You’ve most likely heard the acronym EIDL, so there’s little value in taking time to explain it. If it isn’t totally clear, you can read more about this Coronavirus Relief program on the US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) website.

This year has been a difficult year for many small businesses. Luckily for these small businesses, there was help in the form of SBA loans and other assistance. I had the good fortune of helping many small businesses navigate the process to obtain loans from the SBA. Hats off to the SBA for getting pandemic assistance programs up and running in such a short time period.

The EIDL program is intended to provide working capital to small businesses in order to help them meet financial obligations and operating expenses that could have been met had the disaster not occurred. What makes this program attractive are the loan’s terms: 30-year amortization, 3.75% with payments deferred for the first year and no prepayment penalties (just be mindful about interest payments if you plan on paying off the loan early). In essence this is like a mortgage for a small business, where collateral requirements depend upon the size of the loan.

Although the program’s terms under the CARES Act are set to expire on December 31, 2020, the president has recently signed another round of stimulus that reignites this and other programs. It’s unfortunate that we don’t know how fast the vaccines will get things back to normal, and that another stimulus plan is necessary.