Under the leadership of Governor JB Pritzker, the IL Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is working with partners to launch emergency assistance programs for Illinois small businesses.  These initiatives include:

The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.

• Paycheck Protection Program Loans (PPP): Open January 11 - March 31, 2021

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act originally allocated $350 billion to help small businesses keep workers employed amid the pandemic and economic downturn; an additional $320 billion in funds were added to the program through the H.R. 266, Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act on April 24, 2020, and another approximately $284 billion has been added in the Second Federal Stimulus Package signed 12/27/2020. Known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the initiative provides 100% federally guaranteed loans to small businesses.

General Information:  The PPP program is designed to help small businesses maintain payroll in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible businesses who enroll in the program will receive a forgivable loan to use for payroll purposes, in addition to helping pay for utilities, rent, mortgage interest payments, and more. New loans are capped at $2 million, compared to $10 million before. Applicants must have no more than 300 employees, instead of up to 500, and the business can show a 25% gross revenue decline in any 2020 quarter compared with the same quarter in 2019.The bill expands the type of covered expenses to include things like cloud computing or remote-work software; and equipment for government-mandated sanitation and social-distancing, like sneeze guards or air filtration systems.

These are called “second draw” loans, applicants who meet the qualifications above, can apply even if they previously received assistance through the CARES Act PPP Program. Details are included in the links below. 

Key Dates: The SBA resumed acceptance of PPP applications on January 11, 2021. Visit the SBA Website for PPP Application Information for more details. The portal will initially accept First Draw PPP loan applications from participating CFIs, which include Community Development Financial Institutions, Minority Depository Institutions, Certified Development Companies, and Microloan Intermediaries.

Application Information: The deadline for  the latest round of applications for a PPP Loan is March 31, 2021.

            Application for PPP First Draw Borrower           
           Overview of First Draw PPP
           Application for PPP Second Draw Borrower        
           Overview of Second Draw PPP

You can apply through any existing SBA 7(a) lender or through any federally insured depository institution, federally insured credit union, and Farm Credit System institution that is participating. Other regulated lenders will be available to make these loans once they are approved and enrolled in the program. You should consult with your local lender as to whether it is participating in the program.

Local Bartlett Banks:
Associated Bank:   https://www.associatedbank.com/covid-19/cares
BMO Harris:   https://www.bmoharris.com/main/personal/bmo-branches-coronavirus-update/#businessResources
Chase Bank:   https://recovery.chase.com/cares1               
Fifth Third Bank:   https://www.53.com/content/fifth-third/en/alerts/covid-sba-cares-act.html
https://www.tcfbank.com/-/media/tcfbank/documents/3045.pdf?la=en&hash=DE4B4F736F3B6796E530A5B0539E282080FAE862
First American Bank:   https://www.firstambank.com/Business/Financing/CARES-Act-Paycheck-Protection-Program
TCF Bank (inside Jewel):   https://www.tcfbank.com/-/media/tcfbank/documents/3045.pdf?la=en&hash=DE4B4F736F3B6796E530A5B0539E282080FAE862
West Suburban Bank:   https://www.westsuburbanbank.com/SBA-PayrollProtectionProgram.php

Other Area Banks:
Bank of America:   https://about.bankofamerica.com/promo/assistance/latest-updates-from-bank-of-america-coronavirus/small-business-assistance
Citibank:   https://online.citi.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=smallbusinesspppinfo
First Midwest Bank:   https://www.firstmidwest.com/covid-19business/
Huntington Bank:   https://www.huntington.com/coronavirus/business-resources
U.S. Bank:   https://www.usbank.com/business-banking/business-lending/sba-loans/paycheck-protection-program.html
Wintrust Financial:   https://www.wintrust.com/lp/2020/covid-19-business-resources/sba-cares.html

Effective February 2021, Region 8 (including DuPage County) and Region 10 (suburban Cook County) moved out of Tiered Resurgence Mitigations and into Phase 4 of Restore Illinois.

Click Here for Phase 4 Guidelines Overview
Full Restore IL Phase 4 Guidelines and toolkits.

PHASE 4 GUIDELINES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

Restaurants and Bars: Indoor dining and drinking now permitted for parties of up to 10 people. Seated areas should be arranged so that tables allow for 6 feet between parties; impermeable barriers may be installed between booths which are less than 6 feet apart

Retail and Service Counter: Continue capacity limit of no more than 50% occupancy

Personal Care: Continue capacity limit of no more than 50% occupancy

Indoor/Outdoor Recreation: Reopening select indoor recreation facilities (e.g., bowling alleys, skating rinks); indoor playgrounds and trampoline parks should remain closed.  Indoor recreation to operate at lesser of 50 customers or 50% of facility capacity

Museums: Capacity limit of no more than 25% occupancy.  Guided tours should be limited to 50 or fewer people per group

Meetings and Social Events: Limit to the lesser of 50 people or 50% of room capacity.  Multiple groups may meet in the same facility if they are socially distanced and in separate rooms

Please continue to monitor the Village’s website and the Governor's announcements for updated information. IDPH will continue to closely monitor test positivity, ICU bed availability, and the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19.  Should data show regions trending in the wrong direction, based on the established mitigation metrics, regions could once again find themselves in a higher tier with increased measures. 

The Village has distributed more than 50 free banners (3-foot X 8-foot) letting customers know that your business remains open during these challenging times.  Please contact Tony, tfradin@bartlettil.gov to request a "We Are Open" banner, as the village orders them periodically upon receiving multiple requests.

Evaluate if slight pivots in your operations could be made to create a new forms of income.  

Modify & Add to Current Practices:

• During this crisis, the Village will be allowing eating and drinking establishments to sell packaged liquor. Your business may have products that are normally complementary to your services but could be now sold as a retail good to help sustain your business.
• If you are a restaurant, could you start doing delivery in addition to carry-out and curbside pickup? How would that work? Should you charge for delivery or use a service like GrubHub, UberEats or DoorDash? Village staff would be glad to assist you in signing up.
• If you are coffee shop with no drive thru - could you offer to bring customer orders out to their car, for example carhop style?

 Leverage Technology:

• If you are a restaurant or retailer, look at online ordering options with pickup or local delivery.   
• If you are an accountant, attorney or financial advisor, check out one of the many free or low-cost video conferencing options which allows easy "face to face" communication with your clients. Zoom offers unlimited one on one video conferencing for free for two or fewer users. Paid accounts for three or more attendees are available. Uber Conference gives you free 45-minute meetings for up to 10 participants. There are a host of tech tools to meet this need - Skype, GoToMeeting, FaceTime, Facebook Live.  
• Send invoices digitally and allow your customers to pay without visiting your store or location. There are many low-cost online invoicing systems which allow you to send invoices and get paid online, for instance Wave Apps or Invoicely. 
• Not so comfortable with high tech? The phone still works, but you must create a system to track payments and redemption of gift certificates when the buyers come in to use them.  

Gift Cards & PrePay Options:

• Offer gift certificates as a way for patrons to support you now. Let your customers know that they can purchase gift cards or gift certificates from you now for use at a later date.  
• You may want to consider offering discounted gift cards, for example purchase a gift card with a $100 face value for $75. If you have a website, consider adding an online store with digital gift certificates as a product. If you can't use your website for this function check out Gift Up, or Square. 
• Sell merchandise? Ask your customers to support you through this tough time by buying a hat, tee-shirt or some other option to be fulfilled at a later date. 
• Like the gift card model, pre-payment of products and services will help you get cash in the door for fulfillment in the future. But please do not do this if you're not tracking your commitments. 

Communicate Honestly

•  Speak to your customers directly through social media, direct marketing or direct email. Create daily points of contact and let them know what steps you are taking to keep your employees and customers safe.  
• Call to action. If you don't ask, you probably won't receive. Ask customers to support your business and tell them how to best support you.
• Finally, focus on your existing customers. Acquiring new customer is hard, expensive and time consuming. Update your current customers on changes to your business that may affect them. Being proactive and having direct lines of communications with your existing customers will build and sustain long term customer loyalty.

If you would like the Village to share your offers, promotions or status, please message through the Discover Bartlett page on Facebook or email Economic Development Coordinator Tony Fradin at tfradin@bartlettil.gov