I applied for the PPP loan, was approved & got nothing! One small business’ story; click for details!

Here’s Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s
Payroll Protection Program
SBA Loan application story… (the short version!)

April 20, 2020 – Monday

After being “in limbo” for the past several days, this morning my suspicions were confirmed by my bank (regarding the unfortunate – crazy – state of the mismanaged-and-now-tapped-out federal small business emergency relief program). Here’s the timeline of the train wreck:

4/15/2020: Following a couple of frantic days (close to a week actually) chasing the rapid and kaleidoscopically-changing interpretations and implementations of the federal SBA stimulus loan program through multiple banks & bankers we have business relationships with in our community, Lead Safe Mama, LLC got *approved* for a PPP loan – of almost $15,000 – at about 5:30 p.m.; both the banker and I had signed/executed the loan agreement by 5:33 p.m. [um, “yay!”]
4/16/2020: By the time the next morning rolled around – “radio silence” (no $; no follow-up — AND bank *completely unresponsive to all communications*!) News headlines that morning blared (on every site) that all the money had been given away and there was nothing left. I wasn’t sure if that applied to me since I had been approved, received a counter offer from the bank (and signed the agreement to boot!)
4/16/2020 – 4/19/2020: Still silence; checked my bank accounts probably 100 times over these next several days (it became a sort of reflex, every time I refreshed my browser!) to see if money landed… and…nothing!
4/19/2020 – I emailed my banker again to ask what had happened. Was it possible that my funds were going to land tomorrow, Monday? (since I was approved and signed the loan document last week). Even though the money had “run out”, was my loan money in transit to my bank before this happened?
4/20/2020: This morning I finally heard from my banker (I don’t mean to diss the bankers – they truly are doing a good job and doing everything they can under the circumstances!) The banker confirmed with me what I had suspected: by the time the morning of 4/16 rolled around – *even though my loan had been approved*, the technicality of it was that I “had not yet had an SBA number assigned to my loan” — and the funds had all been disbursed / depleted — prior to my loan funding – despite my approval and the fact that the loan paperwork had been authorized and dually signed!.

Scroll down to see stats and graphs for my website during this time.

But what about the stimulus check for your family, Tamara?

On other fronts, my family also has not received any stimulus check (our family total should be $3,400 – with two adults, and two kids under 17) — because, although we filed our 2018 taxes and those had been processed long before all of this started – we had not included our bank account number with our return for a direct deposit refund (ALTHOUGH WE HAD PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED THAT INFORMATION TO THE IRS WITH OUR 2017 RETURN – but apparently that doesn’t count). #FunTimes

Tough times ahead…

Lead Safe Mama, LLC qualified for the loan because we needed the loan and our bank statements (for the business over the past several months) supported the income of my business prior to this crisis (supporting the need for the loan so I could continue to pay people who help me!) As with many small businesses, my income has since *dropped precipitously* over the past two months, primarily due to the significant reduction in traffic to my website (down from an average of *10,884* unique views a day to an average of about *3,600* daily this month – see the four images below that illustrate what has happened here at LeadSafeMama.com!).

How you can help…

The coming several months (at least) are going to be rough, as I try to recover my business (and income) by implementing new ideas and continuing to do what I do (helping families protect their children from being exposed to Lead & independent reporting of consumer goods toxicity test results) in spite of the crushing loss of income (an income loss that has happened when my business was on a trajectory to do really well this year!) If you want to chip-in in support of my advocacy work, this couldn’t be a *better time* to help keep me doing what I have been doing (the chip-in link is below). Even better, if you can pay for a future home consultation (or event) with me now (for some date in the post-apocalyptic future) – that would be an excellent way to help out! [Only if you have the means to do so, of course!]

Are you broke too, but still want to help?

If you, like me, also have limited financial resources during this time… you can help without spending a penny by simply sharing one or more of the popular posts on my blog each day on your social media channels. This help will go a long way in recovering my business without any cost to you at all, just a few seconds of your time (now and on days in the future) to copy and paste a link or two periodically!

Stay well. Stay safe. As always, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you during this time!

Thank you for being here and for reading my posts! (Don’t forget to check out the images below!)

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

Here’s the link to contribute in support of my advocacy work (or to pre-pay for a home consultation or event some time to be determined later in 2020 or 2021!):

https://tamararubin.com/2017/01/chip-in/

And here are some “fun” numbers for you to check out!

For those who are stats nerds (like me) check out all of the graphs below that demonstrate what has happened recently for Lead Safe Mama, LLC.

The first chart below shows my average views per day in recent months and years. The past three years have been a time of spectacular growth for Lead Safe Mama, LLC – and this chart clearly demonstrates that!
Prior to things crashing on my website in March 2020 my average views per day for this year (2020) were 15,799.
Because I had such a strong start to 2020, my nominal “average” views per day this year is still at 10,884 BUT…
My average views per day in March dropped to 5,359 AND…
My average views per day in April dropped to 3,606 (as of last night)!
The second image below shows the precipitous drop of my daily views in March of 2020.
I’m not completely without hope of course (I never am, I am the perpetual optimist in all things)… things seem like they may be picking up again over the past couple of weeks [but not to anywhere near my normally-anticipated traffic]; see the third image below.
The fourth image below shows an even better glimpse at the trend towards recovery!