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Central Florida small businesses seek help securing second round of PPP loans

ORLANDO, Fla. — Some of Central Florida’s smaller local lenders are working overtime to submit applications for the second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans.

The program, which helps small businesses, reopens this week with stronger fraud protection measures to stop scammers.

Parramore barber J. Henry said his first federal PPP loan propped up the business until customers were able to sit beneath his clippers again.

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“Fortunately, I was one of the ones who received a grant, and that’s what got us open to today,” Henry said.

But so many mom-and-pop businesses didn’t make it.

Some were denied PPP loans, even as the Lakers basketball team and national chain restaurants got multi-million-dollar ones.

Read: Stimulus check update: Biden unveils plan for $1,400 payments; unemployment extension

Many more owners didn’t even try amid the frequently changing rules and amount of loan forgiveness.

Chris Hurn, the CEO of Lake Mary Lender Fountainhead, officially began helping business owners wade through the regulations again on Friday.

He said some of the complexity has been ironed out for the second round.

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The Small Business Administration also has new rules and a new system, making it less likely for fraudsters to take money that legitimate businesses need.

Henry believes direct consumer aid, in the form of stimulus checks, would help even more.

See the full report in the video above.