The Weekly - May 5, 2020 - 14

Resources and Education
T K

N A M E

H E R E

James Thomsen

An outdoor industry vet is here to help you save your small business.
By James Thomsen
SINCE THE 1960S, I'VE STARTED

and owned a bunch of businesses
and managed others. I worked
in retail stores, manufacturing,
and sales; and managed a large
corporate business as the president
of VF International. After taking
years off to travel, sail, and hike the
John Muir Trail, I went back into
the work world for a personal project: I wanted to reintroduce the
Wilderness Experience Klettersack
that we had made back in the early
1970s. Last year, I launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to get
it done. My wife and I had just returned from a trip to Patagonia on
March 1, just in time for everything
to shut down, when the Small Busi-

ness Development Center (SBDC)
for Central California asked if I
could work with some small businesses in the eastern Sierra.
The SBDC network provides
assistance to an estimated 1 million small businesses and aspiring
entrepreneurs each year. Stressing client education, the SBDC, a
partnership with the U.S. Small
Business Administration (SBA), is
the federal government's largest
and most successful management
and technical assistance program
for small businesses. It provides
business consulting at no cost to
qualified small business owners
and key decision-makers. The
central California SBDC network

14 THE WEEKLY / OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2020

has five full-time centers serving
14 counties to provide businesses
with expert consulting, workshops, and technical assistance.
Consulting help from the SBDC is
100% free to small businesses.

LOANS
For the past month, the big focus
for SBDC has been on cash flow
and available government loans
to help businesses survive. There
are a number of loans out there,
but the two main ones (and those
receiving the most press coverage)
are the Payroll Protection Plan
(PPP) loan and the Economic
Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL).
The EIDL is the best option to

STRATEGIC PLANNING
With these programs, it should be
possible for many small businesses
to at least survive. But, what next?
After every economic problem
(and this one is big!), a lot of businesses fail-but there are many
who do survive. (My job is to get

CO U R T E SY J I M T H O M S E N

Get That Loan

help small businesses survive. It's
a direct loan from the SBA. It also
includes a grant, up to $10,000
(or $1,000 per employee as of Jan.
31) that does not have to be repaid.
This money is being sent to businesses (often as a surprise when
the money ends up in their bank
account with no prior communication). The loan portion is calculated to give a business operating
capital for six months and is a
30-year loan with a 3.75% interest
rate. Over the past week or two, I
have seen a good number of these
approved, up to $300,000.
The PPP loan is really a program to allow businesses to keep
employees on the payroll, both
for pay and, if it was part of the
company's program, their health
insurance. These loans are funded
by banks. The business applies at a
bank (the best is their local banks
where they may have a relationship.) If the bank approves it, then
it gets sent to the SBA. The SBA
will guarantee 100% of the loan,
and the Federal Reserve will buy
that loan so it does not reduce the
lending ability of small banks.
The new stimulus bill sets aside
$60 billion for rural, minority, and
women-owned businesses. These
loans are for two years at 1% interest. But if you follow the intent of
the bill and use 75% of the money
for payroll and 25% for rent and
utilities, then the SBA will forgive
the loan 100%.

The Weekly - May 5, 2020

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