President Biden just announced that he would direct the Small Business Administration (SBA) to only accept PPP applications from self-employed/sole proprietors and companies with fewer than 20 employees for 14 days beginning today, Wednesday, Feb 24, 2021, according to a press release from the Professional Beauty Federation. The press release states as follows:
This prioritizes the beauty industry financial relief applicants more than any other economic sector. This second round of $284 billion of PPP payments allows the independent stylist, booth/suite renters, and salon owners with less than 20 employees to receive 100 percent forgivable loans.
To take advantage of this much needed government assistance to the beauty, barbering and spa industry, the PBFC established relationships with SBA approved lenders to create an unprecedented online portal in which beauty and barbering professionals can submit their entire application. The lead lender, Adesso Capital, also established a call center that is available to assist applicants to successfully submit their required paperwork across all 50 states. Beauty professionals can begin an application or gather more information at https://federationplans.com/ppp.
As of this posting, over 12,000 industry professionals and shop owners have accessed the online portal, with over $25M in SBA approved loans going out to the industry in real time with another $25 million in the process of full submission. Everyone who isn’t a W-2 employee should be applying, especially in the next two weeks, when the beauty industry applications will be among the only ones being processed in priority by the SBA.
“Personal Care professionals in the beauty, barbering and spa industry were the sacrificial lambs to the Covid gods,” stated PBFC Legal Counsel and Advocate, Fred Jones. “We were marginalized because we weren’t understood, respected or feared by our elected officials. The PBFC’s coordinated #OpenSalonsNow grassroots campaign, two successive federal lawsuits, and now this unprecedented focus on PPP funding for our struggling professionals has raised our public esteem and political impact. We will no longer be unjustifiably sacrificed without a fight."