Displaying items by tag: US Small Business Administration

COMSTOCK PARK — While cautiously optimistic about the 2021 season, West Michigan Whitecaps CEO Joe Chamberlin and his front office must still contend with the giant deficit left when Minor League Baseball shut down the entire 2020 season because of COVID-19.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s guidance for companies that got Paycheck Protection Program loans and are now selling aims to keep deals flowing as borrowers await decisions on whether they’ll have debt forgiven.

More than seven in 10 small businesses in Michigan expect further sales declines from the COVID-19 pandemic in the months ahead, according to new survey results from the Small Business Association of Michigan.

GRANDVILLE — U.S. Small Business Administration officials visiting Michigan this week say the federal agency has undergone a major transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic while recognizing inequities in a key relief program for small businesses.

Given how hard the economy fell in the second quarter, earnings for West Michigan-based banks held up relatively well, although they were primarily lower than a year earlier as banks set aside more in reserve to cover potential future loan losses.

Changes by the Federal Reserve Board should draw greater interest to the new $600 billion Main Street Lending Program for small and mid-sized businesses hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Changes to a federal loan program that has helped small businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic could generate a “huge uptick” in loan demand that has waned in the last few weeks, according to U.S. Small Business Administration officials.

Changes approved by Congress to the federal Paycheck Protection Program would give millions of small businesses more time to use the money and adjust how much of the loan needs to go to payroll expenses to earn forgiveness.

 After approving more loans in six weeks than during the prior nearly 60 years combined, the U.S. Small Business Administration now looks to provide debt forgiveness to borrowers.

In a recent conference call, the president and CEO of Detroit-based TCF Financial Corp. — the parent company of what remains known in Michigan as Chemical Bank — voiced a simple ethic that all businesses, no matter their industry or their size, must keep in mind in the COVID-19 pandemic.