Learn why these entrepreneurs put their trust in community banks


Carrie Morey

Running a small business isn’t easy. When problems arise, there’s no one else to fix it. But several entrepreneurs recently shared their stories with Independent Banker about how they’ve been able to rely on their community bank in times of crisis.

Carrie Morey, founder of Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit in Charleston, S.C., tells the magazine that she’s depended on her community banker, Shannon Smoak of Southern First Bank, for more than a decade. Morey told writer Roshan McArthur that when the COVID-19 pandemic started to affect her business, she was able to sleep at night because of her longstanding relationship with a local ICBA member bank.

“I have Shannon on speed dial, and I’m positive that I would not have the opportunities that I have had — whether it’s buying property, refinancing, additional lines of credit, expansion — without this relationship,” she says in the article.

Morey’s story is just one of several small businesses featured in Independent Banker. Learn why these other entrepreneurs are putting their trust in a local community bank.

Read the Independent Banker article