Rent poses small business challenge

to build a spreadsheet that will maximize the amount of your PPP loan that can be forgiven and converted to a grant. A safe practice may be to keep the PPP funds in a separate checking account, used solely to pay allowable costs.

In the strictest interpretation, the PPP timer starts ticking on the day of funding. In the rush to process, lenders may provide little or no notice.

Relaunching a closed business is not instantaneous. Nonessential businesses await approval to reopen from the governor. Suppliers may not be fully prepared to deliver critical goods. It may take time to reach and rehire staff, which is the key factor in the PPP formula.

All of these complications will limit the amount of forgiveness that can be earned over eight weeks, as well as the ability to make productive use of staff hired. Awareness is the best way to avoid amassing an unexpected amount of debt. Even at 1%, payments will be due over months 6-24 of the loan period — regardless of whether sales return to past performance. There is a lot of speculation that the landscape will be changed for the long term for dining out and retail shopping.

This brings us back to the original topic: landlord-tenant relations. PPP loans, while helpful, offer temporary solutions and significant challenges. They are unlikely to be a panacea for small businesses, that would justify short-term gain to landlords at the expense of joint strategies for long-term survival.