In the News: The SBA Opens PPP Direct Forgiveness Portal

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced the opening of the Paycheck Protection Program Direct Forgiveness Portal to alleviate another burden for small business owners. With millions of small businesses receiving billions of dollars in loans, the funds were invaluable. However, with the economy still in limbo, many owners can’t pay the loans back at this moment. The new initiative by the SBA is going to allow small businesses with loans of $150,000 or less to apply for forgiveness directly through the SBA.

The PPP Loan Forgiveness Portal Now Open in this week’s roundup goes to explain how the SBA is streamlining the application process as well as simplifying the forgiveness of these loans. The new PPP Loan Forgiveness Portal began accepting applications from borrowers on August 4, 2021.

The roundup also reports on 91,000 jobs small businesses added to the U.S. economy in July as they navigate the many different mandates of COVID-19 protocols. And if you happen to be looking for a new channel to advertise your business, TikTok is now the most popular video app, so it won’t be a bad idea.

Take a look at these and the other articles in the roundup and stay informed about all things small business.

Small Business News Roundup – August 06, 2021

Check out the rest of this week’s roundup:

TikTok Now the Most Popular Mobile Video App

With more than 660 million downloads in 2020, TikTok has emerged as the most popular mobile video platform. This finding was unveiled by Finbold, providers of opinion and highlights to help people keep their finances in check. TikTok is the Most Popular Mobile Video App in 2021 Finbold’s research shows that in 2020, TikTok had more than 660.

Small Businesses Add 91,000 Jobs to US Economy

In July 2021 private-sector jobs increased by 330,000 with small businesses contributing 91,000 new jobs to that total. In small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, jobs grew by 54,000 in companies with 20-49 employees and by 37,000 in companies with 1-19 employees. ADP Small Business Report – July 2021 Goods-producing small businesses were down by 5,000 employees.

1 in 4 Former Employees Still Has Access to Files at Old Job

As many as 1 in 4 employees still has access to data at a former job. Almost 42% of employees admit to sharing workplace passwords. These stark statistics involving workplace data security were unveiled by password solution providers Beyond Identity’s research into employees’ habits around passwords in the workplace.

Instagram and Spring Partner on a $1 Billion Creator Fund

The image-sharing social media giant Instagram is expanding its partnership with creator commerce platform Spring, with the launch of the new Creator Commerce Fund. The partnership investment marks a significant investment for Instagram in creator commerce.

Nearly 1 in 4 Gen Z Employees are Lonely at Work

Loneliness in the workplace is affecting the Gen Z population at a higher rate than other demographics. And according to the Wildgoose survey, it comes out to almost one in four or 23% of its respondents. The rate for Gen Z employees is up 130% from the same survey in 2017. Furthermore, 44% of them don’t have friends in the workplace.

New Tool Helps Warn You of Zoom Fatigue

In today’s remote-working world, video conferencing platforms like Zoom have become an essential tool for small business operations and productivity. That said, an overload of online meetings can lead to tiredness, worry and burnout, a phenonium known as ‘Zoom fatigue.’ The help employees avoid experiencing Zoom fatigue, Reviews.

Idea Pins are Now Shoppable on Pinterest

Visual discovery engine Pinterest is expanding its partnership with Shopify to introduce new ways for content creators to monetize their work and partner with brands. Creators on Pinterest can now grow their business and earn money by making their Idea Pins shoppable.

Half of Small Business Owners Feel Chained to Their Business

A new survey from Ontraport reveals half of small business owners feel chained to their business. Furthermore, they say their business would be at a standstill even if they were to leave for just a week. This is in great part due to the number of tasks they are handling on their own. And here is where automation can come in to address these tasks and free up some precious time.

Keap Cuts E-Signature Costs

Getting documents signed for your small business can take days. And you might need to toggle between different software tools to send and save the records.  Now there’s an e-signature solution that speeds the process up and reduces handling costs. Keap announced an integration with HelloSign recently.

This article, "In the News: The SBA Opens PPP Direct Forgiveness Portal" was first published on Small Business Trends