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Coronavirus

Business Resources: Financing and Loans

Financial/Tax News and Resources

Every business needs access to capital, including in times of customer social distancing and interruptions in supply chains. Here are funding opportunities being offered to Loudoun businesses at this time.

Loans
Grants
Other Financial Information

 

Loans

SBA Disaster Assistance Loan

Our nation’s small businesses are facing an unprecedented economic disruption due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. On Friday, March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the CARES Act, which contains emergency relief resources for American workers and small businesses.

Update 3/24/2021: The U.S. Small Business Administration is increasing the maximum amount small businesses and non-profit organizations can borrow through its COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.

Starting the week of April 6, 2021, the SBA is raising the loan limit for the COVID-19 EIDL program from 6-months of economic injury with a maximum loan amount of $150,000 to up to 24-months of economic injury with a maximum loan amount of $500,000.

Businesses that receive a loan subject to the current limits do not need to submit a request for an increase at this time. SBA will reach out directly via email and provide more details about how businesses can request an increase closer to the April 6 implementation date.  Any new loan applications and any loans in process when the new loan limits are implemented will automatically be considered for loans covering 24 months of economic injury up to a maximum of $500,000.

This new relief builds on SBA’s previous March 12, 2021 announcement that the agency would extend deferment periods for all disaster loans, including COVID-19 EIDLs, until 2022 to offer more time for businesses to build back. In order to shift all EIDL payments to 2022, SBA will extend the first payment due date for disaster loans made in 2020 to 24-months from the date of the note and to 18-months from the date of the note for all loans made in the calendar year 2021.

View details or apply to EIDL on the SBA website.

Payment Protection Program (CARES Act)

Update 3/25/2021: The U.S. Small Business Administration extended the deadline for PPP loans to May 31, 2021.

Update 2/22/2021: Beginning on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 9 a.m., the U.S. Small Business Administration will establish a 14-day, exclusive PPP loan application period for businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees. This will give lenders and community partners more time to work with the smallest businesses to submit their applications, while also ensuring that larger PPP-eligible businesses will still have plenty of time to apply for and receive support.

SBA also announced four additional changes to open the PPP to more underserved small businesses than ever before:

  • Allow sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals to receive more financial support by revising the PPP’s funding formula for these categories of applicants;
  • Eliminate an exclusionary restriction on PPP access for small business owners with prior non-fraud felony convictions, consistent with a bipartisan congressional proposal;
  • Eliminate PPP access restrictions on small business owners who have struggled to make student loan payments by eliminating student loan debt delinquency as a disqualifier to participating in the PPP; and
  • Ensure access for non-citizen small business owners who are lawful U.S. residents by clarifying that they may use Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) to apply for the PPP.

Update 1/8/2021:The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), in consultation with the Treasury Department, announced today that the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) will re-open the week of January 11 for new borrowers and certain existing PPP borrowers. To promote access to capital, initially only community financial institutions will be able to make First Draw PPP Loans on Monday, January 11, and Second Draw PPP Loans on Wednesday, January 13. The PPP will open to all participating lenders shortly thereafter. Updated PPP guidance outlining Program changes to enhance its effectiveness and accessibility was released on January 6 in accordance with the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Non-Profits, and Venues Act.

This round of the PPP continues to prioritize millions of Americans employed by small businesses by authorizing up to $284 billion toward job retention and certain other expenses through March 31, 2021, and by allowing certain existing PPP borrowers to apply for a Second Draw PPP Loan.

Key PPP updates include:

  • PPP borrowers can set their PPP loan’s covered period to be any length between 8 and 24 weeks to best meet their business needs;
  • PPP loans will cover additional expenses, including operations expenditures, property damage costs, supplier costs, and worker protection expenditures;
  • The Program’s eligibility is expanded to include 501(c)(6)s, housing cooperatives, direct marketing organizations, among other types of organizations;
  • The PPP provides greater flexibility for seasonal employees;
  • Certain existing PPP borrowers can request to modify their First Draw PPP Loan amount; and
  • Certain existing PPP borrowers are now eligible to apply for a Second Draw PPP Loan.

A borrower is generally eligible for a Second Draw PPP Loan if the borrower:

  • Previously received a First Draw PPP Loan and will or has used the full amount only for authorized uses;
  • Has no more than 300 employees; and
  • Can demonstrate at least a 25% reduction in gross receipts between comparable quarters in 2019 and 2020.

The new guidance released includes:

For more information on SBA’s assistance to small businesses, visit sba.gov/ppp or treasury.gov/cares.

If you have already applied for PPP, you may review the SBA’s loan details and forgiveness information.

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Grants

Restaurant Revitalization Fund

The American Rescue Plan Act provides additional relief for the nation’s small businesses and hard-hit industries for programs the SBA is currently administering and adds new efforts, including $28.6 billion for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund for industry-focused grants.

While all the details for the program have not been finalized, there are some advance steps that businesses may need to do now to better prepare them for the application process. Watch a recorded Virginia SBDC webinar to learn more.

Shuttered Venue Operators Grant

Update 4/23/2021:The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) application portal reopens on Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. for operators of live venues, live performing arts organizations, museums and movie theatres, as well as live venue promoters, theatrical producers and talent representatives to apply for critical economic relief.

In preparation for the application portal reopening, the SBA recommends eligible applicants take the following actions:

The SBA is accepting SVOG applications on a first-in, first-out basis and allocating applicants to respective priority periods as it receives applications. The first 14 days of SVOG awards, which are expected to begin in mid-May, will be dedicated to entities that suffered a 90% or greater revenue loss between April and December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The second 14 days (days 15-28) will include entities that suffered a 70% or greater revenue loss between April and December 2020. Following those periods, SVOG awards will include entities that suffered a 25% or greater revenue loss between one quarter of 2019 and the corresponding quarter of 2020.

SBA’s resource partners, including SCORE business mentors, Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers and Veterans Business Outreach Centers, are available to provide entities with individual guidance on their applications. (Per federal grant program guidelines that require the same and equal information be provided to each applicant, SBA’s team members are limited on responses they can provide to individual, specific questions regarding SVOG eligibility, potential grant amount, or other detailed information.)

 

USDA Value Added Producer Grants

The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program helps agricultural producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and marketing of new products. The goals of this program are to generate new products, create and expand marketing opportunities and increase producer income.

You may receive priority if you are a beginning farmer or rancher, a socially-disadvantaged farmer or rancher, a small or medium-sized farm or ranch structured as a family farm, a farmer or rancher cooperative or are proposing a mid-tier value chain.

Independent producers, agricultural producer groups, farmer- or rancher-cooperatives, and majority-controlled producer-based business ventures, as defined in the program regulation, are eligible to apply for this program. Online applications are must be received by 11:59 p.m. ET on April 29, 2021. Paper applications must be postmarked by May 4, 2021. See details and apply.

 

Rebuild VA

Update 12/29: Governor Ralph Northam allocated an additional $20 million in federal CARES Act funding to the Rebuild VA economic recovery fund to meet demand for the program and fulfill pending grant applications. This new funding will bring the program total to $120 million and will enable more than 300 small business and nonprofit organizations that applied before the last round of funding was exhausted in early December to receive grants. Eligible applicants that are still in the pipeline have been notified via email that their applications have been re-opened.

Update 12/9: Governor Ralph Northam announced that the $100 million Rebuild VA economic recovery fund has awarded grants to 2,500 Virginia businesses and nonprofits whose normal operations were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. All available funding for Rebuild VA has been fully committed.

Update 10/28: Governor Northam is directing an additional $30 million to support the expansion of the program. Businesses with less than $10 million in gross revenue or fewer than 250 employees will now be eligible under the new criteria. Previous criteria required applications to have less than $1.5 million in revenue and no more than 25 employees. The goal is to reach more businesses that fall in between that difference. Additionally, the maximum grant award will increase from $10,000 to $100,000. For more information on how to apply, or what expenses are eligible for Rebuild VA funding, please visit: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/rebuildva/

Update 9/21: Governor Ralph Northam recently announced that Rebuild VA, the $70 million economic recovery fund launched in August, is expanding its eligibility criteria to allow more small businesses to apply.

Businesses that received funding from the federal CARES Act and supply chain partners of businesses whose normal operations were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic are now eligible to receive grants of up to $10,000. Businesses that have received federal funds must certify that they will only use the Rebuild VA grant for recurring expenses and that the grant will not be used to cover the same expenses as the other CARES Act funds.

Rebuild VA still requires that businesses and nonprofit organizations must be in good standing, have annual gross revenues of no more than $1.5 million, and have no more than 25 employees.

Rebuild VA funding may be utilized for the following eligible expenses:

  • Payroll support, including paid sick, medical, or family leave, and costs related to the continuation of group health care benefits during those periods of leave;
  • Employee salaries;
  • Mortgage payments, rent, and utilities;
  • Principal and interest payments for any business loans from national or state-chartered banking, savings and loan institutions, or credit unions, that were incurred before or during the emergency;
  • Eligible personal protective equipment, cleaning and disinfecting materials, or other working capital needed to address COVID-19 response.

Virginia 30-Day Fund

The nonprofit Virginia 30 Day Fund was launched by Virginia technology entrepreneur Pete Snyder and his wife, Burson. Working with other business leaders throughout the Commonwealth, the Fund’s goal is to help save as many Virginia jobs as possible while small businesses await recently approved federal funding.

Virginia businesses that qualify for assistance from the Fund are:

  • Small businesses that employ three to 30 people;
  • Based in Virginia and have been operating for at least one year;
  • Owned and operated by a Virginia resident.

To apply, please Click Here.

National Association for the Self-Employed Growth Grants

Worth up to $4,000 each, NASE Members can apply for small business grants. Small business grants are useful for financing a particular small business need. Past recipients used their growth grants for computers, farm equipment, to hire part-time help, marketing materials, website creation and more.

Growth Grant applicants must be a NASE member in good standing for three months prior to submitting an application (annual members may apply immediately. Monthly members may apply 90 days after joining the NASE.) Read more.

USDA Rural Business Development Grants

The Rural Business Development Grants program is designed to provide technical assistance and training for small rural businesses. Small means that the business has fewer than 50 new workers and less than $1 million in gross revenue. Check your business address for eligibility and learn more about the application process on the website.

USDA Coronavirus Food Assistance Program

USDA’s Farm Service Agency is accepting CFAP applications now through August 28, 2020. This program provides direct relief to producers who faced price declines and additional marketing costs due to COVID-19. Find more details and apply here.

GoFundMe.org Small Business Relief Fund

The Small Business Relief Fund will provide one-time matching grants to qualifying small businesses to help alleviate the financial burdens during these pressing times. Donations to the relief fund will be paid out as grants to businesses that qualify, and which businesses have created a fundraiser through the Small Business Relief Initiative or had an existing GoFundMe. For small business fundraisers started prior to March 24 , or outside of the Small Business Relief Initiative partnerships, the organizer can update their fundraiser description with the hashtag #SmallBusinessRelief to be considered for a grant from this fund.

To qualify for a matching grant from the Small Business Relief Fund, the GoFundMe fundraiser must raise at least $500 and verify that your small business has been negatively impacted by a government mandate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Your small business must be independently owned and operated, and must not be nationally dominant in your field of operation. Each recipient of the matching grant must intend on using the funds to help care for your employees or pay ongoing business expenses. Learn more. 

Visit Loudoun Foundation’s Tourism & Hospitality Relief Fund

The Visit Loudoun Foundation launched the Loudoun Tourism & Hospitality Relief Fund with $10,000 and asks businesses and individuals contribute in support of Loudoun’s tourism industry professionals impacted by shutdowns and furloughs as a result of COVID-19.

Working in tandem with the Community Foundation’s Emergency Relief Fund, the Loudoun Tourism & Hospitality Relief Fund will provide grants to charitable organizations that provide direct financial support for individuals who are working in—or have immediately formerly worked in—Loudoun tourism and hospitality businesses facing hardship.

The Loudoun Chamber Foundation is launching a pledge matching fundraising campaign to support the effort. More information.
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Other Financial Information

Banks and Other Small Business Financing Services

According to the SBA the most active SBA 7(A) lenders are listed here.

Many major banks have dedicated pages in regards to small business financial services. will be updated as more information becomes available:

Pages from Virginia SBDC SBA Loan

Comparison of the SBA Emergency Loans

Frequently Asked Questions was provided by the Virginia Department of Small Business & Supplier Diversity