New Survey Shows Lagging Loan Assistance, More Help Needed

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Apr 20, 2020, 13:37 ET

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the National Small Business Association (NSBA) is releasing a new survey on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) is impacting America's small businesses, and whether various government programs are providing enough help. Unfortunately, much-needed assistance appears to be slowed by a backlog in massive applications and the outlook among small businesses is overwhelmingly negative.

"Today, nearly half of small businesses are not confident in the future of their own business," stated NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken. "We have been saying from the start: maintaining cash-flow and liquidity is essential to a vibrant small-business community which funds, drives and fosters all of our communities. Our community needs help, and we need it now."

The economic fall-out continues to grow: today, 80 percent of small-business owners say they have experienced reduced customer demand, up from 49 percent just four weeks ago, and two-thirds of small-business owners are now anticipating a recession in the coming 12 months compared with just 14 percent in January.

The smallest businesses are being disproportionately impacted: according to this survey, among small businesses with 10 or fewer employees, only 18 percent were approved for their PPP applications whereas those businesses with more than 20 employees have a 52 percent approval rate.

"Despite some serious delays and confusion in the PPP and EIDL programs--not entirely surprising given their massive scope and minimal turnaround time--they are helping," stated NSBA Chair Marc Amato of Walco Electric Company in Providence, Rhode Island. "Nonetheless Congress and regulators must continue to pursue every avenue possible to fully fund and improve the loan process for America's most devastated small businesses."

This poll was conducted online among more than 980 small-business owners April 15-18.

Download the complete survey here. Please visit NSBA's COVID-19 resource page for updates, small-business stories and much more.

Celebrating more than 80 years in operation, NSBA is a member-driven nonpartisan organization advocating on behalf of America's entrepreneurs. NSBA's 65,000 members represent every state and every industry in the U.S., and we are proud to be the nation's first small-business advocacy organization. Please visit www.nsba.biz.

SOURCE National Small Business Association