How some small businesses have survived the Covid pandemic without

Mark Shriner needed help. It was spring 2020, and his coffee shop in Lincoln, Nebraska, was at risk as the Covid-19 pandemic forced small businesses like his to close their doors.

So he sought assistance from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, which was intended to keep small businesses afloat as the virus spread and customers stayed home.  

All three of his applications were rejected. 

“I tried everything,” said Shriner, who owns The Coffee House in downtown Lincoln. “Every time, the government basically told me, ‘Tough luck, honey.'”

PPP loans were designed to keep workers on payroll and cushion the economic blow from the pandemic. Businesses that didn’t get the aid, like Shriner’s, had to get creative to stay afloat through a crisis that has upended business models for entire industries.

The program, which expired last May, doled out nearly 11.5 million loans worth more than $790 billion, according to the latest data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the federal agency that guaranteed PPP loans approved by banks and other participating lenders.

The SBA said it had no data on how many PPP loan applications were rejected. SBA spokeswoman Shannon Giles said the agency “does not have details on PPP loan disbursements” and only receives certain information from lenders. 

Despite being rejected for the PPP loans, The Coffee House managed to keep its doors open. CNBC also spoke with the owners of three other small businesses — a video game shop in New Jersey, an herbal co-op in Wisconsin and a spa in Colorado — that went through a similar ordeal.

The owners were able to help their businesses survive by relying on other loan and grant programs, changing their business models, finding community support and even selling personal belongings. Now, they have braced themselves as the pandemic is set to enter its third year and brings a new wave of Covid cases driven by the extremely contagious omicron variant. 

“We’ve been able to weather the storm by innovating and learning new ways to reach our customers,” Shriner said. “But it was also the employees that stayed around to work and the people of our city that supported us. They were a huge part of helping us get by until now.”

The PPP, first passed by Congress in March 2020 as part of the $2 trillion CARES Act, offered a lifeline to many small businesses during the pandemic. But controversy has also followed the program.

The public erupted in outrage after the PPP’s initial $350 billion allotment ran dry in less than two weeks. Scrutiny piled up following the revelation that many large companies…