Phillip Rollins, owner of OffBeat, says people saw him on the news and supported his shop by helping to clean up and dry things off.

The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have rattled some small business owners, even though contagion hasn’t spread to smaller banks.

Businesses that received some federal pandemic loans could defer paying for two years, meaning most are coming due this year.

For Venita Cooper, owner of Silhouette Sneakers & Art, business is up. But will it last? “The big challenge is just trying to keep engagement,” she says.

In 2022, over two-thirds of Greenbar Distillery’s sales were in the non-alcoholic market. For owners Litty Mathew and Melkon Khosrovian, that means that non-alcoholic drinks are going to be part of their future.

Growing the business “has stretched me and changed me in all the good ways, and also in all the really hard ways,” says photographer Liz Hansen.

“It’s fun but it’s difficult to know how much to make when everyone comes in on the same day,” said Kristin Thalheimer Bingham, co-owner of Dean’s Sweets in Portland, Maine.

“It has become so easy,” said Samad Abdulai, owner of C3 Laundry Services.

Like other retail businesspeople, Amelia Freeman-Lynde of Durham, North Carolina, has grappled with supply chain and staffing issues.

“We have all these extra fees that we really didn’t have before,” says events specialist Irene Tynedale. But prices will still fluctuate.