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hello everyone thank you so much for joining us my name is rob buttle and i am uh so proud to be here today with the public private strategies institute and we're thrilled uh to be able to partner with the u.s small business administration to be able to have a important conversation about changes to the paycheck protection program which president biden announced recently we know that small business owners are the backbone of our economy they're the heartbeat of our communities and all of us here at ppsi and i know our partners across the binding harris administration are working hard to make sure that we recover and build back better today i want to uh thank a set of stakeholders who we've been partnering with to make sure that we're getting the word out about all of these important changes i just want to thank some folks that you're going to hear from today so the u.s black chamber of commerce aarp and multiple other organizations that you should see up on the screen who've been helpful with getting the word out finally i just want to be brief and turn the conversation over to our opening speaker it is my pleasure to turn the conversation over to felicia brown who leads entrepreneurship programs at aarp with that felicia take it away great thank you rhett and i'm happy to be here so on behalf of aarp's members who identify as an entrepreneur or a small business owner i welcome you to this important conversation that will help equip black business owners to recover from this crisis and move forward at aarp we really believe entrepreneurship is a pathway to financial security we know that black owned businesses are a critical segment of this black of the small business community while we face additional challenges and barriers we know you will need a support to rebuild and recover therefore aarp is honored to have recently partnered with the public private strategies to launch the small business resource center which you can find at www.smallbizrc.org there you will find tools tips and information regardless of where you are along your business journey we even highlight the triumphs of small business owners aarp is here to help again that's www.smallbizrc.org for your business growth needs aarp looks forward to our continued partnership with public private strategies and we are truly excited about the future of small business thank you and enjoy this wonderful enriched webinar thank you so much felicia next we have patrick kelly of the small business administration great um thank you renee um hi everyone thank you again for being on this webinar to learn more about ppp uh my office at the sba is in charge of the paycheck protection program and i'm excited to get uh the chance to tell you more about how we're leveling the playing field so that the smallest of small businesses can get the relief they need my goal is to help our small business communities and put them back on the path of opportunity enhancing equity for every small business owner too many small businesses as you all know are being left out of our recovery and the sba and the biden harris administration is trying to make it its top priority to course correct first here's where we are right now during this round of ppp the share of funding to small businesses with fewer than 10 employees is up nearly 60 percent the share of funding going to small businesses in rural areas is up nearly 30 percent um and the share of funding being distributed across all of our lenders but most especially through the community development financial institutions and minority deposit institutions is up more than 40 this is good progress but we know that the work doesn't stop there because too many small businesses are falling behind so uh last week president biden made significant changes to the ppp to ensure small businesses that need to help uh need the help the most have the access to it and here's some of the things that we're doing as a result of that uh the new rules 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 we'll talk more about that in the question answer it eliminates an exclusionary restriction on ppp access for small business owners with prior non-fraud felony convictions consistent with bipartisan congressional proposals it eliminates ppp access restrictions on small business owners who have struggled to make student loan payments by eliminating student loan debt delinquency as a disqualifier and it ensures access for non-citizen small business owners who are lawful u.s residents by clarifying that they may use the individual taxpayer identification number or itin to apply for ppp with that i'll i'll pause and hand it back over to renee thanks so much patrick um and i know there's a lot of questions going on in the chat right now uh people want to know about the aarp link that felicia just asked so we'll get that into um the chat um but more specifically let's let's talk about what i'm seeing kind of in in the questions which is what if i receive funding during the first round but it wasn't enough for my business am i still eligible for this next round of funding yes so if you received um a first draw during 2020 you are eligible to apply for a second draw if you've experienced the 25 reduction in your sales uh measured by any financial quarter in 2020 compared to the similar financial quarter in 2019 so if you can show a reduction of 25 or greater uh then yes you can obtain a second draw that's awesome and i think a lot of people will be excited to hear that um there's a few people asking about independent contractors um and the status and if they're eligible to obtain um loans during this second draw are independent contractors eligible for ppp loans yes so one of the most significant changes that president biden announced last week um relates to independent contractors and helping them uh with a new calculation for the eligible amount of funds um it used to be that it was calculated through net income um it's now calculated uh with gross income and there are directions on how to calculate your loan amount based on the type of business organization that you are either at sba.gov or treasury.gov and it breaks out corporations whole props etc um i would also suggest that uh entering your very specific question into google i tried that ahead of this webinar um yeah i'm an s corp i'm an independent contractor i'm a c corp i'm an llc i'm a single member uh et cetera those questions are can be found there and there's really good resources there as well thanks for that i've seen in the chat that people are asking if this is being recorded and later shared that is true we are recording this and this will be shared out so don't worry this information will be provided um another question i'm seeing is are the new rules retroactive um so no for gross income uh calculation so that unfortunately they are not retroactive to your first draw um although they can be applied to your second draw if you obtained a loan um in um uh 2020. um i will say that this is the blind administration as well as uh congress are aware of this um challenge and are trying to address it uh but currently um you are not able to get a retroactive change to your gross income calculation for your first draw ppp loan thanks for that um there's a lot of people asking about forgiveness and i think there's a lot of confusion people don't know what forgiveness means are they eligible um do they have too much money where it can't be forgiven what are the terms of forgiveness are you able to talk about what does forgiveness mean who's eligible just what is forgiveness all about with the ppp program yes so what forgiveness is all about is to forgive your loan um and to date a third of the 5.2 million first draws have been forgiven and of the night of those applications 99.1 of those applications received full forgiveness so uh congress in this administration uh wants you to be forgiven uh for your loan um the rules um uh fall down roughly around if you use 60 of your proceeds from your ppp draw on payroll and 40 can go to eligible expenses including utilities rent things like that as long as you do that over either an eight week covered period or a 24 week covered period uh as the stats show you will be forgiven and how does one apply for forgiveness so forgiveness is a two-step process first you return to the institution um whether it's an mdi a cdfi uh fintech lender uh bank uh credit union wherever you got your first draw you return to that intermediary uh you submit your application that lending intermediary reviews your application submit sends it to the second step to the small business administration to the my office and we sign off on the lender's uh decision of your application which again to emphasize again 99.1 of the applications that have been submitted to sba have been fully forgiven well that's good news to hear so people who are asking questions about forgiveness definitely make sure you apply for forgiveness that's a good stat to know um there are some questions about idol and ppp so uh it looks like some people are saying they received an idle loan and the first round of ppp funds are they still eligible for this round and can they or is there a max amount of money that they can take out yeah so um your eligibility for this the second draw um depends on uh whether or not you can demonstrate a 25 reduction in any quarter uh of 2020 versus the similar quarter in 2019 um and so there are steps uh at sba.gov steps at treasury.gov and then steps that you can google as well to calculate that um and how to but your lending intermediary is well equipped to help you with that process uh to get that second draw just want to reiterate that we are not answering specific questions that people have uh we understand that there are unique situations that everyone may have um so we cannot answer everyone's specific questions but what we're trying to do is look through the chat um as many of you have when you registered provided questions uh go through and sort of see where the commonalities are to ask questions that get to the root cause of some of the questions you have so just want to be mindful of that um seeing some questions too about um small business owners who started their businesses in 2020 but do not have any receipts or any sort of like uh like payments or anything that began in 2019 uh like payroll or anything like that are they still eligible for ppp so um this is a less satisfactory answer it depends so you may be eligible if your business was in operation uh before february 15th uh 2020 and then the the questions regarding financial statements and so far there's flexibility about how to apply and document um and it depends on your unique circumstances got it um we know that like the sba has final rules that are supposed to come out um we're seeing some questions about are the rules out um what are the rules that that come out with sort of these new changes are you able to talk through what happened in that space of how implementation is going with the rules yeah yeah thank you renee um so i'm happy to report that all of the forms uh and the uh interim final rule that governs the the change that president biden announced allowing for the calculation for independent contractors sold proprietors and self-employed individuals to calculate their ppp loan amount using gross income as opposed to net income has taken effect um it was posted on uh march uh third of this week and the forms are up and as of this morning at 9 00 a.m lenders began submitting uh applications uh with the new calculations there have been questions renee um from folks uh who had submitted applications and their uh ppp loan authorization is still pending you can proactively request from your lender that they would you withdraw your ppp loan application so that you can now recalculate um that and take advantage of the new uh formula and so lenders participated nationwide yesterday at four o'clock with my office on a national training and so through the weekend those rules will start to get in the bloodstream but you have the ability if you have already had funds dispersed unfortunately you will not be able to go back retroactively as we spoke about earlier although we are trying to address that with congress uh but you will have the opportunity if you have not received the fun funds yet to withdraw your application and resubmit so what you're saying is and i'm seeing a lot of people who are like wait what does that mean so if you have an application currently in process you can go to your lender and say hey i want to withdraw it and re-apply with the current rules yes uh that is exactly what i'm saying so um and there's been another question related to the changes that president biden put out last week last week he announced an exclusive period for uh business to small business owners with 20 or less employees to apply for a 14-day period what i want to underscore is you can still apply as a business with less than 20 or more or less employees after march 9th when that exclusive period sunsets what president biden was trying to do was ensure that the smallest of small businesses had exclusive actions uh to take advantage of rule changes um take advantage of the lenders you know time in uh to process these but you'll be able to take full advantage of the gross income rules before march 9th and then after that up to march 31st when the program is currently set to end that's interesting so this leads to some other questions i see where um will there be any exceptions on one that two-week period or any extensions to that march 31st um end date of the ppp um so as far as the extension to the program um congress and the administration are currently deliberating on whether or not to extend this round of ppp beyond march 31st however with respect to the exclusivity period um the exclusivity period will toll uh or end excuse me however it does not impact um any of the business owners on this call because as you are today exclusively uh able to apply you will continue to be able to apply beyond that march 9th date so that means you could still apply it was just like a period that was highlighted for 20 or fewer employees through march 9th yes i think what what we wanted to show and you will continue to see this in every policy decision that the administration makes certainly at the sba in the office of capital access is what are we doing to make sure that the smallest of small businesses and underserved communities black brown businesses um you know are at the center of our policy making and to demonstrate that president biden wanted to give businesses with 20 or less employees the smallest of the small businesses or as he refers to the mom and pop businesses exclusive access to take advantage of this program for a period of time but again you will all continue to be able to access second draws and first draws beyond march 9th up until march 31st great um we know that there have been issues with black and brown communities having access uh to loans uh and from lenders what if someone's having an issue is there someone they can report um that to or go to um and and then where can they go to apply for a ppp yeah so um so uh renee that's a really great question and um what is uh what what there are a range of of what we would categorize as issues so first off uh if you're having if you're a lender um that you're working through you're lending intermediary so for example you you got a first draw from them and they are uh struggling with the questions related to these these latest changes um there are resource partners at um the sba uh most immediately there are 68 district offices and within each of those district offices they are accessible through sba.gov there is a lender relationship specialist that you can flag the issue that your lender is having and that lender can interact with the lender relationship specialist to make sure that they understand how to incorporate the new changes is one example if for whatever other reason you are having an issue that you feel is you know treatment that is um not fair uh for whatever reason uh there are additional steps that you can take um through the office of the inspector general um and resources there uh to look for to to uh you know put your complaint forward um so there there are different resource uh partners that you can find additionally in each of your communities there's a network of small business development centers uh which is the support network that is supported by sba but has also supported the state and local level um and and i would encourage you all to find out who your sbdc partner is locally um because they also have a great deal of knowledge about state municipal programs as well as the federal programs that you can take access to that's good to know that there are some in local communities that people can access and that there's a reporting system too um to you know let people know that their lenders are not allowing them to apply for ppp for recovery that's really good to know um one last thing i wanted to say just so everybody understands the magnitude of participation there are over 5 000 different uh uh institutions that have participated in the ptp program to make the 5.2 million loans so if your particular first choice uh you know doesn't pass muster um there are many many more out there that will want your business and and work with you to execute this ppp loan that's really good and how many did you say there were uh over 5 000 different entities and they range from community development financial institutions minority deposit institutions federal credit unions state and federally chartered community banks large regional and national lenders as well as non-bank lenders financial technology and the rest wow that's awesome to know that there's so many out there um i'm seeing a lot out there about sort of like credit um there are some people asking about what type of uh credit status would they have uh credit eligibility um less than desirable credit bankruptcy uh credit history um in order to successfully uh gain access to ppp are you able to talk through sort of like the parameters about how one uh is judged if you will for credit for a ppp loan yes thank you renee that's that's a really good question so um first off um it's an emergency so by definition your your credit is probably going to look worse than it did 12 to 18 months ago so um this program was specifically designed to take credit scoring and underwriting that's typically associated with a bank loan uh completely out of the process the the the ppp loan process is uh predicated upon a calculation of of for the most part two and a half times payroll but as we mentioned with president biden's new policy specifically addressing the situation where independent contractors self-employed individuals and sole proprietors found themselves in which is they do not have employees to calculate that and because they were relying on net income previously they were getting smaller amounts with the new calculation for gross income you will be eligible uh hopefully for for more relief but again the intent of this program was not to credit score or underwrite and make a credit determination typically associated with a loan this was a different uh program that was intended for relief that said there is one hard stop that if you have had a prior commercial or business bankruptcy or personal bankruptcy you are ineligible for the ppp loan program that is amazing um i want to go ahead and go back a little bit because i'm seeing more people maybe they they just join the call uh patrick and talk again about forgiveness and also first and second draw of the ppp um can people who had a first draw get another draw of ppp and also what are the terms of forgiveness uh yes so um yes if you received a first draw in 2020 you can apply for a second draw the one caveat to that is that you need to demonstrate that you had a 25 or greater loss or a reduction in sales comparing a fiscal quarter in 2020 any of them against the similar fiscal quarter in 2019 as to forgiveness um there is a simplified forgiveness application form for loans under 150 000 and the if you had taken on an eidl advance so the ten thousand dollar grants that many did um that is no longer deducted from your ppp loan forgiveness payment um and so um and as i mentioned before renee uh the key thing to take away from this is that the administration and congress want this to be forgiven and the numbers back that up of the third uh close to a third of the 5.2 million ppp loans have been forgiven and of those applications 99.1 percent of those applications have been fully forgiven and again yeah i know we talked at this at the top of the call but that's a very very high rate so definitely apply for forgiveness um i'm seeing some more questions about formally incarcerated um are you able to talk about what that rule is about yeah so that rule is about fairness uh and that rule is about um the what we are as a country you made a mistake you've done your time you've returned to society and you should be eligible to take advantage of any programs as anybody as a us citizen can and so consistent with bipartisan proposals in congress president biden um uh is allowing for um folks that have uh committed or were convicted of you know felony misdemeanor charges um beyond five over five years ago to fully avail themselves of these programs the only limiting factors if you have been convicted within five years this does not apply if you are currently on probation um or um incarcerated or under indictment this does not apply but i do want to add renee that as we as the vaccines come online due to the biden harris administration's uh work and we return to a sense enormous normalcy um this is going to be an issue that's at the heart of how we rethink and recast eligibility to programs at the sba so more to come as we move forward as well well thanks so much for that because you know many formerly incarcerated um becomes you know small business owners because you know it's hard to find employment afterwards so thank you so much for for the work you guys have done on that and uh providing an opportunity for gaining access to ppp that's really amazing i just want to add one more point on that point uh the new uh the next the nominee um and knock on wood hopefully uh isabel guzman will be confirmed but if she is confirmed um she worked very closely with our offices in her prior capacity at sba on on these very issues because the checks check the box issue is is is a is an issue and and we need to address it i'll agree um i'm sitting in the in the chat right now uh to confirm is march my ninth the deadline to submit your application uh just wanted to throw that one out for you yeah great so um it's the deadline for the exclusive access that president biden and the biden harris administration has given to businesses the smallest of the small or as president biola say the mom and pops 20 or fewer employees but on march 10th you are an independent contractor you are a self-employed individual you're a sole proprietor you're a small business with 20 or less uh employees you can still apply um you just now will be part of the uh the regular order uh and all businesses will be racing to the deadline of which is uh program is set to sunset at march 31st three um wanna ask this question again um but in a different way because i'm seeing it in different different terms as well started my business in 2020 um am i eligible for a ppp or ppp and idle loan so if you started your business before february 15 2020 um you can be eligible for a ppp loan provided um the different rules we've been talking about um are navigated and uh we we're getting a lot of questions so uh we're gonna we're gonna only ask a couple more because uh we're almost at time can i get ppp funding to purchase real estate uh expand my business whether it's mobility business uh buy additional inventory um etc we're seeing a lot of different things that that people are wondering can they use the funding for their business yeah so um this is a great uh question so first the paycheck protection program uh is an emergency measure designed as its name to help keep people employed and and to to address payroll um it is a temporary program because hopefully with the vaccines taking hold we will return to normalcy there are other programs that the sba offers that are uh available through the same lending intermediaries that you've used to obtain your ppp loan that are excellent products for business acquisition they carry longer terms to repay the debt which lowers the debt service that you have to pay on a monthly basis the interest rates are capped there are no covenants there are no prepayment penalties for accelerating uh payment and you can obtain those without collateral for owner occupied real estate there are two programs the 7a and the 504 program you can work with the certified development corporation of which there are 270 nationwide in all of the states and territories um to work with a bank to apply for a 25-year owner occupied a 20 to 25-year owner-occupied real estate mortgage again with the same characteristics that i've described so one of the hopes um and one of the things that we're laser focused on is ensuring that these 5 000 plus lenders uh cdfi's minority deposit institutions credit unions banks of all shapes and sizes continues to leverage those tools and makes that capital available um in the months and years to come as we recover from the pandemic awesome uh got two more questions uh this one is from the chat and i i want to make sure about this too um and clarifying for the formerly incarcerated uh if you're on probation but were charged or um you you are arrested and convicted over five years ago but still patient are you yes and it was it was cutting everything i think the question will um yeah if you are currently on probation this rule does not access uh but as i um we intend to continue to focus on ensuring um that the right aperture is applied uh fairly okay and then finally um how do you know you received a loan from the ppp um well typically there's so you would have received um a promissory note which is the agreement that you executed with your signature uh you know name and date um and that was either done um you know perhaps in person although with this pandemic probably not and done electronically so you should have a copy of your promissory note in addition your lender will have a record of your sba loan authorization number that they can share with you typically what lenders are doing when you apply for forgiveness is that they are providing that information automatically in the portals that you access to apply typically online through a web application for your forgiveness process wow thank you so much patrick uh you've answered a lot of questions and i know there's a ton more um and i know we couldn't get through nearly half of them but we want to thank you for uh giving us what you could um how can people find out more information about you know their their situation yeah so um one of the things as i mentioned renee that i that i did just kind of thinking about trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who's not the head of cap access and hasn't been in banking and so forth so i went to google and in plain language i tried to describe different questions and scenarios and what i want to applaud is that there are a number of in addition to the sba resource partners that i've described there are a number of third-party resources that you may already be interacting with as a small business owner your cpa for example you file your taxes your schedule c your cpa has been involved through organizations like the aicpa uh you know for the last 12 months providing information on how to deal with organizational structure and the complications the impacts that forgiveness can have on taxes another really important change that took effect in january is that you will not have to pay income tax on loan proceeds that were forgiven you may still have to find that issue at the state level depending on what state you're organized in but again a cpa is a is a great resource in addition um there there you may use as many businesses do a third party payroll provider and those companies have been right at the heart and center of helping congress and the administration's deal with forgiveness and all things related to payroll protection program and lastly with plain language there are a number of other blogs resource partners and there's a wealth of information and at least in last night's search and this morning the most immediate hits that you get on google or some of the other search engines um put forward some some accurate information um that could be highly specific based on what you type into the search um and then finally um we do have a network of third of resource partners small business district offices and all 68 of them across all 50 states and territories there are uh different uh veteran uh specific um centers out uh across the the 50 states and as i mentioned small business development centers that are typically affiliated with community colleges universities in communities large and small across all 50 states and territories wow thank you again so much patrick we really appreciate it uh next we have peggy uh the general counsel to the small business administration i'm peggy delanois hamilton nice to meet you all thank you so much renee for that introduction i also wanted to thank patrick of my office with the small business administration for his all of his expertise and his willingness to take the time to answer directly all of those many questions from small business owners i know his job isn't easy to get in front of thousands of people to answer so many questions which are both tough and complicated speaks to the type of people who work at the sba who are focused on providing the kind of service and is kind and uncaring to our small business owners so thank you both um i just wanted to take a few seconds to talk a little bit about myself as renee has mentioned i'm the general counsel for the small business administration i'm a child of haitian immigrants and grew up in brooklyn new york and after law school i started my career with a commitment to access and capital particularly the communities of color being a banking lawyer by choice and by my training um i know firsthand the power of financial institutions by bringing capital and credit to the communities that need them and i'm really excited to be joining the biden administration um at this time and joining the sba at this time when they're both focused primarily on um making sure that there's capital and credit um to the communities that need them uh so for the first time in my career my personal values align with my professional interests um so before i hand this over to ron um i wanted to just tell quickly touch on the president's historic 1.9 trillion dollar american rescue plan it's a plan that seeks to build a bridge towards economic recovery so this week the senate will consider the american rescue plan and if the senate doesn't pass pass it here's what's at stake in less than two weeks around 11 million americans will start to lose their unemployment benefits and an opportunity to offer 15 billion in grants to the hardest hit in small businesses about 10 billion dollars in investment and successful state local and tribal small businesses financing programs to help small businesses innovate create and maintain jobs and provide the essential goods and services that communities depend on 25 billion in grants for small restaurants that have lost substantial value devote an additional 1.25 billion dollars in funding to support live venue operators theatrical producers live performing arts operation operators museum operators motion picture operators and talent representatives that are struggling to meet ends meet and finally an additional 7.25 billion dollars in funding for the paycheck protection program which we've all just been talking about today so thank you so much for having me on this um opportunity to speak to all of you thank you so much thank you peggy we're honored to have uh with us a special guest today he is with the white house he is the senior advisor of office of public engage ent trey uh thanks so much for the introduction thanks for having me my name is trey baker i am honored to be uh senior advisor for public engagement here at the white house uh so uh for all of you who have participated in this program today uh patrick uh my good friend red buttle uh this is this has been amazing so thank you for for putting this on for the opportunity uh for all these these business owners out here to come and see uh exactly what's what's uh what's happening in the new uh additions to the ppp program particularly i come from a a small town called grenada mississippi where i was in municipal government as the city manager uh for uh for years before coming here to the white house and one thing that that we relied on was uh we were a tourism community we relied on uh people coming to hunt and fish and do all those things those outdoor activities in grenada and so many of the the businesses that prop those industries up were were small business were family-owned businesses the the the store where people went to to get their bait the store where people went to get their their their fishing hooks the the place where where folks went to take tours of of grenada lake and so uh i come from a community and understand just how important it is that uh there there's something to prop up and to support uh and to provide for these communities uh across the country that depend on these small businesses in order to uh to thrive um personally for the for the last decade or so i have worked to try to champion inclusion of black communities across the country uh inequitable treatment for for everyone and we want to continue to do that as a part of this administration but we completely understand the the challenges that uh we are confronting and the challenges that communities are confronting across the country uh quite frankly folks small businesses are are hurting um and we know that the pandemic has hit businesses uh owned by communities of color are particularly hard so all of those uh all of you out there who are who are struggling right now we do understand that this is happening and i want to make sure that you know that the white house is working hand-in-hand with the u.s small business administration to ensure that the inequities that that were you know exposed that were quite honestly we we saw them to be even worse um we're doing something to make sure that everything is being done as equitable as possible and that everything is being seen through the lens of of uh of equity uh it pains us all to be able to walk around uh in dc you see uh you see shuttered buildings uh in towns across the country you're seeing these shutter buildings um and just like all of you out there uh small businesses like yours make up 90 of the businesses in america uh and and so we have to make sure that they're able to grow and they're able to thrive president biden is working hard to make sure that they get the crucial relief funds in order to weather this storm you may have all seen everything that's going on right now with the american rescue plan and making sure that there's a push uh to to get relief uh across the board and so uh in in just the last month or so we've been able to increase the share of funding for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees by almost 60 percent and the share of funding going through banks that traditionally help minority-owned businesses is up more than 40 and that's and that's progress uh but we still have so much more to do you've already heard today from patrick uh who talked about the changes in the in the ppp program and i know that you're all eager to to work and to put that into action uh and so those of you who are true small businesses that have have fewer employees uh will be able to have a head start to get these funds and that's going to be vitally important so thank you for uh giving me the opportunity to to come and speak we're looking forward to working hand in hand with you in this administration and with the small business administration to go forward uh but now i'm bringing on one of my good friends uh and someone who's the president and ceo of the u.s black chambers and someone who uh has worked tirelessly for uh small businesses and for black-owned businesses across this across this country uh to be able to go and take advantage of opportunities and do the things necessary to uh make sure they're keeping businesses afloat and so i just want to personally thank this person for uh engaging with this with this uh administration uh which they have which the u.s black chambers has done time and time again and they're there for us every time we need them and so uh with that said i'd like to introduce my friend and and my brother uh ron busby the president and ceo of the u.s black chambers thank you trey for those words of introduction again ron busby president and ceo of the u.s black chambers inc headquartered here in washington dc with over 149 black chambers across the country with over 365 000 members we all heard the data and the statistics over the last 12 months of the number of black owned businesses that were forced to close due to the virus due to the unrest going across the country and just due to a poor economy 41 and when the u.s black chamber surveyed our members across the country the one thing that we all recognized was that many of the businesses that were forced to close closed because of lack of information they didn't know where to go a lot of the ppp and information was just confusing did not know where to go to get the answers didn't have the relationships with the banks did not know how to fill out the applications and so the u.s black chambers along with the partners that are on this call this afternoon heard our call heard our cry for data hurt our cry for time to be able to implement what was needed for our businesses to develop those relationships to make sure that our concerns were heard we know that of the 2.6 million black hole businesses 2.5 million had no employees and so for us a program that was created to make sure the employee was taken care of but not the employer was really a program that we did not see had our businesses included and so there were things that were developed into this program that we all can say we had a fair shake at we've heard that the numbers now for 20 and now even 10 or fewer employees is included we now know that our businesses those sole proprietors now have the ability to earn up to 20 800 in this new payroll protection plan we heard that a lot of our business was concerned about student loan debt because so many of us were forced to take out a loan to be able to just go through and gain the knowledge and the acumen that we needed to be successful entrepreneurs but it was being held against us we know that many of our business owners were forced to go uh to prison for things that had nothing to do with their acumen or their ability to be able to run a successful business but because of the traditional legalities many of them did not were able to participate so the concerns that we advocated on behalf of were heard what i have heard now is also about accountability transparency and the ability to be able to work alongside the white house as well as this administration and so for those of you that are here today i thank you for your time that you spent with us this afternoon you can continue to find out more information about the u.s black chambers at www.usblackchambers.org if you're a black owned business you can onboard your firm at l a by k dot u s as well as continue to make sure that you're supporting black owned businesses across the country lastly before i let you go i want to make sure that we acknowledge and thank our partners who have also joined in this afternoon to make this a successful event so with aarp with the u.s small business administration ncba the financial reform public private strategies and of course our friends at the white house we say thank you all for being here with us this afternoon continued success to you small business owners let's have a great weekend and make this a great year thank you so much for joining us thank you so much ron uh we want to thank everyone for joining us today and more importantly sharing your stories in the chat or asking the questions and also trying to find solutions for your problems we want to reiterate a recording of this webinar will be sent out via email to you all uh so that you can share with your own networks as well as re-watching uh to hear additional things that you may have missed uh again we want to thank you we want to thank the sba the small business administration uh for hosting this today our stakeholders uh that were part of this public credit strategies institute uh as well as all the other stakeholders that were part of it thank you so much for attending uh and please note that there are several other webinars in this series that will be uh hosted and conducted there is another session conducted this evening at 6 00 p.m central or excuse me eastern standard time uh there is another one tomorrow at 2 p.m eastern standard time which will be veterans self-employed independent contractors sole proprietors and employees with less than 20 employees another session will be had at 4 pm uh eastern standard time which will be live streamed as well it's more of a in case you missed it general small business and then monday at 3 p.m eastern standard time lgp lgbtq restauranters youth and entrepreneurs again thank you so much for joining us today and we hope you have a great weekend