Small coffee businesses throughout the United States are suffering right now, and there is no consolation in the fact that the federal government has royally botched its first drastic attempts to provide relief.
Less than two weeks since opening its application up to small businesses an nonprofits, and six days since opening applications for self-employed persons, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced that it has exhausted all the approximately $350 billion in funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans made available through the CARES Act.
The two week period has been characterized by a messy and unclear application process, widespread confusion among banks charged with administering PPP and EIDL loans, and a lack of transparency.
It has been punctuated by an unceremonious inside-outing of the SBA’s empty pants pockets. The result is that small coffee businesses all over America are confused, angry and unsure where to turn next in efforts to stay afloat.
In an effort to amplify the voices of small business owners in or around the coffee industry — particularly those that have been left in the lurch — we are asking you to please share your loan application experiences through the survey form below.
We hope to use the information provided to offer some unifying strands of thought for DCN readers, provide some guidance for potential Plan Bs, and, if nothing else, some measure of solace in knowing that none of us are in this alone.
(All replies will be kept anonymous without explicit permission for sharing.)
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