate in this funding. But I'd like to give a great thanks to our director because the amount of information that she had to produce for this thing is, I mean, each time they were like, well, we invite you for the lending, but we need this and we need that and we need this and we need that. And she produced all of it and she basically made this happen for us. All of my co-workers are, I mean, I can count on them day and night without any hesitation. Ayesha, I call Ayesha the chief of staff because in Melissa's absence, Ayesha gets on the horn and says, look, this is what we need to do, blah, blah, blah. And I thank you much for everything you've done with this program. And I've taken up enough time. Let's move on. Thank you, Brett. But I want to reiterate this whole effort has been a collective effort. Not only across our whole OVO team, everyone has pulled their weight in helping us do this and play a role, but also our partners. They've been there with us from the beginning. That is a requirement of our ADA funds that we include our community partners, specifically those that are used to handling and working with loan recipients and making sure they're prepared for the process. We wanted to give them a chance, so we're going to answer the questions in the chat box at the end, but we wanted to go through and give everyone just a chance, our partners, to talk about what they do and who they are. Only, can I give you all like two minutes so we can make sure everybody has a chance to hear the answers to the questions too. Let's start with Alan. You've heard from Alan. Alan is amazing. He works very closely with us as you can tell, and he gives us a lot of insight, and he helps us make sure that we are in tune with the needs of the community. Alan. Thank you, Melissa. So I just want to reiterate something that Brett said that he mentioned that they got about 2.7, 2.9 million dollars. Melissa said that last time that they received funds was about 20 years ago. Right now, these funds are revolving loan funds, so if I'm not mistaken, Melissa, that means that they'll stay in the community. That is correct. Right, so we just increased the pool of our assets, right, capital for our community by 2.7 million dollars. And so we want, I personally congratulate, you know, OBO and thank you, right, because you're giving me an opportunity to get some money on the street. Right, to get into hands of business owners where it needs to be. Right, so I'm not going to take a whole lot of time, you know, I'm just going to say, you know, you guys can read the slide, you know, I'm with the SBDC. We've been around the state for 41 years, you know, one of the pilot SBDCs when the program first started 41 years ago. We have four regions, USC, Clemson, South Carolina State, and Winthrop, and you see the numbers that we had in 2018. As it relates to capital, right, we help attain 56 million dollars in capital. That means, you know, programs like this, we have small business gets 56 million dollars. Right, so we understand what entities like breads and traditional lenders are looking for as it relates to loan packages. And we know how to make your package presentable to the loan officer to get a yes. Right, you know, it won't come from my office if I don't think it's going to get a yes. If it's not going to get a yes, then we're not sending it because we got some more work to do. Right, you know, I will say as it relates to the SBDC locally, which is the Columbia area, the Maryland area, a lot of people don't know that we work, we have a satellite office in Lexington, and we have a full office in Newbury and something in addition to the Columbia offices. And so if you or a friend has someone in those communities that you know that's interested in starting a business, give us a call. My information, I believe, was put in the chat or I think the next slide, Ayesha has my information on it and it will be available during the presentation. So give us a call, we look forward to helping you and happy hunting. We will now hear from Ms. Tangy Beaty. If you can unmute her phone please. Tangy is with the Women's Business Center, brand new Women's Business Center at Benedict College. Hello, everyone. Just wanted to say very quickly, I'm so excited about this opportunity that the city is presenting for small businesses. I am Tangy Beaty. I am the program coordinator for the Benedict College Women's Business Center. And I'm here on behalf of my boss, who is the amazing Cheryl Valley. She is the director. And so the Women's Business Center is a great place for small businesses to kind of come in and get one-on-one counseling. We help with business plans and financial projections so that you can go ahead and qualify for a lot of these loans that are out here. And so we are here. We are a free program. You are assigned a counselor that will walk you through the whole process, which is unique in the sense of really helping you develop your plan and develop your ways on how you want to achieve your goal so that you can present your package and get the money so that your business can grow and succeed. So we are here. You can go online and to our website, which is wbc.org, and sign up in our eCenter. And then you will go through the process of getting oriented and then getting assigned a counselor. So definitely give us a call. We are here to help and help you obtain access to funding. So that's about it. Thank you, Tanji. Okay. And next we have Ms. Camille Shaw with the Minority Business Development Agency. Thank you, Camille. Thank you, Melissa. And thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce our center to the businesses that are on the call. Again, I am Camille Shaw and I serve as the Project Director for the South Carolina Minority Business Development Center. We are funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency, and we're operated by Deetsa Inc. owner Diane Sumter. And what we do is we're part of a nationwide network that provides business strategic business planning and consulting services to minority owned businesses. And what we do is provide businesses with greater access to capital, contracts, and markets. So if you are a minority owned business needing support, let us know. Last year we assisted our clients with procuring over $33 million in contracts and over $13 million in financing. So in today's changing climate, we know that it's a challenge for all minority businesses and that you all need advisors. And so we're here to help you grow. We're here to help you sustain your business and to meet those challenges in today's environment. So please contact us. If you have any questions, we work with existing and established and seasoned businesses to put you on a plan and attract for future growth and development. So please contact us. Thank you. Thank you so much, Camille. And please give Ms. Sumter our hello, our hello's. Next we have the South Carolina Community Loan Fund with Mr. James Chatfield. Thank you. Is he on the phone? Carla? Okay, he's not, he's not responding. The South Carolina Community Loan Fund, they're not only a funder, they also provide, I'll speak on his behalf. I'll try anyway. They also provide technical assistance and direct one-on-one counseling to potential business owners or current business owners. So his, their information is there and they're also a great, great partner in all that we do. Next slide. Can I take questions now? I want to also say Brett's information was up there. That was the last slide. And we're going to send out the actual presentation to everyone so that you have it. I wanted to, Brett, just to go, some of the the loan products, other loan products that we have. I know, thank you. Brett has done a great job with working with our loan applicants, also our recipients. He's amazing. He will go above and beyond for anyone as especially our customers. So I want to give Brett just a chance to talk about our different loan funds that we have available. And then we'll take questions and there are a number of questions in the chat box who probably need to respond to. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Melissa. Yeah, we basically have three other loan pools as, as we've alluded to earlier. We had an initial which we had since 20 years ago. Another EDA loan pool where we have funding from that available from that pool. We also have SERF funds. SERF are city funds that have been granted to us by the city, city of Columbia government. That fund gave us at that time the greatest latitude of all with discretionary things within our lending program. Many of those latitudes that we are now using in this new EDA program were available to us under those SERF dollars because they were non federal government dollars. The last pool of money that we have is a grant that was given to us from CDBG, which is community development block grant. Those funds are also federal dollars. So many of the things that are requirements of the EDA program, the eyes have to be dotted and the T's have to be crossed in order to be in compliance with those government funds. In addition to that, we have a what was formerly called a facade program. That is now our community retention and redevelopment program. That those funds are available for upgrades on existing businesses within a specified corridor or corridors that we work during a given period of time, which is something that is approved by our city council and targeted as a need for upgrading. Did I miss something, Melissa? Thank you, Brad. Nothing. You did a great job. I will say with our funds that he mentioned towards the end, we have received that's a very popular program. And right now, because of budget constraints due to covid, we have not received any additional funding to do any more projects for the remainder of this fiscal year. We're hoping that we will look, revisit it for next fiscal year to see if we will have some funds available. But just so no one expects those dollars to be readily available, because right now we don't have them. That's a very, very popular program. It's one where we can actually see the tangible results of our work. But hopefully, we'll get some more funds in to start that process. Thank you, Brad. Aisha, can you start with some of the questions that they have for Brad? Okay. Time frame to anticipate completion of this process of approvals. We anticipate the maximum time for the application process not to exceed 30 days. And what happens is, as I alluded to earlier, it all depends on the cycle of the full application package being presented. And then we have to go before our commercial loan committee. So if we get the package the day before the loan committee meets, certainly it would extend the period of time. So we speak about a 30-day period because that should cover any period of time that the package is presented. But we should be able to get it through the loan process. Okay. For the startup information, do you need my personal taxes since there has been no activity for taxes on the business? Right. And is homeowner's insurance sufficient if it's a home place at the moment? No. We would need, well, if it's a startup, then you would have to obtain business insurance on the business, the new business. Because if something went wrong with the business, you can't have homeowner's insurance to cover the business. So it has to be a separate policy. Okay. If you are renting, would the renter's insurance suffice for business insurance? No. Again, the business has to be covered by business insurance because the business is a separate entity from your personal coverage. A couple of people just asked about startup information. Maybe would this be eligible if you're a startup? Absolutely. Yeah. All startups will be considered. We actually have a document in our documents, which we will be releasing later on today, where you would give us the financial, you will have to do your narrative, but you would do it as a startup. And then in terms of your financial documents, you will need your personal tax information. You will need to present the insurance as we just talked about for the business. You will have to obtain that business license. But there's a separate document that's dedicated in terms of the financials for startups because you're not looking at historical, there is none. So we'll be looking at three-year projections on the business. So you'll just fill that document out and put in your projections of what you will be making over the next three years. Again, if that is something that you can't quite figure out, please reach out to one of our partners and they can assist you in where to put the numbers. Brett, can I say something regarding that? Sure. Like Melissa said, in relationship to this process, we intentionally wanted to streamline what is sometimes a three- to six-month process to about six weeks from the time you contact us to the time you get funded. That's what our goal is. But that is also going to be contingent upon how serious you take the documents that we've provided for you and complete them in a timely and efficient manner. If there's something on one of those documents that you don't understand, you need to reach out to us as quickly as possible so that you can get clarity. Because as we or as they get applications, the ones that are complete are the ones that are going to go to the top of the pile. The ones that they don't have questions about. Now, Brett can't say this because he worked for the city, but I can because I don't work for the city. The ones that are incomplete are going to get set aside. They're going to have to send you an email and say, look, we need some additional information. But if your documents are complete when they receive them, the process that Brett and Melissa and his team just presented will go smooth and no steps that they presented will work in your favor as opposed to being a hindrance to you getting the money that's available for you. He's not going to say this to you, but I will. Take some time initially to review the documents. If you have some questions, reach out to him and they'll direct you where you need to go. We want to get this money in your hands. The process was intended to get it into your hands quickly as opposed to the traditional loan process. I'll give you a reference point. Those of you who may be familiar with the CARES Act disaster loan funding that was done through the SBA, that is a reference point as relates to the advance and the ideal portion that you can think of of what the intent was. The intent was to get money into your hands quickly to be able to provide a capital injection for your business so you could sustain your business. That's the purpose of these funds, to get money into your hands quickly, but meet the compliance requirements that EDA has. Those documents that you have or you're going to take a look at are somewhat comprehensive and self-revealing because we include in those documents some of the decision points that we need to have in order to get you across the line. There's global debt service coverage. There's a debt service coverage in there. A lot of you don't know, I'm familiar with those terms, but those are the things that we use to make decisions. Loan officers use to make decisions. I just want to say take some time, get familiar with the documents. Reach out. If you establish business, as Camille said, you can call them. They work with established businesses, but if you're a startup, don't call them because they can't help you. But if you establish, that's not a part of their mission. But if you're a startup and you need some assistance to WBC, SBDC, we'll walk you through those documents and we'll help you get across the finish line. A couple other questions real quick. Is there a minimum maximum for business insurance? It will largely depend on the type of business and the insurance company will tell you what the minimum coverages are for certain parameters within that business. Though there's no minimum to us, but there's a minimum covers that the insurance company will allow under certain parameters of the business. If you own a restaurant, there'll be certain minimum requirements that you have to have for that coverage. Would that make sense? So, um, Sheila asked what an insurance quote was sufficient if the lease for an office has not been signed yet? If she just have a quote. You have to have an active policy. We need proof of insurance that the business isn't short. So, I would wait until you get the actual coverage. Present that because the quote won't say you have the coverage. Yeah, okay. And then, Melissa? I just wanted to say too, if you're in the middle of or if you need the loan in order to actually start that lease or execute that lease, that may be something that we have to look at on a case-by-case basis where it may be conditional approval, may be granted until the actual lease is signed and you have your business insurance at that point. So, we're going to need that proof before we actually close on the loan. That makes sense. Last, Alex says, as a small trucking company located within the city of Columbia, based off his physical address, and he's looking to expand the scope of operation to a freight road bridge, would he be eligible to use funds for training in this capacity? The business is located in Columbia and he would like to do training with the dollars. He wants to expand his scope of operations to freight road bridge. So, it looks like he'll need training to expand the business into freight road bridge. Yeah, that sounds like, yeah. Yeah, he's just expanding the business he can use funding for expansion. Yes. And that might require a one-on-one conversation to kind of get the details of. Yeah. Yeah, but by what you presented. I just want to remind everybody, if you look on the chat bar, there's three dots and that'll give you the ability to save the chat. If you want to keep track of some of the answers that were provided in the chat and then we'll also create a frequently asked question based off those questions on there. Alyssa? I think all the questions have been answered. Great job everyone for the questions. Excellent, excellent questions. We will be sharing a copy of the presentation with everyone this afternoon along with a listing of our available other available loans that were mentioned by Brad today and the other documents referenced this afternoon that Alan shared with you earlier as well as the different components our checklist or the application itself, the uses of the funds as well as the actual ordinance that was passed by council on the 15th that you have a better understanding and you have that information in front of you when you're actually putting your application together so you'll know the intent of these funds and you can incorporate that intent into your narrative. We're excited about this process. We're excited about you starting or expanding or enhancing your business right now. Keep in mind I saw some questions in here directly and may have been people that joined later, but these funds can be used for their traditional uses that we have acquiring property, operating capital, working capital, but they can also be used to purchase PPE equipment for employee testing to make the necessary renovations to your establishment to comply with ED, not EDA, but CDC standards. So it's very open, it's very flexible, but as Alan mentioned, we're trying to get money as possible. The easier it will be to walk your application through and Alan we will put it aside and move to the next one if it's not complete until we actually get all the information that we have in. So we will say that. The biggest thing is making sure that you're committed to this process and now is really a time for you to look within your business to see what gaps are there so that you can use this money in the most effective and efficient way possible to sustain your business for the long run. It's not meant to be a quick fix, it's meant to help you strengthen your business so that you can withstand the economic injury caused by COVID-19. Again thank you to our partners, thank you to the Columbia PR department for all that you do and thank you our small business community for all that you do in making the city of Columbia such a great place to live and work and play. Thank you. Thank you guys. This is Alex Brown, I just want to thank you guys for doing such a phenomenal job. Thank you Alex. Are there any more questions? You can unmute yourselves and ask those questions before we leave. We definitely want to answer as many questions as possible. And if necessary just call us. I'm going to give the number out in case you want to reach us. I'm going to put it in the chat box and we will direct your call to the appropriate person. All of our lines, even though we're not, we're working remotely. Our phone lines, our desk lines have been transferred to our phone so we will get your messages. Thank you guys for all that you do. Again we can't, we can't do, we do if our small businesses. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Yes ma'am. No questions related to the business license and location. We have our principal office which is the administrative side of the business that's located in the city of Columbia and have been for about 13 years. And then we have a newer physical location that is located in the forest acres area. But the biggest thing is we would like to do the expansion in one of the city of Columbia areas. And I don't really want to give away the location quite yet but we would like to do the expansion there. So without having any kind of contractual agreement processing, can we still utilize the main principal office that we're already in with the city of Columbia? Do you have a business license in the city of Columbia with the existing business that you're having in Columbia? Yes sir. We just basically because of expenses wise over the years and not being able to actually name COVID but most of our businesses within healthcare. So we were actually seeing issues related to ICD coding changes and things of that nature like other healthcare facilities. And so we started downsizing a lot. And so by doing so, what's quoted as remotely working remotely, we relocated the office to work remotely from the actual business because of space and being able to afford actual office space. We always would hope to expand to have both in one location but at this time, just so we could have enough buffer for emergency reasons like COVID, we're able to actually survive. And so with that being said, we do utilize that, we just don't actually, we don't offer our services there. We offer our products at that location and we do contractual agreements and meetings at that location, one-on-one meetings. Your business, you have your business for any purpose that- It's a purpose to locations, yes sir. Okay. So one of those locations, one of those locations is in Columbia proper. Correct? Correct. And so you could apply for this funding under that location of your business. Okay. Because I think when we originally applied, we put both locations mostly because I really just didn't want to get denied. But you know, so I understand now. And I thank you so much everyone for your time because this did provide some clarity for me on a lot of concerns that I had. And so I'll be looking forward to the information that you guys released later. Sure. And in addition to what we've discussed broadly here, feel free to pick up the phone and give me a call at any time. And I'd be happy to discuss it further with you. Yes sir. Yes sir. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any more questions before we wrap it up? Again, Ayesha, let's go ahead and send out the documents to everybody that registered. So all the loan documents to everyone so that they have it if we can today. So people can start working on these items. And we're going to also upload the financial templates provided to us by SBDC this afternoon. So you can start looking at those documents and making contact with everyone. We'll send out the presentation to you. So you'll have the contact information for the community partners reference here that can help you. Again, MBDA, the Minority Business Advisory Minority Business Development Agency, they deal with existing and expanding businesses only. If you're a startup or if you're a new business or a woman on business and you still need some assistance, SBDC can handle anyone as well as the Women's Business Center at Benedict College. Soccer and Lana Community Loan Fund, they will also help you in any way they can other than with funding. They also have technical assistance that they can provide to you as well. And we're always here to be a resource for you as well. And if you don't have the answer, we'll find it for you. Thank you to our partners. Thank you so much. Even you, Allen. Thank you. Thank you, Melissa. Hey, I will say give a plug for James Crue over at South Carolina Community Loan Fund. They do work with startups, right? So if you're a startup and you need funding, that's a great resource and we leverage their capital all the time. So I know some people have some problems with startups. So, even I knew that. All right, we're signing off. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day, everybody. I had a fun time. I had a good time. We put our office number in the chat box. Save the chat if you would like, and you'll have it there to refer back to. We'll get the frequently asked questions and answers to you this afternoon as well. But thank you. And our phone numbers on there as well as our email address if you want to send us some other questions directly if you come up with something later. Thank you again. Thank you so much, community partners. Allen, Camilla, Tanji, and Brett, thank you for all that you do as well. Bye-bye. And Aisha, great job, man, keeping us straight and organized as always. Thank you. Y'all have a great day. Great information. Great information. Thanks, Aisha.