To anyone who owns a small business *under 10 employees how to handle?

[Anonymous]

Own a small business with 8 employees who I love and value. I have paid out of pocket for last 10 days (not working). How are you handling? are you suggesting they file for unemployement (temporary lay off) in other words furloughing your employees? Need to make a decision asap.

[Anonymous]

Unemployment is now $1,000 a week lay then off

[Anonymous]

Lay off now to conserve cash. You can rehire right after you apply for a loan via the Paycheck Protection Act.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/what-the-cares-act-for-coronavirus-will-bring-to-small-businesses-51585255311

The article is a bit misleading. To get the loan forgiven, your number of full time employees in the 8 weeks after the loan is originated needs to be same or greater as full time employees before the crisis.

This incentivizes you to lay them off now so they can get unemployment, but then rehire them as soon as your loan is approved.

You can read the details of the loan program here (start at page 9 of PDF, see page 41 for loan forgiveness requirements): https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6819239-FINAL-FINAL-CARES-ACT.html

See page 66, where it describes Emergency EDIL grants for small businesses. This gives you access to a $10K grant within 3 days of applying to the SBA.

Please note - it will likely take weeks for this stuff to get setup. That's why its important for you to layoff now and conserve cash. It's also in the employees' best interest for you to save cash and then rehire. Be honest with your employees as to your plans so they know WHY you're laying off and how you have every intention to rehire them ASAP.

[Anonymous]

DH has everyone working from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH has everyone working from home.

Not possible if you are retail with real estate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unemployment is now $1,000 a week lay then off

+1. I work for a small non-profit (less than 10 employees) and now my husband and I both work from home and at the same time, we have to watch both kids, age 4 and 2. I wish to get lay off so that I can collect unemployment and just watch the kids. I am not saying this in a flippant way but it's been such a struggle to work from home and watch the kids.. my stress level is so high.

[Anonymous]

My MIL has 2 employees. They both filed for unemployment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH has everyone working from home.

Not possible if you are retail with real estate.

So what? It's not possible if you own lots of different types of business. But it IS possible if you own lots of other types of businesses. A question was posted, and I posted a totally reasonable answer.

[Anonymous]

Our employees are all laid off. Our biz is an s- Corp and DH and I are w2 employees- we are also filing for UE.

Applied for the SBA emergency loan already.

We will apply for the new payroll loan as well, but will DEFER it until we reopen, which is allowed. We will rehire employees at that time and still get the forgivable payroll $ for all who are hired back.

We are following advice from CEDR solutions. There is a great video on Facebook if you go to their page and join their (free) “hr base camp” group.

[Anonymous]

If you are in MD look at the MD Dept of Labor, MD Dept of Commerce and the Small Business Administration websites. They have some grants and low- to no-interest rate loans to help. Also, Montgomery County Council will pass a bill next Tuesday making similar grants available.

[Anonymous]

My parents own a small catering type business with 8-10 full time employees and many part time employees. Everyone was laid off, including my parents, and they all went on unemployment. My mom is trying to fill out SBA loans now to help them reopen when the time comes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our employees are all laid off. Our biz is an s- Corp and DH and I are w2 employees- we are also filing for UE.

Applied for the SBA emergency loan already.

We will apply for the new payroll loan as well, but will DEFER it until we reopen, which is allowed. We will rehire employees at that time and still get the forgivable payroll $ for all who are hired back.

We are following advice from CEDR solutions. There is a great video on Facebook if you go to their page and join their (free) “hr base camp” group.

The law text passed by the Senate requires a minimum deferment of 6 months and max of 12 months. Just an FYI.

Also, the part about forgiveness clearly spells out that it looks at your average monthly FT employees for the 8 week immediately after the "origination" of the loan. You'll want to ensure that the "origination" date can be delayed until after the deferrment period. Otherwise, your loan will not be forgiven. Be very careful and work closely with your lender on this to ensure you qualify for forgiveness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our employees are all laid off. Our biz is an s- Corp and DH and I are w2 employees- we are also filing for UE.

Applied for the SBA emergency loan already.

We will apply for the new payroll loan as well, but will DEFER it until we reopen, which is allowed. We will rehire employees at that time and still get the forgivable payroll $ for all who are hired back.

We are following advice from CEDR solutions. There is a great video on Facebook if you go to their page and join their (free) “hr base camp” group.

The law text passed by the Senate requires a minimum deferment of 6 months and max of 12 months. Just an FYI.

Also, the part about forgiveness clearly spells out that it looks at your average monthly FT employees for the 8 week immediately after the "origination" of the loan. You'll want to ensure that the "origination" date can be delayed until after the deferrment period. Otherwise, your loan will not be forgiven. Be very careful and work closely with your lender on this to ensure you qualify for forgiveness.

I agree, and we will. Our CPA and HR consultants are advising us. But the point is a business is definitely still eligible for this if employees are laid off when your business is closed. I think some are misinterpreting this aid as requiring them to make payroll during shutdown (instead of putting employees on UE) which isn’t the case. I’d hate for anyone to miss out on these benefits.

[Anonymous]

I got laid off but got severance for a few weeks. MD told me my unemployment starts after severance period even though it was lump sum.

Did you guys lay off people without event the standard two weeks severance in lieu of notice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got laid off but got severance for a few weeks. MD told me my unemployment starts after severance period even though it was lump sum.

Did you guys lay off people without event the standard two weeks severance in lieu of notice?

We paid out accrued PTO (which was about a week for our employees) and then laid off. If you are collecting severance you can’t collect unemployment at the same time. We did not pay severance- our employees are likely better off with this enhanced unemployment- and we need all the cash flow we can’t get right now- to make sure the employees have a job to come back to when this is over!