Chamber Chat: Maryland Ranks Low for Small Businesses

SALISBURY, Md. – In this week’s Chamber Chat, WMDT’s John Trout and Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce President Bill Chambers discussed how small businesses are struggling to stay afloat in the state of Maryland.

Chambers explained that when ranking states in terms of economic feasibility for small business, Maryland dropped from 26th to 49th. Roughly 50 percent of small businesses cite recent inflation as their biggest hinderance from being able to invest in themselves, with only one third of businesses surveyed expected to be able to reasonably invest in growth. Chambers added that less than one third of businesses are expected to add employees in 2027.

The upcoming election season was blamed for business owners hesitating to spend money, with Chambers saying, “They don’t know what’s going to happen after November.”

“The other part of the survey that really bothered us at the chamber was only 20% of our regional small businesses say that they are currently comfortable with their current cash flow,” Chambers explained. Due to these responses from Business owners, he also was concerned to see how this also impacted the tourism season. 

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