Loren Rodgers
In recognition of their increased and successful efforts amid the coronavirus outbreak, President Trump praised a number of shipping and trucking companies, including Tennessee-based ESOP Big G Express. Big G Express driver Steven Richardson was invited to make some remarks, in which he spoke about Big G's ESOP and his experience as an essential worker during the pandemic.
Loren Rodgers
We're hearing stories from our members and the extraordinary things employee-owned companies around the nation are doing during this COVID-19 outbreak.
Nathan Nicholson
Update: On April 16, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that it has stopped accepting new applications for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) thanks to a lapse in appropriations. The PPP is a component of the CARES Act passed by Congress in March to address the economic damage caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak. The $350 billion appropriated for the PPP has been exhausted, and lawmakers are currently negotiating possible additional appropriations to continue the program.
NCEO
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), part of the CARES Act stimulus package appears to be starting this morning, with some banks accepting applications. Some ESOP experts feared that the PPP may have been drafted in a way that would effectively have delayed ESOP companies’ participation, but some ESOP companies are reporting success. On April 13, we began reporting results from our survey of ESOP companies, which show, for example, that among companies that had filed a loan application, just under half (43%) had received confirmation that their loan was approved by the SBA. Approval typically took just over three days.
Loren Rodgers
As I talk with members, the word that keeps coming to mind is “resilience.” Some of you reading this are facing terrible choices and no-win situations. Some of you are seeing trouble approaching. But all of the people I have talked with these last weeks – company leaders, employee-owners, advisers, members of the NCEO board, people in our allied organizations – are putting in the hours to create solutions and share them.
Loren Rodgers
The NCEO is hosting three webinars, open to the general public, this week on the coronavirus outbreak and its relationship to employee ownership. You can register for future webinars on Free Webinars: ESOP Issues During the Coronavirus, which will also be updated with follow-up information and recordings of the webinars.
NCEO
Title 1 of the CARES Act directs the U.S. Small Business Administration to make certain loans to qualifying small businesses to cover payroll, costs related to continuing group health care benefits, salaries or commissions, payment of interest on any mortgage obligation, rent, utilities, and debt obligations incurred before the covered period. Generally, the law applies to companies with 500 or fewer employees, with some exceptions, most notably for multi-location restaurants and hospitality companies and for larger companies that meet the SBA size standards anyway. ESOP companies can apply for this assistance, and some of the normal barriers that they might face have been removed.
Corey Rosen
Jack Stack, the CEO of SRC Holdings, a 100% ESOP-owned company and creator of the Great Game of Business, is holding a free Q&A on responding to the coronavirus. It will be held Friday, March 20, at 11:00 CT. Stack will be looking at issues such as:
Loren Rodgers
We at the NCEO have always seen ourselves as your partners. We exist to make employee ownership thrive, and that mission determines what we do: serve the needs of you who are reading this.
