If you haven’t done this already, take note of important deadlines for SBA Disaster recovery loans to cover physical losses, such as flooded cars, loss of property, damaged equipment, and other similar claims.

• January 30, 2013 deadline to apply for SBA Disaster Loan in New Jersey and Connecticut
• January 15, 2013 deadline to apply for SBA Disaster Loan in Rhode Island
• January 28, 2013 deadline to apply for SBA Disaster Loan in New York
• Apply online for the SBA.gov loan HERE

If you have “economic” losses you must file by July 31, 2013. What does it mean for your business? Any loss of business caused by the storm. For example: You had an order but your client went out of business because of the storm that is an economic loss for you! or Your store got through the storm without damages but your sales went down because your clientele is in survival mode, that is economic loss for you!

Here is the SBA’s definition of Economic Loss: “Small businesses and nonprofit organizations of any size can apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, also up to $2 million.  With all of the power outages and evacuations, we know that many small businesses made it through the storm, but they’ve lost significant amounts of business.  In many cases, these businesses will be eligible for EIDL loans to help cover their working capital needs, regardless of whether the business suffered property damage”

You should be preparing your records to demonstrate economic losses. Many Small Business Development Center have a Disaster Relief officer helping process these applications.  But if you don’t wish to apply with the SBA, there are other organizations such as Accion offering micro-loans see criteria below.

Reina Valenzuela, MBA, CEO of Starfish*Global. SBDC Advisor at the College of New Jersey & at William Paterson University