lead-forensics

SBA Assistance to Small Business

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If you’re like us, you’ve been inundated with Coronavirus news, but sometimes important nuggets can be lost in the deluge of information.

In case you’re not aware, the federal government has passed a $2,000,000,000,000 ($2 TRILLION) support package intended to address the monumental economic impact of historic nationwide shelter-in-place orders.  The CARES Act includes $560 billion of support to individuals, almost $500 billion to local governments, $500 billion to large corporations and $377 billion to small businesses.

While the support to individuals is necessary and will no doubt be meaningful for your employees, the $377 billion for small business will most impact your business.  The senate published a short, but useful guide to the CARES act for small business, which can be downloaded here.

Many small businesses will take advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable loans (free money!!) to businesses to cover two months of employee wages plus a few other items.  Our banker (BBVA USA) said that it’s first-come first served, and there definitely won’t be enough money for everyone, so consider and act quickly if you’re interested.

It seems like an easy decision:

  • You get 2.5x Monthly Payroll cost
  • It is forgivable if used for payroll cost, mortgage interest, rent obligation and utility payment
  • You apply through a current lender (I.e. you need a business account at the lender to which you’re applying)
  • Can be used in combination with other SBA, EIDL, etc as long as you’re using one loan per purpose

Basically, it’s free money for the purpose of addressing the impact of shutdowns on your business and your staff.  It allows you to re-hire those that have been furloughed and still get the full amount.

There are other loans and programs available, but you can’t use more than one program for a particular purpose (no double dipping!).  If you have an SBA loan, the government will cover it for six months – principal, interest, fees and all. Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available as well.  They provide up to $2 million low interest loans to small businesses for any expenses that could have been met had the shutdown not happened.

To get the details on any of these programs, contact your banker.  Some banks are not participating, but most are.  If you are an existing Extraco Bank or Central National Bank customer, they are certainly participating, as are all of the national banks.

I sincerely hope that your business hasn’t been significantly impacted by the shutdown, but if it has, perhaps you can take advantage of the assistance available.

Headshots Adam 1 thegem person

Adam

Help Desk

Adam was in the Navy before he joined our team in 2015. He is cool under pressure and a calming influence on the help desk. Perhaps this is because, after staring down Somali pirates off the coast of Africa, printer and email problems don’t seem so intimidating! Adam likes to shoot things (not people – thought we should make that clear), play Xbox, and of course, shoot things on Xbox! A husband of fourteen years with two children, he has been all over the world and still calls Central Texas his home. His teammates say, “Adam has an incredible memory when it comes to our clients. He remembers names, Internet settings, applications and printers!”
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Tyler

Projects Team Lead
Tyler cut his technological teeth through four years both in part-time work and in working with one of our telephony partners. Tyler loves working and learning, and has built a larger network at his home than 90% of our clients have in their businesses! He is thoughtful with his own money, preferring to buy a home and drive an old truck rather than pay rent and car payments. His hobbies of woodworking and gardening dovetail nicely with home ownership! He’s been known to play a bit of electric guitar, he enjoys 3D modeling and printing, and drives a gray Mustang GT that he’s modded as completely as his computers! Several of our team were in the wedding party when he got married!
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Aaron Johnstone

Help Desk Manager
With more patience than Job and more experience than most people in IT today, Aaron is the go-to guy for challenging problems. He directs our team both in the maintenance and help-desk functions. Aaron has been in IT for over twenty years and has played nearly every role possible EXCEPT, he reminds us, Sales. We can test almost every system in our client base on Aaron’s home network because it’s extensive and complex. When he isn’t tinkering with computers, he loves to read, play video games with his kids, and run. Aaron’s been married to his wife for twenty-one years and they have two daughters and a son. His teammates say, “I can always count on him to have my back. If I can’t find the answer, Aaron knows where to look!”
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Eli Meier

COO | CTO
Eli is our jack-of-all-trades. His degree is in English, and he intended to teach before he discovered a natural aptitude for computers. He combines the two in his role at Lighthouse, as he has a unique ability to explain complex technology in relatable, understandable conversation. Over more than twenty years working in IT, he’s written e-commerce programs for a university, set up an email cluster for a major league baseball team, and managed/executed hundreds of IT projects. He enjoys classic Volkswagens, cooking and barbeque, and hiking and camping. He and his wife have been married twenty-one years and have nine kids. Though he is 6’1”, he is the SHORTEST male in his entire extended family. We all feel badly for him.
Headshots Ray thegem person

Ray Wilson

Chief Executive Officer
Ray is our CEO and he is passionate about helping businesses – both ours and our clients’ – succeed. Except for Skip, he’s probably been involved with IT longer than anyone – he was troubleshooting computers and repairing them at his school when he was seven! As an intern while attending UMHB, he was involved with IT, but really started growing when he joined our team in 2005. When he transitioned most of our clients to managed services, our MSP business was truly born, and we then grew it from five to forty people between 2006 and 2016. In that time, he was a help desk tech, business processes consultant, account manager, salesperson, sales engineer, client services manager, sales manager, and COO. If you want to get his juices flowing, challenge him to any team sport or ask him to go snow skiing. He’s been married to his high school sweetheart fourteen years and they have three high-energy boys. Oh… and both of his parents are also small business entrepreneurs.

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