By: Henry Albert, Freightliner Team Run Smart Pro
There has been a flurry of activity revolving around the fact a large portion of our countries industry has been shuttered as we figure out how to navigate our way through this crisis. There have been stimulus checks sent to many of our nation’s citizens along with various programs to help businesses shelter this crisis which is unprecedented in our lifetime.
One of these programs designed to help small businesses is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) which is being administered through the Small Business Administration (SBA). The PPP is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their employees on the payroll.
The SBA will forgive loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the funds are used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities.
The process of applying for the SBA's PPP loan seemed simple enough so I started the process with the bank my business currently does trade with. I deal with a rather large banking institution so it seemed reasonable to expect the process of applying for this SBA loan to be simple and trouble-free.
My first step to getting this SBA loan process started was to contact my personal banker who has always been extremely helpful in regard to all of my banking needs whether it was personal or business-related. To say my expectations were not met would be an understatement. All the bank did is direct me to their website to apply for the SBA loan.
Upon reaching my bank’s website to fill out the application I became very frustrated as the site kept crashing and freezing up. The next step was to call customer service at which point I was informed they would not be of any help to me. After many hours of aggravation, I determined a different route was going to need to be embarked upon if my sanity was to be retained.
This is when a call was placed to American Truck Business Services (ATBS) in order to seek out their expertise on the SBA PPP loan. There is not much to say other than this should have been my first call in order to complete this task of completing the loan process.
After helping with my application, ATBS directed me to Continental Bank which is a bank that specializes in equipment financing (before contacting Continental Bank, make sure you reach out to ATBS in order to complete your PPP Loan application). The process from Continental Bank was the polar opposite of what I had found with my current LARGE banking institution. All the right paperwork was filled out and in a reasonable amount of time, the SBA PPP loan was approved.
In closing, I cannot stress enough how important it is to have the right business partners in your corner. Thank you ATBS and Continental Bank for treating my business with the courtesy and respect a person should expect.