Business News for February 22, 2022
Today's message includes the following news, best practices, and online courses:
  • We are hiring! Join our team as our Operations & Events Coordinator!
  • Top 5 Business Loan Options for LLCs in 2022
  • Prepare for Tax Season with Upcoming IRS Webinars for Small Business
  • EIDL Loan Payments, Previously Deferred, Coming Due
  • The Ground Floor Award for Small Business (hosted by GMCC)

Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities
  • Buy-Sell Agreements
  • Leading with Emotional Intelligence
  • The Employment Imperative: Tackling Workforce Challenges
  • Buy, Build or Sell: Deciding the Next Steps for Your Business
We Are Hiring! Operations & Events Coordinator
time is winding down to apply!
  • Love variety?
  • Want to join a successful and driven team?
  • Interested in supporting local entrepreneurs?

Our Operations & Events Coordinator role allows you to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit by supporting our event planning, growing student leader(s), joining in our marketing efforts, bringing your organizational skills to our financial management, and more! If you want to have a hand in helping entrepreneurs in Dane, Sauk, and Columbia Counties – we served 466 entrepreneurs in 2021 alone! – this could be the role for you!
Business News, Updates, and Best Practices
Top 5 Business Loan Options for LLCs in 2022
from the ASBDC blog
By: Matthew Gillman
If you’re running a limited liability company (LLC), you may find you need to raise money or get a small business loan to start up or fuel growth. Below are different business loan options to consider for your LLC.

  1. Bank loans - Traditional lenders like banks and credit unions offer the most ideal loan amounts, terms and interest rates, which is why many business owners apply from them.
  2. Term loans - Business term loan is a type of traditional business financing where you repay your lender over a specified period. This ranges anytime between a few months to ten years, depending on the stability, structure and credit standing of your LLC.
  3. Business line of credit - you are given access to capital on an as-needed basis. With a line of credit, you are not required to use the full amount granted to you; instead, you can draw money from your account whenever you need cash and pay it back with interest.
  4. SBA loans - come from private lenders and banking institutions but are backed by the Small Business Administration. The terms usually range anywhere between 10 to 25 years, with interest rates that are favorable to small businesses and startups. There are different types of SBA loans: SBA 7(a) loans, 504 loans, disaster loans, microloans, and express loans.
  5. Invoice Financing - allows you to use unpaid invoices as collateral in exchange for upfront capital. With this type of financing, lenders will give you 80% to 95% of the total value of your invoice. You will receive the remaining 5% to 20% of the invoice value (minus service charges and transaction fees) once your customers pay.

Upcoming IRS Webinars for Small Businesses
IRS Small Business Workshop and Listening Session 2022 and Tax Deductions for Home Office Use
Small Business Workshop and Listening Sessions 2022
The IRS is hosting 2-hour events that will include presentations from IRS leadership covering the top tax issues affecting small business owners, including:
  • income
  • deductions
  • employment taxes
  • recordkeeping
  • getting ready for the 2022 filing season
  • tax scams targeting small businesses
  • how the IRS is reorganizing to better serve small business taxpayers.

These events will also include a listening session to hear your concerns, feedback and suggestions. How can we improve your IRS experience as a small business owner?

  • March 9, 2022 - Great Lakes Area: IL, IN, KY, MI, OH, MN, WI
  • Time: 10:00 a.m. (CST)
  • Registration: Please visit the Internal Revenue Service Zoom website to register.
  • May 18, 2022 (Spanish)
  • Time: 1:00 (CST)
  • Registration: Please visit the Internal Revenue Service Zoom website to register. 

Tax Deductions for Home Office Use
February 24 at 10:00 am CST

The Small Business Administration (SBA), in collaboration with IRS, will host a series of virtual workshops. During the workshop participants will learn information to help them successfully operate their small business. The SBA will host the event on Microsoft Teams.

Topics include:
  • The requirements to qualify for a deduction
  • How to determine the business percentage of home use
  • The types of expenses you can and cannot deduct
  • How to determine the limits on deductions, and
  • Where to deduct the expenses on your return

Registration: Please visit the Small Business Administration website to register for this event.
EIDL Loan Payments, Previously Deferred, Coming Due
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) are no longer accepting applications for new loans or advances as of Jan. 1, 2022. Loan payments, which were deferred until 2022 due to the pandemic, will be coming due per these guidelines tied to loan issuance date:
  • All SBA disaster loans made in calendar year 2020, including COVID-19 EIDL, will have a first payment due date extended from 12-months to 24-months from the date of the note.
  • All SBA disaster loans made in calendar year 2021, including COVID-19 EIDL, will have a first payment due date extended from 12-months to 18-months from the date of the note. 

Additional information
  • Call (800) 736-6048 if you have questions regarding the specifics of your SBA loan (ex. permitted use of funds, subordination requests, etc.). Make sure to have your 10-digit EIDL loan number available for reference.
  • Instructions on how to make a payment on an SBA loan can be found here. 
  • Learn more about EIDL loans on the Wisconsin SBDC COVID-19 page
The Ground Floor Award for Small Business
hosted by the GMCC; nominations accepted through March 11
The Ground Floor Award for Small Business Leadership recognizes true champions for small business. Recipients of the award are leaders both in their business and in the community and through their efforts have helped other small businesses succeed. They are mentors, advocates and contributors to the continued development and prosperity of Greater Madison’s small business community.
If you know a small business leader who deserves recognition, the Chamber asks that you use this form to nominate them. If your nominee is selected, you will receive a free ticket to attend IceBreaker, where the award will be presented April 13 at the Kohl Center.
Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities
Buy-Sell Agreements
March 9, 2022 (online)
If you are in business with other people, the reality is that at some point, you will not be. As with any personal or professional partnership, communication is key. By working together to create a buy-sell agreement – before someone leaves the business – you can create a strong foundation for your partnership and ensure that you are on the same page.

Whether you are starting a new business or revisiting the agreement you already have in place, there is no time like the present to ensure that it still reflects your intent.
Leading with Emotional Intelligence
March 16, 2022 (online)
Research by the Carnegie Institute concluded: “15% of success is technical skills – 85% is people skills.” Emotional Intelligence is all about people skills – how well you know yourself and your emotions and how well you read and interact with others and their emotions.

Learn about how the brain, the body and emotions affect each other, and then how to better manage your own emotions and the emotions of others so you can have clearer, more accurate communications that create cooperation and collaboration in the workplace.
The Employment Imperative: Tackling Workforce Challenges
March 10, 2022 (online, no cost)
If you’ve noticed challenges with hiring employees in the last few years, you are not alone. Businesses across the state of Wisconsin have struggled with recruitment and hiring in a wide range of industries, and a variety of environmental, historical, and economic factors have lead us to these challenges.

In this session, we’ll translate regional data into your day-to-day by understanding how long-term trends are impacting the current labor market and how local businesses are responding.
Buy, Build or Sell: Deciding the Next Steps for Your Business
April 6, 2022 (in person)
It takes a lot of sweat equity to build up a successful business, and most business owners will eventually want to retire. For many, retirement may translate into selling your business – and it is crucial to prepare for a big exit, right from the start.

While there is no crystal ball that can tell you whether it’s time to buy a business, build your business or sell/close your business, there are ways to monitor the financial performance of your company that can help guide your decisions. This class will help you understand how to analyze your business’ financial performance as well as some qualitative factors to consider when making decisions regarding your investment in your business.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or 608-263-2221 to request accommodations.

The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship in the University of Wisconsin System. It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.