Updated: Funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

Read this if you are a Maine business or organization that has been affected by COVID-19. 

The State of Maine has released a $200 million Maine Economic Recovery Grant Program for companies and organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is a brief outline of the program from the state, and a list of eligibility requirements. 

“The State of Maine plans to use CARES Act relief funding to help our economy recover from the impacts of the global pandemic by supporting Maine-based businesses and non-profit organizations through an Economic Recovery Grant Program. The funding originates from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund and will be awarded in the form of grants to directly alleviate the disruption of operations suffered by Maine’s small businesses and non-profits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Maine Department of Economic & Community Development has been working closely with affected Maine organizations since the beginning of this crisis and has gathered feedback from all sectors on the current challenges.”

Eligibility requirements for the program from the state

To qualify for a Maine Economic Recovery Grant your business/organization must: 

• Demonstrate a need for financial relief based on lost revenues minus expenses incurred since March 1, 2020 due to COVID-19 impacts or related public health response; 
• Employ a combined total of 50 or fewer employees and contract employees;
• Have significant operations in Maine (business/organization headquartered in Maine or have a minimum of 50% of employees and contract employees based in Maine); 
• Have been in operation for at least one year before August 1, 2020; 
• Be in good standing with the Maine Department of Labor; 
• Be current and in good standing with all Maine state payroll taxes, sales taxes, and state income taxes (as applicable) through July 31, 2020;
• Not be in bankruptcy; 
• Not have permanently ceased all operations; 
• Be in consistent compliance and not be under any current or past enforcement action with COVID-19 Prevention Checklist Requirements; and 
• Be a for-profit business or non-profit organization, except: 
  • Professional services 
  • 501(c)(4), 501(c)(6) organizations that lobby 
  • K-12 schools, including charter, public and private
  • Municipalities, municipal subdivisions, and other government agencies 
  • Assisted living and retirement communities 
  • Nursing homes
  • Foundations and charitable trusts 
  • Trade associations 
  • Credit unions
  • Insurance trusts
  • Scholarship funds and programs 
  • Gambling 
  • Adult entertainment 
  • Country clubs, golf clubs, other private clubs 
  • Cemetery trusts and associations 
  • Fraternal orders 
  • Hospitals, nursing facilities, institutions of higher education, and child care organizations (Alternate funding available through the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services for hospitals, nursing facilities, child care organizations, and institutions of higher education.)

For more information

If you feel you qualify, you can find more details and the application here. If you have questions about your eligibility, please contact us. We’re here to help. 

Read this if your company is seeking assistance under the PPP.

The rules surrounding PPP continue to rapidly evolve. As of June 22, 2020, we are anticipating some additional clarifications in the form of an interim final rule (or IFR) and additional answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ). The FAQs were last updated on May 27, 2020. For the latest information, please be sure to check our website or the Treasury website.

A few important changes:

1. The loan forgiveness application, and instructions, have been updated.
2. There is a new EZ form, designed to streamline the forgiveness process, if borrowers meet certain criteria.
3. Changes now allow for businesses to use 60% of the PPP loan proceeds on payroll costs, down from 75%.
4. Businesses now have 24 weeks to use the loan proceeds, rather than the original eight-week period (or by December 31, 2020, whichever comes earlier).
5. The rules around what is a full-time equivalent (FTE) employee and the safe harbors with respect to employment levels and forgiveness have been clarified.
6. Entities can defer payroll taxes through the ERC program, even if forgiveness is granted.

These changes are designed to make it easier to qualify for loan forgiveness. In the event you do not qualify for loan forgiveness, you may be able to extend the loan to five years, as opposed to the original two years.

The relaxation on FTE reductions is significant. The reductions will NOT count against you when calculating forgiveness, even if you haven’t restored the same employment level, if you can document that:

• you offered employment to people and they refused to come back, or
• HHS, CDC, OSHA or other government intervention causes an inability to “return to the same level of business activity” as of 2/15/2020.

As of June 20, 2020, there was still an additional $128 billion in available funds. The program is intended to fund new loans through June 30, 2020. 

We’re here to help.
If you have questions about the PPP, contact a BerryDunn professional.

In a closely held business, ownership always means far more than business value. Valuing your business will put a dollar figure on your business (and with any luck, it might even be accurate!). However, ownership of a business is about much more than the “number.” To many of our clients, ownership is about identity, personal fulfillment, developing a legacy, funding their lifestyle, and much more. 

We explored the topic of what business ownership means on Wednesday, May 8th, in the final presentation of our value acceleration series, exploring how to increase business value and liquidity. In this final installment, we discussed the decision of whether to grow your business or exit, and which liquidity options are available for each path. 

While it may seem counterintuitive, we find that it is best to delay the decision to grow or exit until the very end of the value acceleration process. After identifying and implementing business improvement and de-risking projects in the discover stage and the prepare stage (see below), people may find themselves more open to the idea of keeping their business and using that business to build liquidity while they explore other options. 

Once people have completed the discover and prepare stages and are ready to decide whether to exit or grow their business, we frame the conversation around personal and business readiness. Many personal readiness factors relate to what ownership means to each client. In this process, clients ask themselves the following questions:

• Am I ready to not be in charge?
• Am I ready to not be identified as the business?
• Do I have a plan for what comes next?
• Do I have the resources to fund what’s next? 
• Have I communicated my plan?

On the business end, readiness topics include the following:

• Is the team in place to carry on without me?
• Do all employees know their role?
• Does the team know the strategic plan?
• Have we minimized risk? 
• Have I communicated my plan?

Whether you choose to grow your business or exit it, you have various liquidity options to choose from. Liquidity options if you keep your business include 401(k) profit sharing, distributions, bonuses, and dividend recapitalization. Alternatively, liquidity options if you choose to exit your business include selling to strategic buyers, ESOPs, private equity firms, management, or family. 

In our discussion about liquidity, we addressed several other topics that audience members were curious about. One of these topics was the use of earn-outs in the sale of a business. In an earn-out, a portion of the price of the business is suspended, contingent on business performance. The “short and sweet” on this topic is that we typically find them to be most effective over a two- to three-year time period. When selecting a metric to base the earn-out on (such as revenue, profit, or customer retention), consider what is in your control. Will the new owner change the capital structure or cost structure in a way that reduces income? Further, if the planned liquidity event involves merging your company into another company, specify how costs will be allocated for earn-out purposes. 

We also discussed rollover equity (receiving equity in the acquiring company as part of the deal structure) and the use of warrants/synthetic equity (incentives tied to increases in stock price). Here are some of the key points from this discussion:

• Make sure you know how you will turn your rollover equity into cash.
• Understand potential dilution of your rollover equity if the acquiring company continues to acquire other targets. 
• Make sure the percentage of equity relative to total deal consideration is reasonable.
• Seller financing typically has lower interest rates and favorable terms, so warrants are often attached to compensate the seller. 
• Warrants are subject to capital gains tax while synthetic equity is typically ordinary income. As a result, warrants often have lower tax consequences.
• Synthetic equity may work well for long-term incentive plans and for management buyouts. 

We enjoyed talking with business owners, management, and their advisors during this five-session series. We have found that through the value acceleration process, clients are able to increase business value and liquidity, giving them control over how they spend their time and resources.

If you are interested in learning more about value acceleration, please contact me. I would be happy to meet with you, answer any questions you may have, and provide you with information on upcoming value acceleration presentations. 

So far in our value acceleration series, we have talked about increasing the value of your business and building liquidity into your life starting with taking inventory of where you are at and aligning values, reducing risk, and increasing intangible value.

This month, we focused on planning and execution. How these action items are introduced and executed may be just as important as the action items themselves. We still need to protect value before we can help it grow. Let’s say you had a plan, a good plan, to sell your business and start a new one. Maybe a bed-and-breakfast on the coast? You’ve earmarked the 70% in cash proceeds to bolster your retirement accounts. The remaining 30% was designed to generate cash for the down payment on the bed-and-breakfast. And it is stuck in escrow or, worse yet, tied to an earn-out. Now, the waiting begins. When do you get to move on to the next phase? After all that hard work in the value acceleration process, you still didn’t get where you wanted to go. What went wrong?

Many business owners stumble at the end because they lack a master plan that incorporates their business action items and personal action items. Planning and execution in the value acceleration process was the focus of our conversation with a group of business owners and advisors on Thursday, April 11th.

Business valuation master plan steps to take

A master plan should include both business actions and personal actions. We uncovered a number of points that resonated with business owners in the room. Almost every business owner has some sort of action item related to employees, whether it’s hiring new employees, advancing employees into new roles, or helping employees succeed in their current roles. A review of financial practices may also benefit many businesses. For example, by revisiting variable vs. fixed costs, companies may improve their bidding process and enhance profitability. 

Master plan business improvement action items:

• Customer diversification and contract implementation
• Inventory management
• Use of relevant metrics and dashboards
• Financial history and projections
• Systems and process refinement

A comprehensive master plan should also include personal action items. Personal goals and objectives play a huge role in the actions taken by a business. As with the hypothetical bed-and-breakfast example, personal goals may influence your exit options and the selected deal structure. 

Master plan personal action items:

•  Family involvement in the business
•  Needs vs. wants
•  Development of an advisory team
•  Life after planning

A master plan incorporates all of the previously identified action items into an implementation timeline. Each master plan is different and reflects the underlying realities of the specific business. However, a practical framework to use as guidance is presented below.

The value acceleration process requires critical thinking and hard work. Just as important as identifying action items is creating a process to execute them effectively. Through proper planning and execution, we help our clients not only become wealthier but to use their wealth to better their lives. 

What are the top three areas of improvement right now for your business? I asked this question of 20 business leaders and advisors on Wednesday morning (March 13th) during the third session of our value acceleration series. In this discussion, we focused on how to increase business value by aligning values, decreasing risk, and improving what we call the “four C’s.”

To back up for a minute, value acceleration is the process of helping clients increase the value of their business and build liquidity into their lives. Previously, we looked at the Discover stage, in which business owners take inventory of their personal, financial, and business goals and assemble information into a prioritized action plan. On Wednesday, we focused on the Prepare stage of the value acceleration process.

Aligning values may sound like an abstract concept, but it has a real world impact on business performance and profitability. For example, if a business has multiple owners with different future plans, the company can be pulled in two competing directions. Another example of poor alignment would be if a shareholder’s business plans (such as expanding the asset base to drive revenue) compete with personal plans (such as pulling money out of the business to fund retirement). Friction creates problems. The first step in the prepare stage is therefore to reduce friction by aligning values.

Reducing risk

Personal risk creates business risk, and business risk creates personal risk. For example, if a business owner suddenly needs cash to fund unexpected medical bills, planned business expansion may be delayed to provide liquidity to the owner. If a key employee unexpectedly quits, the business owner may have to carve time away from their personal life to juggle new responsibilities. 

Business owners should therefore seek to reduce risk in their personal lives, (e.g., life insurance, use of wills, time management planning) and in their business, (e.g., employee contracts, customer contracts, supplier and customer diversification, etc.).

Intangible value and the four C's

Now more than ever, the value of a business is driven by intangible value rather than tangible asset value. One study found that intangible asset value made up 87% of S&P 500 market value in 2015 (up from 17% in 1975). We Therefore, we focused on how to increase business value by increasing intangible asset value. Specifically, we talked about the “four C’s” of intangible asset value: human capital, structural capital, social capital, and consumer capital. 

We highlighted a couple of strategies to increase intangible asset value. First of all, do a cost-benefit analysis before implementing any strategies to boost intangible asset value. Second, to avoid employee burnout, break planned improvements into 90-day increments with specific targets.

At BerryDunn, we often diagram company performance on the underlying drivers of the 4 C’s (below). We use this tool to identify and assess the areas for greatest potential improvements:

By aligning values, decreasing risk, and improving the four C’s, business owners can achieve a spike in cash flow and business value, and obtain liquidity to fund their plans outside of their business.

We are two for two when choosing value acceleration presentation dates that align with winter storms. It turns out we may be a more reliable indicator of winter weather than Punxsutawney Phil, who has a track record of 36 percent accuracy over the last 50 years.

After a last-minute rescheduling due to the weather, we held our second discussion in the value acceleration series on Friday, February 15th. Value acceleration is our process of helping clients increase the value of their business and build liquidity into their lives. In the first session, we presented an overview of the three stages of the value acceleration process (Discover, Prepare, and Decide). In our conversation on Friday, we took a closer look at the first stage of the value acceleration process: the Discover stage, aka the “triggering event.”

In our first session, we walked through a high-level overview of the value acceleration process. This process has three stages, diagrammed here:

© Exit Planning Institute

In the Discover stage, business owners take inventory of their personal, financial, and business goals, noting ways to increase alignment and reduce risk. The objective of the Discover stage is to gather data and assemble information into a prioritized action plan, using the following general framework.

Every client we have talked to so far has plans and priorities outside of their business. Accordingly, the first topic in the Discover stage is to explore your personal plans and how they may affect business goals and operations. What do you want to do next in your personal life? How will you get it done?

Another area to explore is your personal financial plan, and how this interacts with your personal goals and business plans. What do you currently have? How much do you need to fund your other goals?

The third leg of the value acceleration “three-legged stool” is business goals. How much can the business contribute to your other goals? How much do you need from your business? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your business? How do these compare to other businesses? How can business value be enhanced? A business valuation can help you to answer these questions.

A business valuation can clarify the standing of your business regarding the qualities buyers find attractive. Relevant business attractiveness factors include the following:

• Market factors, such as barriers to entry, competitive advantages, market leadership, economic prosperity, and market growth
• Forecast factors, such as potential profit and revenue growth, revenue stream predictability, and whether or not revenue comes from recurring sources
• Business factors, such as years of operation, management strength, customer loyalty, branding, customer database, intellectual property/technology, staff contracts, location, business owner reliance, marketing systems, and business systems

Your company’s performance in these areas may lead to a gap between what your business is worth and what it could be worth. Armed with the information from this assessment, you can prepare a plan to address this “value gap” and look towards your plans for the future.

Next up in our value acceleration blog series is all about what we call the four C's of the value acceleration process.