Scott Duffy interviews Kedma Ough: What The Business & Personal Stimulus Plans Mean To You, Ep.15

Good morning everybody and welcome to what Now An Entrepreneur's guide to managing through coronavirus, Recession and uncertain times. My name is Scott Duffy and I'm so happy to be here with you this morning. And for everyone who's watching or listening today, it doesn't matter where you're hearing this broadcast, whether it is through Dash Radio Monday through Friday all across the United States or you're listening through our podcast or live streaming all across the Internet. You can see us on Facebook, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope and LinkedIn. And so no matter where you are tuning in from, I just want to welcome you and I want to say thank you so much for joining. We have got like such a big show today. We're actually starting just a couple minutes late because I've been on the phone all morning with some incredible people. Incredible people that are on the front lines in hospitals all around America. Incredible people that are connected with writing the legislation that is in front of the House today and.

Is tied to the stimulus bill to help small businesses and individuals. And I've also gotten a couple of firsthand accounts this morning from people who have been, who've had coronavirus and they've gotten through it. So I've had a really good opportunity to learn from them firsthand what their experience is like. And this includes people that stayed home and self quarantined. It also includes people who were in the hospital and taken through the side door and had the whole hazmat suits around them and things like that. So I have a lot of really cool information to share today. And our focus for today's livestream, today's broadcast is really going to be on finding alternative ways to find cash. This is all about alternative ways that you can find cash. And I'm going to give you a stimulus update for both businesses and for all of us as individuals what is being offered by the government, where things sit today and how you can apply, how you can apply for all this aid and for all this relief. So if you're just joining us and this is your first time, what I always ask people who are, who are watching through social media to do. Hi Kimberly, good to see you. Is to please as you hit the stream, if you could type in your name what is that you do and the biggest issues you're having, the biggest questions that you have so that I can customize as much of today's program as I possibly can around, around all of you. Brian, it's good to see you in here this morning. Craig Collins, Good morning To you and again to everybody who's joining us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Periscope and LinkedIn, I just want to say welcome. For those of you who are listening live on Dash Radio all across the country, or those of you who are going to download this podcast later, I just want to say thank you so much for joining. You can find us every day 10am to 11am Pacific time live. And today I'm in Los Angeles. So it was a pretty interesting 24 hours from the time I got off of this broadcast, our program yesterday until today. It's interesting because my entire day is made up of conversations with entrepreneurs, people like you and me, people that own small businesses, medium sized businesses, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, momopreneurs, datapreneurs. And I'm able to, I think as a result of all of these conversations, get a really good pulse on kind of like the vibe, what people are feeling. And it's interesting how it changes from day to day. And I think that today over the last 24 hours, there's a couple things that I've noticed. One is it seems that people are settling in a bit to this new normal. So Monday marks three weeks since the market crashed on March 9 and everything was really turned upside down. And in the past three weeks, there's been so much uncertainty for all of us. But now that many of us are used to working from home, now that many of us have accepted that this coronavirus thing isn't just something made up by the media, but it's real and it has an impact. And for example, for me in California, in Los Angeles, I'm going to be staying at home for at least according to the mayor, the next couple of months. Now that we're getting some more guidance and some more clarity, I feel like people are starting to settle in a bit. Also now that we're hearing what's coming out of the Senate and what's coming out of the House and the bill that looks like is going to be passed and the kind of aid that we may be able to be eligible for again, I'm finding that people are settling down just a bit does not mean that there's any less concern about their finances or their business. But there's just, there's more of a sense of calm that I've noticed in the last 24 hours. Now, three things. We always start with three things to know, three things that have happened since the last time we spoke. Number one, the US Is now has the leading number of coronavirus cases in the world. So we are now number one in the world for confirmed coronavirus cases.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first leader. Boris Johnson became the first leader of a major industrialized country to be diagnosed with coronavirus. He spoke this morning, he said he has a very. He felt a fever. Come on. Yesterday was tested, it showed positive. And so he's working from home.

States and cities that are really in the thick of it right now are beginning to point to the end of May. As you know, they're basically telling us that we need to plan and prepare to be in these stay at home types of scenarios for the next few weeks. And they're all kind of pointing to the end of May and that's the guidance that they're giving. So I know here in Southern California we're planning and preparing to hunker down for the end of May, but the guidance that we're getting is that this will probably last for several, several more weeks. I had a chance to talk to two doctors since the last time that we were. Both of them were here in Southern California and it was really interesting. One is in pediatrics and even though she doesn't work at a hospital, she's been called in. The local hospitals here in LA are calling all the doctors and they're asking anyone who's able to come in and help. And I spoke to another person who was down in Orange county and that person was an anesthesiologist and he was sharing some of the information that kind of from his experience on the front lines. And I think that what is frustrating for me and what's disturbing for me is I watch the governors and I watch the mayors and I watch people asking the government, the federal government to help, to help provide masks and gloves and ventilators and things like that. And we keep seeing on these morning press conferences, these morning brief that all of this stuff is on the way, that stuff has been delivered and things like that. But I'm telling you, the people who are on the front lines, who I'm talking to paint a completely different scenario. In fact, both people I talked to, without knowing that I had spoken to another doctor that day, told me that before they go to work, they pray with their spouse because of the concern that they have that they're not going to have any protective material and what they might run up against. So let me just say, if you know a doctor, if you know a nurse, if you know a healthcare practitioner, like, really give these people love because they are like the people that were on the front lines for us in a war. And they're the ones that are really fighting this battle every single day. And next week I'm going to announce something that I'm going to be doing a lot of several other influencers kind of in the business, in the business business training space to help and raise money for these people that we can provide to, to people on the front line.

Also yesterday, we were hoping that the bill that was passed by the Senate would be approved by the House by the time we spoke this morning. And I'd be able to give you very detailed information with regard to how we can act, when we can act, and kind of what it all means for us. And that vote has not taken place yet in the House. We're hoping that it does today so that we can get moving on the stimulus. And the reason I wanted to bring that up, because this is really important, is I've spoken to several people in the last two weeks that have been waiting. They have been waiting to make big decisions in their company. They've been waiting to do staff reduction, to lay off, to furlough, to cut back, contractors to do the types of things that they needed to do in order to preserve capital, because they were waiting to hear what the stimulus would be and when they would be eligible to get it. Here's. I want you to know we've been hearing about this for a couple of weeks. We were supposed to have all this passed and ready to go on Monday. It's Friday now. They still haven't done a final vote. This is government. This takes a while. So if you're in a position where you are under pressure from a cash standpoint as a business, you're seeing your, your, your, your working capital running low, your burn rate is still high and you're waiting for the cavalry to come and save you. It ain't coming today. So we're going to talk about how to prepare and how to apply for money that's available. But you can't rely on that money to come in today, you can't rely for it to come in tomorrow. What I would do in terms of crisis management, crisis planning, is I would prepare on the business side for that money to come in, if you qualify, a month from now. And I really need you to be thinking in that way. So if you as an entrepreneur, a business owner, you have, you have a team, you have a staff, this is a time for you to start making like you got to be on your toes right now. This is not the time to wait. And that's what happens Too often with entrepreneurs and business owners is that we get paralyzed. We get paralyzed in fear. We get paralyzed in waiting. We get paralyzed because we're waiting for something outside us to come in and save us. And that that ain't happening today. So again, we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about today the stimulus plan, how to apply all that stuff, but don't count on that money coming in anytime soon. Also, if you are a person that has, that's waiting for the check to come from the government. So as part of this stimulus plan, which still hasn't been passed by the House, still hasn't been passed by the House, we're being told that if it does, those checks will likely not start getting mailed out for the next three weeks. That's three weeks. And this is really important information because I do not want to live like as entrepreneurs, we tend to be really super positive. We seem to have a really great positive outlook. We want to bet on the upside, we want to be optimistic. That's who we are. That's how we're built. The problem is this is a crisis and it's time for you to turn on your crisis management hat. And it's really important that you do that. And it's important that you do that because every single day you don't take action on the things that I'm recommending. There is money that's bleeding from your accounts, whether business or personal. So it's important that you act today. The government is providing assistance, but you got to figure it's going to take a good three to, to four weeks for that to end up in your account. So with regard to protecting your cash, some ideas, some fresh ideas, things that I have heard working over the last 24 hours. The first is this just I talk to you every day about auto pays. Go back to the last two months with bank statements. Print them out, go through those statements and anything that's hitting your account every month automatically, that isn't an absolute necessity. Make sure to knock that thing out. Now as it relates to bigger bills, your rent, your cars, other loans that you have, it is really important that you reach out to those lenders. And here's why. Here's some examples of things that I've heard happen and I've seen happen firsthand in the last 24 hours. For example, on mortgages, I spoke to somebody yesterday who has five mortgages, mortgages on five different properties, called their lender, shared the position that they were in and the company that lent those Mortgages gave them a six month without even asking or having to fight for it, a six month deferral on payment. Now that doesn't mean they have to, don't have to pay that, but it just gets pushed back, Everything gets pushed back six months.

That person, that super amazing business builder, smart entrepreneur looked at that opportunity and said, okay, so I'm able to push my mortgage payments back. That's cool. And with the money that I'm saving by doing that, I've got some cash on the sidelines. With the money I'm saving by doing that, what I'm going to do is I'm going to redirect that capital and I'm going to pay off my high interest credit cards and my high interest credit lines. A great idea. So not just hoarding, but actually redeploying that capital in ways to help her. Like how can you use the relief that's being given to people today in order to benefit you in the long term? That's a great example. So again, this person called their mortgage company, had five properties that they had mortgages on, got a six month deferral on making any payments with no negative impact, no negative impact at all to their credit. Super great idea. And then using the money saved to pay down high interest stuff. Great, great idea on credit cards. So I talked to a couple of people yesterday that were sharing their experience with credit card companies. Here's the thing, I talked to one of those two people who when talking to their credit card issuer, not only was able to get their next payment pushed back three months, so into the summer without any negative effect on their credit, but also was able to negotiate a lower interest rate. So when you're on the phone with these people, be creative. How can I push back my payment? How can I defer my payment with no negative impact on my credit? How can I reduce my interest rate on whatever it is that I'm paying off? And is there anything else that I'm not thinking of that may be available to me that I can take advantage of? By the way, if you're in the market for a new car, could be a really good time to consider buying a new car. New car sales are just not happening for the most part today. So the manufacturers have created amazing incentives to help people jump in and buy a new car. As an example, GM now has a seven year financing program. So if you buy a car, it used to be five years of financing, now they're offering, they added two years, a seven year financing program for all GM cars at a zero percent interest rate. So you're buying the car paying over seven years at a zero percent interest rate and you can defer your payments for four months. So you can buy a new car today and not have to pay for it for another four months. I heard last night. I haven't had a chance to independently verify this, but I was told last night that somebody was working with Audi and Audi was deferring. If you bought a new car today, they were deferring a new car payment for six months. So even more than gm, you don't pay your first payment for six months. Sherry for car payments, several car car lenders, whether it is the auto manufacturers themselves and their financing companies. So like a Chrysler Capital or Mercedes Benz Financial or Porsche, Porsche, Porsche, Porsche Credit, what they're doing is they're deferring back one to three months and with no negative impact on your credit. So it's just really important, here's the key, it's really important that you're proactive and you reach out. And here's what I recommend. Allot 5 to 6 hours to do this because everyone is contacting these companies right now and the company's on the other side. They want to help. But how fast can you really ramp up and train people and have them jump in to serve? Like there's going to, it's going to take some time for the wait time to go down, but those five or six hours that you set aside will be so worth it. And again, get on your toes, not your heels. Act now, because nobody has problem. Nobody has a problem hitting you automatically for a payment, even if you don't have to pay it. So make sure that you do that super important.

On the job front now, over 2 million jobs, new jobs that have opened up in the last two weeks. And this is amazing. And if you look back to prior episodes of the show, I typically share a list of new companies offering new jobs. Whether it's an Amazon or a Walmart or an Instacart. Again, there are millions of new jobs that have opened up. So if you're in a position where you need to find cash, you need to find quick cash because you need to pay the rent. You got to pay for whatever it is. You got to put food on the table. I just want you to know there are companies, I'm going to put a list inside of our group today. Companies that are hiring right now, they're paying bonuses, they're paying, they're paying Quick Start incentives, they're paying additional incentives. If you do things that are considered to be a little bit more risky in this environment.

Now, I'll tell you, yesterday I had a really frustrating conversation. Yesterday I talked to somebody who really needed money. This is a person that was a small business owner. They had. I think they had five employees and they had some contractors as well. And what was interesting is.

They lost the company. So the last two, three weeks, it was too much. They lost the company. They were an entrepreneur. Like so many entrepreneurs, so many micro entrepreneurs, so many solopreneurs are going check to check, and they're investing everything they can into the business. It's like. It's like you get a big deal and. And before the money or the moment the money hits the account, it's already gone. And so they weren't able to hold on. This person yesterday wasn't able to hold onto their business. And the reason that I'm frustrated about the conversation is because I shared with them a list of companies that were hiring. And I also talked to them about some local entrepreneurs that I knew that would happily bring them on and could really use their help and their services and would pay them right away. And they completely refused the help. And they refused the help because they could not make the leap from being business owner to somebody that's a W2 employee, somebody that's a business owner or a solopreneur and doing your own thing, to somebody that needs to collect a paycheck and maybe doing something that they never imagined themselves doing, maybe working in a warehouse somewhere, getting a check, maybe even getting benefits, getting some stability working in a warehouse. It was beneath them. I got to tell you something. If you don't have any money in the bank and you need to put food on the table, there's nothing beneath you. There's nothing beneath you. You are no better. You are no different than anybody else. Get your ass to work and don't wait until it's too late. Don't wait till it's too late. Even if you apply today for that job, even if you apply today for that job, it's going to take time for you to get hired, to get that first interview, to get through the process, to get onboarded, to get your first check. So here's the thing. Life doesn't wait. Life does not wait. What you have to do is get on your toes and take action now. Do not wait. I cannot say this enough. And you're right, it is ego. It's ego. And I want to be absolutely clear here. Absolutely clear. I am not pointing Fingers at all. Because I've done it myself. And for those of you, I'm not going to tell the whole story right now. I don't have time. But for those of you who have never heard this story before, maybe you've heard it before, but I think it's instructive now. I had a business. I went through the 2008 crash. I made a bunch of money in my career, made millions of dollars. I lost everything. I went 400,000 in debt. And I was offered a job. My first job. After going through all of this, all of this. Now, again, I worked. I used to. I've been on TV side by side with my hero, entrepreneur Richard Branson. And the first job offer I got after all of that was to sell p. It was to sell P. Literally, an entrepreneur. He said, I want you to come run my company. I went to go meet him. I got there, he said, I changed my mind. I want you to be a salesman. I said, what am I going to sell? He said, pee. I'm like, I'm going to do what? He said, yes. He said, I just bought a laboratory, and we specialize in processing urine. You go to a doctor, you pee in a cup. They spin it at their lab. They send a report back to the doctor to give to their patient. He said, we're the lab. And he said, and I want you to be a salesperson. He said, in fact. In fact, I have a vision for you. He said, I want you to go around every office, doctor's office in Southern California, and I want you to win their pee business in one year. My vision for you is you're going to be the king of pee. Serious. The king of pee. That was my first job offer, so. Oh, by the way, I didn't take it. I didn't take it because I thought it was below me. It was beneath me. How dare he. I was totally pissed off. And you know what? That ego just took me deeper and deeper and deeper into crisis. The smartest thing that you can do today is go find cash. And if you have a business that is struggling, it's struggling right now to generate new cash. I want you to remember this. I don't want you to get caught up in, where am I going to be in a month? Where am I going to be in six months? Where am I going to be in a year? I want you to adopt this thinking. The purpose of being in business today is to be in business tomorrow. Okay? The purpose of being in business today is to be in business tomorrow. What you need to do today to stay in business, maybe to go and work in that warehouse, maybe to be in customer service for Cox Cable and answer phones in your off hours and work at your core thing or what's your most passionate about or what you're trying to get off the ground during the other hours. Okay, so again, my goal, the number one thing that I want to do, like my mission, my mission in life is to help change the world through entrepreneurship. I look at what's going on right now, and I am not relying so much on the government. I'm looking at entrepreneurs like you and me, and I'm thinking to myself, we're the people that find the big problems, figure out how to solve them, figure out how to finance them. I believe in you. But the thing is, in order for you to do those types of things, we need to create some footing, some financial stability underneath you. And one way to do it right now is protect your cash by dealing with those auto pays, calling those big billers, and being proactive. If you need a job to bring in some quick cash. I want to switch to stimulus really quickly. And we are planning to have a guest come in and join us soon. So hold on just a second here. A guest join us soon. With regard to the stimulus, some new information that I wanted to share. And again, we went through some of this yesterday, and I'm going to have to look down and hop around a bit here because I have a lot of notes. So with regard to unemployment insurance, yesterday, I was working with a client who had to lay off their entire team. Now, their entire team was all. It was all contractors. So they had to lay off all of the contractors. And. And they. They were probably going to have to shutter their business. So they were effectively a micro business or solopreneur that had a bunch of contractors that would work for them and they ran out of cash. And this person had to file for unemployment, and they never filed for unemployment. And they fought me. They fought me. And this person said, I can't do it. I don't want to do it. I want to figure it out a different way. I don't, you know, and I said, you know what? Let's do it together. And so again, I want to just remind all of you, and again, I speak from personal experience. I'm not sharing anything with you that like, that I wouldn't do myself. And when the market crashed and I went through all that stuff and I didn't take that job and I ran out of cash, I ended up gosh I ended up applying and getting unemployment. And so it's a, it's a, it's a system in place to protect you during the position that you're in today. If you need it, okay? That's what it's for. You pay into it. Take it, take it, take it. So what I did is I actually did a zoom meeting with him. He pulled up the California Unemployment Department website and we actually went through the process of filling out his claim together. And I can tell you, at least in California, it is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly simple to do. But there is one thing I want to just give you a heads up on. And it's probably similar in all states. As you're filing unemployment, you'll get to a question that asks if you worked for an employer, if you work for an employer over the past 18 months and if you work for an employer, what they mean is, are you an employee now? If you're not, if you're an independent contractor, make sure that you say no. And it gives you a separate set of questions that are specifically related to people like you and contractors and gig workers and things like that. So, again, that's just really important to know, especially for people in California. I wanted you guys to know that.

I'm going to bring on and then we're going to start to get into stimulus and we're going to spend extra time today focusing on outside of the stimulus plan, where you can find money, where you can find cash. And so I'm incredibly grateful because I know she's been on radio all morning and is going to be on TV later today. I'm super grateful for bringing back KDMA O today to talk to us. So I'm going to bring her in here. Just a second.

Hello, I'm back.

Welcome back. Welcome back. So, Kidma, what we've been doing for the past 20 minutes is, or the past 30 minutes is kind of. We've been taking a look at where things have gone over the past 24 hours. We've been talking to people about how to, to protect themselves, to protect their, to prepare to be in a situation where cash is tight for the next several weeks. We talked about government programs that are becoming available, but I warned everyone, don't think that that money is coming today. It's going to take time for loans to be processed for the government to figure out how to send you checks, personal checks for relief. It's going to take time for unemployment checks to be sent to your cards, depending on the state that you're in. And so we need to plan now and get on our toes. Kedma did an incredible job last night and she summarized. I was sent four documents from people who are on the front lines and it was like 50 pages of stuff. And she summarized what, what those documents said in just a couple of paragraphs. So Kedma, I'm going to share this information because I think it is so important for people and then we'll kick in to what you and I please. Okay, so first of all, I am getting texts and Patrick, you just shot me a note that the house bill. The bill just passed in the House.

Wow. Just, just right now.

Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not seeing it online. What I'm seeing is that it hasn't. But let me take a look here.

Okay.

I. Yes. The breaking news is the House just passes the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill and sends it to Trump for signature. Thank goodness.

Thank God.

Thank goodness. Oh my goodness. Okay, so this is frickin awesome. So for all of us business owners, and this includes big businesses, medium sized businesses, small businesses, this includes solopreneurs, it includes gig workers, I always say mamapreneurs and datapreneurs, gig economy people. This includes everybody. There's relief. So let me go through some of it really quick, Kedma, and then we're going to, we're going to kick off. So for example, as it relates to unemployment insurance, we want to highlight expanded unemployment insurance. Lawmakers have agreed to a significant expansion of unemployment benefits and that would expand unemployment insurance by 13 weeks and include a four month enhancement or bump in the benefits. So this takes benefits from $450 in a state like California up to a maximum of $600 a week or $2,400 a month. And this means the length of the unemployment insurance goes into the 40s. So I think it's around 45 weeks, something like that. 39 in total. Unemployed workers are eligible to receive up to 39 weeks. Thank you, Kadma. Of unemployment benefits, the program was expanded to include freelancers, furloughed workers, gig workers like Uber drivers and things like that. This is awesome.

Yes.

Direct payments for most American taxpayers. Okay, Most important and taxpayers important direct payments for most American taxpayers. Under the plan, individuals who earn $75,000 or less, an adjusted gross income would get direct payments of $1,200 each. With married couples earning up to $150,000 receiving $2,400. An additional $500 per child will be tacked on. Now, Kedma, one of the things we need to find out is how do they define a child? Is a child somebody up to 18 years old? Is a child somebody up to 16 years old? So if you and me could do some digging on that, because I got that question a bunch overnight.

Okay, that's a great question. Yeah, let's do some digging. And also remember, my understanding, and we'll verify it, it's someone living at home, generally under the age of 18. However, it may also include individuals with disabilities who may be a little bit older. Yeah. Because remember, we have people. I have a special needs child who will be with us for a long time. And so we'd have to also look at that category because there's millions of people who are dealing with that question. What about will my special needs child who's 19, who lives at home, be eligible?

Awesome. And it's important to note that this payment would scale down. Okay. This payment scales down as incomes rise, and it phases out entirely at $99,000 a year for singles and $198,000 for couples without children. So I think that this is really important. Most taxpayers. So if you earn up to a certain amount, you qualify. If you earn up to a different amount, you don't necessarily qualify for these. For these benefits, even though people earning that much may need them just as bad, if not even more. Now, the White House has indicated that Americans could be seeing direct payments as soon as April 6th. So that is the target date.

And can I add something, Scott, because you brought up something important for people, because people may be in this position if they're going back to 2018 tax returns and you've lost your job now.

Yeah.

How does that work exactly?

So when I was helping somebody to file unemployment yesterday, it asked specifically, it asked what they did. It asked if they would be willing to go back to work and look for work, what industries or what areas of work, what they would be the most qualified for if they would take a job. If one was sent to them, one was given to them. And it asked them how many hours they were working when they stopped working. So the person I was helping yesterday was a freelancer, and that freelancer was the independent contractor who had multiple clients. And every client canceled that freelancer service.

What they did is they wrote in there, they wrote down the number of cumulative hours that they worked for all of these people. And that's what they. And that's. That's what they. That's what they did. So. So anyway, that hopefully that's helpful for all of you. Also. I, I think Based on what I learned yesterday, Kedma, it's important to share a narrative here. When you have an opportunity with the government, it's important to share a narrative. And I just. I'm not going to stop. I'm going to jam really quick because I got to let you go here.

Go, go, go.

But let me just jam really quick through SBA lending and some of the things that we found out.

Yep.

And here we go. By the way, we don't have to file 2019 taxes right now. They've all been deferred until this summer. So there's no penalty for not filing taxes. What they're doing is they're looking back to 20, 18, 17. Okay. And for unemployment, they're looking at what you report when you file for your unemployment, what you tell them.

But, Scott, one comment on that. Yeah, you should file if you're going to get a refund.

Yes.

We're not thinking about that. We're thinking, oh, don't file. But if you're just getting a refund, why would you not file?

It's such a great point. Such a great point.

Okay, keep going.

So for small businesses to receive emergency loans, the legislation creates a 367 billion. So you'll hear the number 350 billion. But there's some things tacked onto that. So figure it's closer to 367 to $380 billion of federally guaranteed loans for small businesses who must pledge not to lay off their workers. The loans would be available during an emergency period ending at the end of June and would be forgiven if the employer pays its workers for the duration of the crisis. Now, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's office, the deal also includes $10 billion in SBA emergency grants and up to $10 million of emergency relief per business. It allocates 17 billion for the SBA to cover six months. Six months of payment for small businesses with an existing SBA loan. So if you have an existing SBA loan, that does not mean you're not eligible for this new financing. It will offer $30 billion in emergency education funding and 25 billion in emergency transit funding. And then to wrap this up. And Kadma, thanks for summarizing all this. The Department of Agriculture offers loan guarantees for rural businesses. Also, the Export Import bank of the United States is offering a number of relief measures for small businesses, including waivers and deadline extensions. The Export Import bank of the United States. Look that up. The Department of the treasury has delayed tax day until July 15, giving small business owners more Time to pay their taxes without incurring interest or penalties. But if you're going to get money back trying to file today. Included in legislation signed by the president. That would be signed by the president. Small business owners now receive a dollar for dollar tax credit for providing paid leave to employees affected by the coronavirus. I'm going to read that again because we're not reading a lot about that. Included in the legislation, small business owners now receive a dollar for dollar tax credit for providing paid leave to employees affected by the coronavirus. Now, certain small businesses qualify for an exemption if providing paid leave would jeopardize the viability of their business. So if providing paid leave would hurt your business, you can apply for an exemption to help out. The Labor Department issued guidance to allow states the flexibility to pay unemployment benefits when an employer temporarily ceases operations due to the coronavirus outbreak. So what that means is this is really cool. Like if you're in California and your employer has temporarily ceased operations or they furloughed you, it's highly likely you can qualify for unemployment benefits. So apply. The federal State Unemployment Insurance program provides benefits to eligible workers who become unemployed due to direct and indirect effects of the coronavirus. So at the end of helping somebody file for unemployment, yesterday on the site there actually was commentary about coronavirus. So again, add narrative. And the last thing I'm going to say is this and then I'm going to turn it over to you, Kedma say is I have a number of people that were on a call last night and they had all applied for SBA loans and they started applying last week. Last week, if you applied for an SBA loan and you went through the site, it still required you to put up a personal guarantee for the loan. Personal guarantees are now being waived. I can tell you that yesterday morning, people who tried to apply on the website, when they got in the website, they were no longer taking loans through the website because of such a high volume.

Yes.

And they also probably were changing things like adding the language about not having a guarantee. Like there's things that are probably going to have to be adjusted. So I Ken was going to tell you what to do, but I'm going to say this. I'm going to say get your house in order now. Yeah. Every bookkeeper and I accountant I know is so busy because all their employees are coming to them and or contractors are coming to them and they're saying, I need, I need, I need to file a loan. I need you to update my accounting and my books. I need a New updated P and L. I need an updated balance sheet. I need an updated thing that shows how many people I employ or am capable of employing to get this money. Finally, when you apply for your loan, I got some amazing advice last night from somebody on the front line. And what he told me is there's no place when you file the loan to add commentary. What he did that really helped him out is he added a ton of commentary about where they were, how many people they employed, who they. How many people would have to be laid off, how many additional people they could hire, how many additional people he could bring on. So he made a case, and then what he did, what he did is he took that commentary and he just, he scanned the loan application and he put the loan commentary on the front of the application, and then he scanned it, made a PDF and uploaded that. So it was a part of the thingamajigger. So I'm out of breath.

You're doing amazing.

I'm trying to get as much in and as an hour as I can. Now I want to turn over to the expert, Kedma O. I want to turn over the floor to you. What else do you know about how we can get this SBA money? And where else can we find money through grants?

Sure.

Other issuers, providers, take it away.

So let's first talk about sba. One thing to be paying attention to, and then we can move into other options. SBA has a program called the Express Bridge Loan Pilot program. That's a long word, but here's what's very important. I'm going to read this to you. If you're in a place where you need the money. Now, that's what we've been talking about, Scott, is like, we're applying. When do we get it? They're taking things down. They're modifying it. However, if you're able to.

Apply for the Express Bridge Loan, it's up to $25,000, however, less paperwork. And because of that, it allows you. It's essentially designed as a gap while you're waiting for the other loan.

So in other words, if I read it to you, you have to first have a business relationship with an SBA Express lender. It has to be $25,000, which gives you the less paperwork. They're used as a temporary kind of an emergency loan. And so because it's less money, less paperwork, you can do that while waiting for your decision on the economic disaster loan. Because that's the question people are saying.

Kedma, that is amazing. By the way, if you're watching now. You're watching Facebook, YouTube. It's got, like, wherever you're watching from, can you. This is so valuable. Will you please just do us one favor, because we can help a lot of people. You can help a lot of people this way. This is really important information. Please just do this. It's so easy. Just hit share. Just share it with as many people as you can. This is awesome information. Go for it, Kadma.

Yeah. So just to reiterate, everything Scott is saying is. Is correct.

But.

But check out the Express Bridge loan pilot program, because as you're waiting, it's fast turnaround, gotta be up to 25,000. Does not prevent you from going after the bigger loan. This is like, can I cover my payroll this week and next week if I still have employees with me? Let's look at that. So know this, know that SBA has other programs in place, but this, this is like the emergency to the emergency. This is the fast to the fast. If you can, if you could put it from that perspective. Now, let's step away a little bit from sba.

One sec. Just on that point.

Yeah.

So just now, so if any of you follow the news this morning, President Trump, not this week, not last week, but beginning the week before.

Told all of us that there were companies stepping up and that he was working with companies to build additional ventilators. And we should be seeing ventilators coming out, like, really soon and solving problems that hospitals are having all across America. And that hasn't happened at near the rate that it was supposed to happen. And the reason I bring this up is that today he had a kind of a tweet war online. And what he was doing was calling out GM for saying that you would get 40,000 ventilators to us right away, and that they came back and said, we'll only get you 6,000, and that they were asking top dollar today. Just now, there's a press release breaking news that they are going to be. The deal's done. They are going to start manufacturing those. Those ventilators. But they're not going to be ready till next month.

Yes.

So that's why you got to listen to Kedman now and act on this now. It takes time for the government to act, despite what they say in their best intentions.

That's what I'm so glad you said that, because that's what I want to make sure. We know the government's going to help, but they don't run as fast as business and corporate America. So we have to Give that as a, as a leniency. So let's step down. We've talked a lot about the federal level, but I am so excited to convey, Scott, some things that we want to be paying attention to at other levels and other funding. So let me just step back a moment so we can sort of create the landscape when we think about what does target funding mean? It really means that your responsibility as a business owner to actually target specific funds that are related to where you are. There are multiple variables, but primarily there are six variables you want to pay attention to. Where are the funds from? A geographic location. So if you're based in California, you're going to get different funds than if you're in Wisconsin or New York. Why? Because it's the state, the cities, the neighborhoods that make that decision. It's not uniformity. Please understand that federal government's uniformity state goes into considerations individually. We also going to look at size of business. You're going to see 500 employees or less, 100 employees or less, 50 employees or less, or micro business, 10 employees or less. So I want to pause because, Scott, maybe people may not understand small businesses, 500 employees or less, but some of you are micro businesses. You have 10 employees or less. You're still part of that. But there may be some funds there. You also want to look at industry. We're seeing this right now. You may see crisis or Covid funding coming not just from federal, but from agriculture, from health care, from tech, from restaurants. So you have to be absolutely clear, this is not panic time. This is process and prudent time. To be prudent means you see the chaos, you step back, you understand the landscape and then you target if you go into panic mode, you're going to miss out on some opportunities. Now let me explain what that means because I haven't even talked about other funds, funds associated to gender, you know, females or veterans or minorities. So let's suppose you're based in Michigan. Okay, this is just an example, Scott. You're based in Michigan. You've gone through this struggle. You're in the process of. You've laid employees temporarily. You don't know what to do. And you only, you know, you need maybe $50,000 to cover you to that next three or four months if you reside in Michigan. Right now, Michigan as a state is giving grants away to businesses of up to $10,000. On top of that, Michigan business owners who need a loan are eligible for 50,000 up to $200,000. So up to $200,000 if you're based in Michigan, you have a business in Michigan, you're thinking about the SBA federal loan. You need to know that the state of Michigan is giving loans an interest rate of 0.25%, 25%. Why would you go after an SBA, 3.75% for that amount of money if you can go to your state for 0.25%?

Kedma, I have a question, because that's a great example.

Where do we find. How do we Google? How do we find this?

I'm going to help you. Yes. Here's what you're going to do. We're on the ground right now trying to reach every single state, but, you know, it's massive because there's states and cities, and we'll talk about that. You're going to go online, you're going to Google your state Michigan Economic Development Agency. You're going to go on their website. You're then going to call them and you're going to say, hi, my name is Scott and I have a business in Michigan, and I have no idea how to figure out your website. So please tell me exactly where your grants and loans are available for the businesses in your state so I can get that. Okay. It is very important because Everybody's talking about SBA. I love SBA. I've worked on behalf of SBA for 15 years, on and off. But let's be business people. I'm a finance person. I studied finance. 3.75% is higher than 0.25%. End of story. So all this conversation of SBA for my clients, they're in Michigan, end of story. You need 50 to 200,000. You go there first, you get the grant first. You don't even have to talk to sba. Does that make sense?

That is so helpful. And then if we even broke it down further, we're going to break it down further. Yeah, break it down.

I'm breaking it down now. We're going to go to city levels. Guys, you're going to be. This is just examples magic for me. I am so excited to share this. So, examples. Denver. Right now, you're in Denver. They're giving grants out $7,500 for businesses as emergency funds. Grants. Seattle, $10,000 as grants. Wisconsin, $20,000. Very specific. Fewer than 20 employees. Remember I said one of the variables is geographic. Wisconsin. Second variable has to be 20 employees or less. They're giving away $20,000. Now, let's talk about loans, right? Because we've been talking about loans. We want to look at what are the options for loans. You're in California, right? Scott, if you're in California, Los Angeles right now is giving loans of $20,000. Interest is 0 to 3%. Why would we go anywhere else? You want to tap into that? Sacramento. Sacramento is giving $25,000 for business, 0% interest.

Wow.

I want you to apply for that. Why? Because you could pay back in four, five, six months and the money is in your bank account, no interest.

Salt Lake City again, give us the. What's the search? I'm going to do that again.

Yeah, I just want to say one more. Salt Lake City, $20,000, 0% interest. So now you're going to go and you're going to look at your city. Los Angeles economic development COVID 19 funds. You can't find it. Don't panic. You can reach out to me or you can call their economic development agency. Just for everyone's understanding, economic development agencies are organizations and agencies that their job is to create job creation and funding. They are going to be the first people that know about the funds. So your city and then you're going to key in that. This is exactly how I teach people through my book, Target Funding Now.

That's awesome. Hey, I got some, some really good counsel from somebody yesterday. He had.

Been on the phone trying to get through to the SBA on the SBA line and the wait times were just insane.

Insane.

And then when he called back, he hit two for Spanish and he had almost no hold.

So that is a secret recipe nugget. Hit two for Spanish and watch yourself get knocked to the front of the line. It would probably help if you spoke Spanish.

I would think so.

Person picking up, I don't know if they're bilingual. Maybe they're bilingual. Oh, wow. But you know what? I'm all about hacking it. You know, everything we can. So again, yeah, hit two.

I'm hacking it. You know, and also be mindful, we could even trickle it down more. I'm going to just show you a quick example. There is a breakdown right now just in a two block radius, Chinatown. If you've ever been to Portland, there's a wonderful part of Portland called chinatown. They're given $190,000, Scott, right now for Pacific Asian American businesses, two block radius, $190,000. Talk about how specific that is. That means if you got in the two block, you get that, then you get Portland funds, then you get Oregon funds before you even look at federal.

That. That is awesome. Hey, by the way, I was just reading on the stimulus that was passed, we've talked KEDMA about a maximum in a state like, a maximum in a state like. Like for unemployment.

New York, for example.

Yeah. And that this bill we had heard was going to increase that to 600.

That is correct.

Actually, the way I'm reading it now on the breaking News here on CNBC is that. Is that it's actually 600 on top of the maximum. Yes, from the state. So it would be 450 plus 600.

Right, right.

Per week.

Correct.

That is amazing.

It's amazing.

And the reason that they're doing that is they're trying to make up as much as they can of your full check each week. That is absolutely incredible. And so if you're earning under $75,000 or actually, this is unemployment, so different. But for unemployment, if you need it, make sure to apply. If you are. If you are an employee and you're laid off, if you're an employee and you are furloughed, if you were an independent contractor, if you were a entre, you know, a solopreneur, if you're a contractor, if you're a gig worker, all of you are eligible for unemployment today. This is how. And by the way, we keep saying unemployment, employment for those like this is the mechanism that the government already had in place for getting you money as fast as they could. So, you know, leverage it. It's all set up. It's easy.

Scott, can I just do the other coin? Because, you know, I always have to do the other side of the coin. Is that okay?

Yeah, please. All right.

Okay. So here's what's really important. If you look at New York, the highest you can get an unemployment, as I understand, is $504 a week. You add that to 600, that's $1,100 a week. You add that for a month, that's $4,400. That sounds amazing. However, if you're a small business owner and want to get people back to work and their unemployment is higher than what you can pay them, you are screwed. You see what I mean? This is the other side of the conversation because I'm dealing with business owners and saying, oh, my God, how am I going to compete with people on unemployment? And I need them to get back to work. So there's always another side to how things play out. And so we have to be really mindful of. We want people back to work so business can thrive. We want that unemployment, if it's necessary, but we want to get people back to work because we're small business owners. We don't want to, I don't want to compete. Does that make sense?

It does, it does. We only have, actually we're just over, over by a minute. We have just a little bit more time. We'll cut some of the beginning for radio. But the question that I have, is there anything else?

One most, one last, most important question like game changer. Please, please, please call your credit card companies. I had a case this week. My client called me, he has interest of 16%, wanted the SBA loan to cover that, didn't know how to pay. I said no, I need you to call them right now, tell them what was happening. And he did get through because the credit card company, an hour later I get an email. Kedma, thank you for making me do this. They have just reduced it to 3%.

Wow.

Okay, game changer. We're talking 3.75%. He just solved his problem for now. He can rest better, he can take a little breather. He just went from 16 to 3%. One phone call.

Amazing, amazing everyone. How awesome is Kedma? Kedma, thank you so much for joining us. Two days in a row. You are so in there. You've been on the radio all day. I know you're doing TV this afternoon. I'm so excited for you. Your book Target Funding is available at Amazon, published by McGraw Hill. It was a best seller and came out just in time, came out right before this. So the information in Target Funding is so current, I highly recommend that you pick up that book. It's a bible for me and for the clients that I work with. If you need any help, any one on one help really helping to adapt your business, remodel your business, rethink through and rehearse some of the decisions that you're going to have to make, please rethink out tome connectcott Duffy.com or you can hit me up through DM on any social channel. If you're watching this on Facebook, YouTube, on where are we? Periscope, Instagram, LinkedIn, please hit me up. I would love to work with you, roll up my sleeves and help you to work through this crisis. This crisis. Kedma, if people want to get a hold of you, how can they find you?

Through you?

Through me?

Yeah, absolutely. Through LinkedIn, kaedmao.com, target funding.

I'm part of conquer so we are hu service industry. I want to be of service and if there's any value for me to come back as we continue unfold new funding, please I am part of this community and I want to serve at the highest level.

Awesome. And please if you found this valuable please share share share that's the only thing that I ask please share share share. I'm doing this because I love you and let's share this with as many people as we can to get as much good actionable information as we can in front of them as fast as we can. We'll be off for the weekend. I hope you guys have an amazing Saturday and Sunday. Great weekend. Maybe take a couple days to love on yourself. Maybe a couple days to catch your wind, take a deep breath, get a walk, get a meditation in, eat some good food, drink lots of water, really take care of you and gear up to come back strong next week and I look forward to talking to you again and seeing you again on Monday at 10:00am Pacific Time. And until then you guys all have an amazing day. Take care and thank you.

Kedma thank you.