Starting today, the Biden-Harris Administration is opening an exclusive 14-day PPP loan application period for companies and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees. 

President Biden announced 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.  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% forgivable loans.

SBA also announced four additional changes to open the PPP to more underserved small businesses than ever before. While these changes are being implemented, SBA will work with community partners to improve the emergency relief “digital front door” and conduct extensive stakeholder outreach. And, SBA will strengthen its relationships with lender partners to advance equity goals, deliver funding efficiently, and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. SBA will:

• Allow sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals to receive more financial support by revising the PPP’s funding formula for these categories of applicants;

• Eliminate an exclusionary restriction on PPP access for small business owners with prior non-fraud felony convictions, consistent with a bipartisan congressional proposal; 

• Eliminate PPP access restrictions on small business owners who have struggled to make student loan payments by eliminating student loan debt delinquency as a disqualifier to participating in the PPP; and

• Ensure access for non-citizen small business owners who are lawful U.S. residents by clarifying that they may use Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) to apply for the PPP. 

The Professional Beauty Federation of California (PBFC) swung into action to help beauty professionals access this much needed government assistance to the beauty, barbering and spa industry.  According to a recent press release,  the PBFC outlines how they have 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. 

As of this posting, the PBFC says that 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, PBFC advises, especially in the next two weeks.

PBFC Legal Counsel and Advocate, Fred Jones, says that  professionals in the beauty, barbering and spa industry 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.”

About PBFC

The PBFC is a nonprofit trade association that was formed in 1999 to give voice to the over 600,000 licensed barbering/beauty professionals in California to raise the professionalism of the beauty and barbering industry.  While their mission has never changed, their scope of representation has expanded in recent months, as they blazed the reopening trail for all Personal Care professionals through two successive federal lawsuits against their Governor and a coordinated, statewide #OpenSalonsNow grassroots campaign. For more information please visit www.beautyfederation.org