Several North Houston small businesses have had to cut back on employee hours and staff while awaiting approval for federal financial assistance programs.

Joanna Nguyen, a co-owner of FM 2920 Paradise Tomball Nails & Spa, said she had to furlough all of her business’s staff as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and related nonessential business closures.

“Having to close my business means we have lost a major part of our family's income,” she said in an April 6 email interview. “This is not only for me but for all of our staff as well.”

Nguyen said she applied for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program loan and is still awaiting a response as of April 20.

“Our situation has not changed,” Nguyen said in an April 20 email. “We have been shut down and have furloughed all of our employees. We have applied for the [Paycheck Protection Program] and [have] been waiting for response from the government. We plan to have our business reopened May 1 pending our local government approval.”



As previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper, the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program is a fee-less loan administered by 7(a) lenders that is designed to incentivize small-business owners to keep their employees on a paycheck by providing payroll expenses for up to 2 1/2 months.

However, Joe Harper, the executive director of the Small Business Development Centers at Texas State University, said applicants may face challenges in finding participating lenders and receiving the loan.

“So the challenge is we're running out of money,” Harper said in an April 15 webinar hosted by the office of the governor. “As of this morning, there was [over] $247 billion out of $346 billion allocated that had been already committed, and there's about or near $22 billion in Texas alone.”

David Cardona, a co-owner of Salon on Main in Tomball, said he also applied for the loan April 3—the same day his bank launched the program.


“We got an update on it ... Saturday morning,” Cardona said in an April 20 interview. “[Chase Bank] said that they've exhausted all the funds for the first round and that they weren't even able to send it into the SBA yet. So that was pretty frustrating.”

In the meantime, Cardona said the salon has relied on more creative avenues of revenue to cover upcoming bills such as rent and utilities. In addition to offering products for purchase online and curbside pickup, Cardona said gift card purchases for clients to use in the future have been a big help for the business thus far.

Another local business owner, Doreen Gordy of Bloomers Florist on Hwy. 249 in Tomball, said she, too, applied for the PPP loan last week through banking company BBVA and was also told that funds had been exhausted. Gordy said she does not expect to receive any other type of financial assistance.

“I would like to apply for an SBA loan but ... my bank that I use again said that they had so many applications, they weren't accepting anymore, so I guess I'm on the tail end of the people getting assistance,” Gordy said.


While Mother’s Day would typically be one of the bigger holidays for Gordy, she said she expects to fill smaller orders on May 12 due to a reduction in product availability in the floral industry this year. Despite this, Gordy said she has been able to rehire one part-time worker to assist in making deliveries.

Janna Sewell, co-owner of StillGoode Home Consignments located on Louetta Road in Spring, said her business has suffered an 80% decrease in sales since early March and was forced to lay off all of the business’s employees March 24.

Sewell said she applied for the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan, an emergency advance designed to help business owners cover operating expenses, in addition to applying for the PPP on March 30. Sewell said she has yet to hear back on either.

“We've got a number, we know what number we are in line, but that’s it," Sewell said. "We haven't heard from a bank or anything yet; we're just kind of in a limbo right now."


For now, Sewell said her consignment business is operating out of a depleting emergency fund to cover essential payments such as rent, utilities and insurance costs. Sewell said she expects to rehire 100% of her staff as soon as possible; however, she still expects that her business will face challenges in the pandemic’s aftermath.

“If we get [the loans] our plan is to bring our team back, so that we can get back to work, but the problem with that is we can bring them all back to work, but I still have to have shoppers,” Sewell said. “If we’re still under ... a stay-at-home order and people are uncomfortable getting out, it doesn't really do me much good to have my employees if there's no one coming out to shop."

Mary Ann Landry, the executive director of Consultants in Dental Aesthetics, said her business, located on Cypresswood Drive in Spring, had to scale back the services it is able to offer in light of the pandemic and as a result had to lay off almost 80% of employees.

“Since we're limited to emergency procedures, we've had to take what we would consider the essential workers to have the least amount of people exposed to any possible situation, but also help facilitate that process,” Landry said.


Landry said she also applied for both the PPP and EIDL shortly after being announced in late March; the business was recently approved and has since then been able to rehire several administrative employees to work from home.

“We did receive word this week that we were approved, and so that is a great relief,” Landry said. “We're starting to recall some employees to work from home to get us ready for when the stay-at-home order is lifted, and we can go back to regular dentistry."

Landry said she plans to hire back the business’s full staff as soon as possible.

“From this standpoint, what we're going to do is we're just going to work hard and make sure that we let people know in the community as well as our patient base that we are there, that we have not closed our doors and we're looking forward to the future,” Landry said.

In addition to the PPP, the SBA also offers the SBA Express Bridge loan, designed to provide immediate support of up to $25,000 for small-business owners applying to the EIDL. The agency also administers SBA Debt Relief that pays for the principal, interest and fees for current 7(a), 504, and microloans issued prior to Sept. 27 for a period of six months starting April 1.

As previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper, Harris County announced a COVID-19 forgivable loan program on April 9 but paused receiving applicants indefinitely just four days later due to an overwhelming number of applications.

For more information, visit the office of the governor’s additional resources online or contact [email protected]. The Economic Development and Tourism department can also be reached at 512-936-0100.

Dylan Sherman contributed to this report.