SmartBiz Loans® Survey: Tidal Wave of Demand for Additional Small Business Funding After PPP

National survey offers insights into how long small businesses expect their PPP funds to last and when they will need more funding.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The need for additional financing after PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) is top of mind for many small business owners according to the findings from a survey of small businesses across the U.S. by SmartBiz Loans, a bank-enabling technology platform that has grown to become the #1 online bank network for SBA loans under $350,000.

According to the survey, 59% of those business owners in the national sample who had taken out financing of some type including a PPP loan since January 2020, only expect the financing to last for 12 months or less and 79% expect it to last for 18 months or less.

As a result, 61% of the national sample expect to need additional financing within 18 months, with approximately 1/3 expecting to need additional funds in 1 to 6 months, and another 1/3 in about 6 to 12 months.

“This survey illustrates that there is a tidal wave of demand coming from small business owners for continued access to low-cost capital,” says Evan Singer, CEO of SmartBiz Loans. “It’s vital that banks prepare now to help the many high-quality businesses get the capital they need to grow. This funding will not only help these particular small businesses expand but will help renew the national economic landscape as well.”

One way that banks can help prepare SMBs for their next round of funding is by assisting them with PPP Loan Forgiveness. The survey found that 70% of SMBs in the national sample expect to apply for PPP Loan Forgiveness in the next 60 days. Also, 48% of the businesses say they intend to apply for additional funding with their PPP lender or primary bank, suggesting there is a large opportunity for banks and PPP lenders to help their small business clients with funding after PPP.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

SmartBiz Loans’ research represents results from a survey of 500 small businesses. The survey was conducted June 25^th through June 28^th via SurveyMonkey. 50% of the responses came from SurveyMonkey’s national panel of small and medium size business owners and 50% came from an internal sample of SmartBiz^® small business customers funded with a PPP loan by a bank in the SmartBiz network. Here is an infographic outlining the survey results.

ABOUT SMARTBIZ LOANS

SmartBiz Loans® (www.smartbizloans.com) is the #1 online platform for traditional SBA 7(a) loans under $350,000 helping banks and their clients streamline the SBA and small business lending process. SmartBiz has helped banks on the platform process more than $4 billion in PPP, SBA 7(a) and term loans serving over 20,000 businesses and supporting 300,000 jobs.

The company recently introduced an automated PPP Loan Forgiveness Solution to help a bank’s internal team efficiently manage PPP loan forgiveness while giving their clients an intuitive and user-friendly, online customer experience.

SmartBiz Loans is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2009 by a team of experienced financial services entrepreneurs with backing from leading venture capital firms including Venrock, Investor Growth Capital, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, and Uncork Capital.