Rush orders, cut costs, crossed fingers: How small businesses are preparing for tariffs

Small businesses are already making moves to avoid expected cost increases — or weighing whether to take a financial hit or pass it on to customers.

Topics

How the FedEx-UPS Price War Could Slash Year-End Costs for Small Businesses

Falling parcel volumes and fewer year-end shopping days, this year have led the two transporters to extend big price reductions to small business owners.
Business - Inc. - November 8
Trump tariffs could hurt small business owners

President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to place additional tariffs on goods imported from China, Mexico and Canada, the United States' three biggest trading partners. Some small business ...
Top stories - CBS News - 3 days ago
Companies rush to US bond market as Trump rally cuts borrowing costs

Borrowers ‘strike while the iron’s hot’ to raise more than $50bn this week
Business - Financial Times - November 15
After six years of tariffs, small-business owners aren’t eager for more

Donald Trump wants to greatly expand import duties. Entrepreneurs who weathered his first round, which Biden largely left intact, say they’d have to raise prices to survive.
Top stories - NBC News - November 1
U.S. Businesses Work to Limit Costs of Looming Trump Tariffs

Companies are rushing to stock up reserves of goods and create new supply chains to avoid the worst of anticipated costs.
Business - Inc. - November 11
How MNTN Is Bringing Hollywood Creativity to Small Business

Ryan Reynolds and Mark Douglas pair innovative ad tech with a hell of a lot of fun.
Business - Inc. - 5 days ago
Hugging Face’s SmolVLM could cut AI costs for businesses by a huge margin

Hugging Face launches SmolVLM, a compact and efficient vision-language AI model, offering businesses a cost-effective solution for advanced AI implementation without sacrificing performance.
Tech - VentureBeat - 2 days ago
How Distributors’ Fees Cost Consumers and Small Food Companies Dearly

A tussle between big food manufacturers, grocery chains, and distributors for narrow profit margins squeezes the small producers caught in the middle.
Business - Inc. - November 5