Good relationship with local bank important

One of the many lessons learned from COVID-19, from a business standpoint, is the value of utilizing our local banks throughout the year.

As was noted in last week’s story about the federal government’s Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) loans, having a good relationship with a local bank may have been the determining factor on whether your business application for such a loan was approved in the first round or not.

About $11 million in PPP loans was approved for about 159 businesses in our community in the first round of funding, it was reported. What a proverbial shot in the arm the loans were.

For many of these small business owners, the PPP loan approved for them will save their business over the next couple of months, covering payroll and utility costs and keeping more of our local workers off of the unemployment lines while social distancing and safer-at-home guidelines continue.

If you had a good relationship with a local bank, together with your banker you were able to navigate the PPP loan process. Your banker was able to help you provide the documentation needed to apply for the loan.

If you didn’t have a local banker, instead opting to utilize big banks elsewhere in the country and online accounts, then your PPP loan applications may have gotten shoved to the back of the big pile.

The PPP loans to small businesses will help the federal and state governments, too, in the short term, as federal, state and FICA deductions continue to be made from business payrolls and then sent back to the federal and state governments to help them with operating expenses, too.

Regardless of the success of the PPP loans, many of our small businesses may never be the same again. Time will tell how our businesses bounce back from the extended shut down that the federal and state governments mandated due to COVID-19.

Time will also tell how our society itself, our community itself, bounces back from this extended shutdown that is not over yet.