Free tools to help business owners boost their credit profile to show financial institutions they are fundable, including how small business owners can access, monitor, and improve their business information, and how that information affects their access to loans and credit cards are among topics of this week’s FREE webinar when Henry Magun, CEO and founder of Hansa joins host and SBDC director, Kelly Bearden.
Bearden is also joined by Dawn Golik, District Director for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Fresno District. Golik provides details on the end of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness and how to apply before the March 3 deadline. She also gives an update on EIDL and other issues.
This marks the 310th episode of the weekly “Webinar Wednesday” business series that provides news and information helpful to employers and business owners.
The CSU Bakersfield Small Business Development Center provides free one-on-one consulting to help small business owners. New and existing businesses can go to www.csubsbdc.com for more information or to sign up for assistance.
TIMESTAMPS The bold blue link below is a direct link to Henry Magun's presentation on How to Business Credit Works, and Dawn Golik's presentation on PPP Forgiveness
00:00 Intro
00:30 What’s up today February 29, 2024
03:32 Dawn Golik, SBA District Director begins to speak about PPP Loan Forgiveness and the upcoming deadline To submit a PPP forgiveness application for a loan of $150,000 and less from a lender participating in the SBA PPP Forgiveness Platform, you can use this link: SBA Forgiveness Platform: https://directforgiveness.sba.gov/requests/borrower/login/?next=/
12:08 Dawn shares SBA Procedural Notice – Expansion of SBA Direct Borrower Forgiveness Platform
15:53 Kelly rejoins Dawn for discussion
16:17 Why ERC Amnesty & what you need to qualify for 80 percent https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/employee-retention-credit-voluntary-disc...
18:17 Beneficial Ownership Information – Corporate Transparency Act https://www.fincen.gov/boi
19:25 Starting a Business – FREE SBDC Boot Camp for 4-part webinar series http://tinyurl.com/SBDC-BusinessBootCamp
19:39 SBDC FREE Social Media Webinars - Six-Part Series http://tinyurl.com/SBDC-SocialMediaSeries
20:00 12-week Home Daycare Business Start-Up with Nurture- $1,000 start-up grants
21:06 Tools available through the SBDC
20:31 FREE Human Resources Hotline for Employers
21:24 CSUB YouTube Channel
21:38 Kelly introduces Henry Magun, CEO and founder of Hansa
23:27 What is Small Business Information – Visible and Invisible
24:30 Where Does this Small Business Information Live?
25:55 How is Small Business Information Collected? Companies collect and sell data about small businesses without the owners’ input or consent
27:18 Why Should I Care About the Collection of Small Business Information
28:06 How Does Small Business Information Affect Access to Money? Lending decisions are based on many factors
31:06 Accessing It Is Hard. Fixing It Is Harder
33:00 But First, a Deep Dive on How the System Works
33:22 Is this part of my business credit history? Yes, and no
34:43 It’s not so simple – unlike consumer credit, small business credit is complicated and opaque
34:58 Reporting for small businesses is inconsistent
37:52 Lack of standardization creates conflicting data on business credit history
39:06 Conflicts make it hard to know the truth – such as different spellings of the same name
40:51 Your business identity might be compromised
42:08 Mistaken business identities get multiplied – service providers report business credit activity in different ways, with different identifiers
43:02 Why does it work this way? Unlike consumers, small business owners aren’t empowered to control their own business information
45:39 Never-ending web of incorrect data
46:41 Is there really data out there about my business?
47:05 Why should I care about the data out there about my business?
48:17 How can I view my small business information and how can I fix it if it’s wrong?
48:43 What can I do right now to help my business?
53:24 What is Hansa? It’s a FREE app https://www.withhansa.com/
54:27 Kelly rejoins Henry for discussion
