Worried that the Silicon Valley Bank collapse might have an outsized effect on your small business?
Don’t panic.
Last week, three U.S. Chamber of Commerce experts joined a virtual webinar to talk about the bank’s collapse and its possible effects on small businesses. They discussed tips, best practices and practical steps you can take to ensure your business is on-track despite economic uncertainty.
“First off, everybody should take a very deep breath,” Tom Quaadman, Executive Vice President of Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, said. “This is not 2008. This is a very different situation, and it’s very localized. It’s not a similar situation as to what we faced in 2008, or even frankly, what we [saw] three years ago, in March of 2020, when the economy started to shut down as a result of Covid.
“What happened [in] 2008 … [was] a systemic problem. We’re talking about three banks here that are part of a very unique ecosystem. We’re not seeing the stock market take deep plunges of 1,000 points … on any day this week.”
Instead, Quaadman explained that small business owners “may see more of a credit crunch,” after 15 years of extremely low or even 0% interest rates. This, however, has been the norm for most of our country’s history.
Click on the video above to hear more from Quaadman, Chief U.S. Chamber of Commerce Economist Curtis Dubay, and Vice President of Small Business Policy Tom Sullivan.