Kilmer Talks to Green Crow on PPP Success

Hey everybody Derek Kilmer here from from my Living room couch. I am joined today by Tyler Crow of Green Crow in Port Angeles. a great local company great great community of folks who are just doing amazing things in Clallam County. I've heard from a lot of people over the last few weeks about the Paycheck Protection program, some of whom have applied and had some challenges, some of whom have said this is kind of an intimidating application process and I'm anxious. Whether I can get it and I thought it might be helpful to just hear from somebody who has successfully made his way through the process. So Tyler maybe talk a little bit about your company's process. What what you found for good and for bad and and and how it went. Okay. Yeah be glad to thanks for having me. we first reached out to our local SBA representative just by Googling SBA getting SBA dot com and. Dot Gov dot Gov. Sorry we back up dot Gov that would take you somewhere else. you don't wanna go perhaps so and that person was very helpful in guiding us through the documentation that would be necessary in helping us choose some lenders that were approved. You know to handle these loans for us and and then from there, it was preparing the documentation making sure that you have your Ducks in a row at first, it can seem Intimidating but really once you get into it and you have the lender helping you it becomes quite a bit easier. Once you once you understand the the needs of the program, the application itself is not very long and I think that you know having a proper information together is important. I think you know in the first round we were not successful and so we got very discouraged. Obviously when we thought you know all this loss. But we stayed with it and in the second round we did receive funding and so that will allow another you know eight weeks of of of a paycheck protection for our employees and I think that's you know the the the P for me would be you know get prepared. have your documentation together be persistent. you know, continue to communicate with your with your loan officer as you go through the program and then also just be patient because every. Overwhelmed during this time, whether it's you know emotionally physically financially, the number of loans that are being processed through this program is just it's unprecedented in the face of an unprecedented crisis. so I think that you know there is hope you know, don't don't lose hope and I know if people that have been approved from $15000 all the way to over two million dollars and these are in rural areas across the country. So you know I would say. You should at least try. It's there. The funds are there and there's no reason not to try. I think that's really good Council for for folks obviously yeah, you know the the first go around the program ran out of funds. I've actually sponsored a bill to to basically put the P on steroids to roughly tripled the size of it. on top of that. you mentioned that just the sort of the challenges in the first round of the application process, one of the things I'm working with my colleagues on. we just sent a letter to the SBA. That you can kind of follow whether it's with the I loans or with the the the economic impact or economic injury disaster loans or with the paycheck protection program. that you'd be able to kind of just see in real time where your application was in process because I know for some folks, it feels like well. I'm just putting this into the black hole and praying that it comes out the other side. Yes, that's exactly what it was like for the first round and part of the second round was that Submitted it and they said we have everything that we need and then it just goes dark and that doesn't feel good to anybody any business owner When you when you have people that you know you need to pay and you need to get back to work and I think that that would be a welcome addition to the program in some way to identify where you are in the process, You bet well. I really appreciate you sharing your company's experience obviously the rationale behind the paycheck protection program is one of the best ways that we can deal with unemployment is by keeping people employed and that's an urban area. In rural areas in suburban areas, you name it to make sure that these resources are available but to to those small businesses that qualify and those nonprofits that qualify, I think is really important Any final thoughts you wanna share any other guidance. you wanna give to people you know I would I would just say you know, we're all seeing you know across all business sectors. You know a drastic reduction in demand for our products, no matter what they are and I would say not. Lose hope and for us just to stay together and even though we can't be together, we can do things like this. You know we can meet virtually and it's changing the face of the way that we do business but but this too shall pass and I think that as a country we have so much so much more to offer and I think we'll make it through this just fine. It's just a matter of not if but when That's right well look Tyler, I really appreciate. Taking the time to share the lessons that you learn going through the process. you gave us three new piece to think about and I encourage people to share your persistence and your preparation and your patients. so with that. thanks everybody for watching. Stay safe. Stay well. Thank you. Derek.