Metro Atlanta’s four biggest counties — Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton — and the city of Atlanta earmarked more than $125 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed earlier this year to help small businesses.

But administration of the funds has been uneven, business leaders and recipients say, with a frustrating application process that kept changing as the federal government frequently massaged requirements.

Adding to the dysfunction: the money was supposed to be distributed by Dec. 31, after which the federal government required unused funds to be sent back to the treasury. With just days left on the 2020 calendar, county leaders were scrambling with several million dollars still unspent.

DeKalb County Chief Operating Officer Zach Williams recently told commissioners that only about $5 million of the $15 million DeKalb planned for small businesses had been allocated. He said officials were working to allot the money as quickly as possible, but “there will be remaining funds in that category.”

A $900 billion relief bill Congress passed earlier this week that is awaiting President Trump’s signature could relieve that pressure. The legislation ads millions more to the original $650 billion federal Paycheck Protection Program — the umbrella for CARES Act small business funding — and extends the deadline for a year.

“If that money is available and I can apply and get it by February, that could keep me going until we move past the virus,” Sambdman said of the new funding.

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Massive rollout

In addition to a confusing application process and a lumbering reaction from county and city leaders, some business owners say they ran into roadblocks with banks, especially the larger institutions that they say weren’t as interested in helping small businesses with four or five employees.

“I think the small community banks really rose up to help the small businesses,” said Pat Kaemmerling, chief financial officer for Peachtree Corners-based Ultimate Security Solutions, which has four employees.

Kaemmerling sought help from Iberiabank, whose Gwinnett location walked her through the application process.

“It’s just an entirely different environment,” she said of the help she received.

Caric Martin, senior vice president with Vinings Bank in Cobb County, said smaller institutions recognized the complexity of navigating the system. To receive the money, applicants had to produce articles of incorporation, show proof of corporate officers and provide cash flow statement or other documents.

Survival from month to month was the objective, not producing mountains of paperwork that proved the businesses were in good standing, he said.

“The bigger the business, the more likely they were to have a financial professional on staff, like a comptroller or somebody of that nature who could produce the documentation quickly,” he said. “Whereas a very small businessman, they were focused on just making sales everyday and getting revenue in.

“The paperwork is kind of the last thing they think about.”

The clock is ticking

Leaders of metro Atlanta’s largest counties said the undertaking was daunting and one they were still trying to process at the end of the year.

Cobb County, for instance, had about $48 million allocated for small business help, but still had as much as $14.5 million left as of Dec. 8, records show. Around 3,717 small businesses had been approved at that time.

But Dana Johnson, chief operating officer of the Cobb Chamber, said he was confident the money will get to those in need.

“Initial 50% grant distributions have already occurred,” Johnson said in an email. “Final 50% grant distributions will occur before Christmas.”

DeKalb, which had about $15 million allocated for business support spending, struggled to distribute funds to those seeking help. The county tapped Citizens Trust Bank to administer $10 million of the funding, but as of late December still did not have a second financial institution to disperse the other $5 million.

Gwinnett distributed about $22 million of the $35 million it has set aside for small businesses as of mid-December. The county also has granted about half of its $6.3 million in funds reserved for non-profits.

Invest Atlanta hired extra staff who have been working weekends to roll out as much as $18.5 million for small businesses in the city, distributing about $13.3 million as of late December.

The organization, the economic development arm of the city, normally does about 30 or so small business loans a year, but is working on more than 550, said Matt Fogt, Invest Atlanta’s spokesman.

“There is quite a bit of work right now to ensure all the available dollars go to businesses,” Fogt said.

Another round of help

Getting it right will be crucial to the survival of many small businesses, said Nathan Humphrey, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.

He said a national survey of small businesses found 47% of owners don’t expect revenues to return to normal until sometime next year. About 36% of business owners said revenue won’t return to normal until 2022, Humphrey said.

“Over half of our clients say that they need another round of help,” he said.

And it’s not just the federal government who will need to play a role, Georgia Restaurant Association leaders said. The group is reaching out to local government leaders to ask for delayed fees for liquor licenses.

The fees, which can be anywhere from $7,000 for a single restaurant to more than $20,000 and up for multiple locations, are usually due in December for the following year. Restaurants count on November and December holiday parties and corporate gatherings for an infusion of cash to pay those liquor license fees, GRA executive director Karen Bremer said.

“With no holiday parties and no business travel, we’re not going to have that this year,” she said.

Kelvin Slater, the CEO of 12 Cocktail Bar, 9 Mile Station and amusement destination Skyline Park at Ponce City Market said the survival of businesses in need are linked.

If restaurants struggle, then so do their food suppliers, the spirits industry, companies that ship the produce, mom and pop businesses that wash the tablecloths and the supplier of feed and fertilizer to the farms that grow the tomatoes or raise the cows, Slater said.

“When you shut the restaurant down, it is not just the restaurateur who is hurt,” Slater said. “All those people and families who ... depend on the restaurant are hoping that whatever help the restaurant can get will also help them.”

David Hailey said his Atlanta-based business Countalytics was having a pretty good year until the pandemic hit. The four-person asset management company, which he launched in 2018, had two airline clients that accounted for the majority of its’ revenue.

That work was wiped out overnight, he said.

“We were comfortable,” he said. “We were working on something big and we had planned on that helping us grow. Then COVID hit and that was gone in a second.

Hailey’s business eventually received a $15,000 from the program, but applying for the money was a challenge, he said.

“There was a lot of information out there, but not a lot of verified information,” he said.