Second Day In A Row...

This morning, our Payroll Protection Program funds arrived in our bank account. And if you aren’t familiar, the Payroll Protection Program is part of the massive CARES Act passed by Congress to rescue small business during the COVID-19 crisis. We applied ten days or so ago through our friends at First State Community Bank, who helped finance our buildout at PJP Nifong and who continue to support us in all ways as we grow as a company. Some day we hope to return the kindness by having millions in deposit accounts at their fine institution. In the interim, I hope our sincere appreciation sustains them.

So, let’s talk about Payroll Protection. If you’ve heard of it, the discussion was probably shrouded in confusion and mystery….aaaannnndddd, that’s a little bit because it is true. The legislation was written quickly and the details are sparse. And we all know the devil is in the details, right? I actually applied on the very first day the site became available, but then the paperwork changed and it required that I complete a revised application. But honestly, the math was pretty simple - even for me. (And that’s saying something.) I looked up our total payroll costs for 2019 and then divided it by 12 to reach an average payroll cost. This part made me a bit nervous because our payroll is much higher in our new store since we have more on staff and we didn’t move to the new store until September. But now is not the time to get in a tussle with the United States Congress about the little things.

And once we reached our monthly average, we multiplied that by 2.5. That equaled the amount we qualified for under the conditions of the program. (I don’t know who picked 2.5 as the multiplier. Though, I would be curious who’s job it is, actually. Someone would like me would pick 10 because I could do the math in my head.) And then we emailed it over to the bank with our profit and loss statement from 2019. I can only imagine what went on over there, since no one actually knows how this is all supposed to work. It has to be a rough go to figure out how much of your lending portfolio to dedicate to SBA backed loans that are created by hasty legislation. Please add this to the list of reasons why I’m not a banker.

But I do know that the funds are useable for the next eight weeks to offset our payroll costs. And I think that whatever we don’t use, we pay back over a period of time at low-interest to the bank. I’m pretty certain ours will be 100% put behind our next three pay periods. After finding out yesterday our funds were on the way, I 100% slept so much better without so much stress. The very worst part of payroll is when the timecards are importing and you just aren’t sure how bad it will all be with federal and state taxes included. (If I could zip back six years in time, I would tell myself that what you pay someone per hour is not really what you pay someone per hour because you have to think about taxes. I would guess the average entrepreneur is smarter than me that way and likely wasn’t surprised on the first payroll cycle.) . That’s just the long way of saying that the day I calculate payroll is my least favorite days of the month because it ALWAYS seems like a lot of money. Find me a small business owner who just didn’t whisper “AMEN”.

So here is my shout out to the United States Government, for making things a little easier around here during the pandemic. That’s the second day in a row that I’ve typed a sentence I never thought I would say.