The Consumer Bankers Association, along the International Franchise Association, the National Association of Women Business Owners, and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, announced a video series to highlight how small businesses and banks worked together during the COVID-19 pandemic and America’s economic recovery.
The project, called #SmallBusinessSpotlight, will feature videos from small and franchise business owners nationwide who used the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and other support from the banking industry to stay open, keep employees on the payroll, and serve their communities.
“When the pandemic first hit our communities, banks immediately mobilized to help ensure the backbone of our economy, our small and franchise businesses, got the support they needed to weather the storm,” CBA President and CEO Richard Hunt said in a release. “Within days of the first COVID-19 legislation being signed into law, the nation’s leading banks took on the herculean task of standing up the infrastructure for an entirely new government program, distributing hundreds of millions of dollars of relief and helping save millions of local businesses.
“The #SmallBusinessSpotlight is an opportunity to celebrate the resiliency of our small businesses and the critical role banks have played in sustaining our economy over the last 15 months during an unprecedented crisis.”
In order to participate, small businesses can submit a short video to a CBA drop box. Videos should be no longer than two minutes and should tell the story of how the small business worked with a CBA member bank to access PPP and other support services. Business owners should also email the association with information such as first and last name, the name of the business, number of employees, location of business headquarters, the name of the CBA member bank involved, the file name of the video, and a contact phone number.