By Peter Boumgarden and Dilawar Syed
Imagine it’s April 2025 and you’re the owner of a small but fast-growing e-commerce business. Historically, you’ve sourced products from China, but the president just announced tariffs of 145% on these goods. Do you set up operations in Thailand – requiring new investment and a lot of work – or wait until there’s more clarity on trade? What if waiting too long means you miss your chance to pull it off?
This isn’t a hypothetical – it’s a real dilemma faced by a real business owner who spoke with one of us over coffee this past spring. And she’s not alone. As of 2023, of those U.S. companies that import goods, more than 97% of them were small businesses. For these companies, tariff uncertainty isn’t just frustrating – it’s paralyzing.
As a family business researcher and former deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and entrepreneur, we hear from a lot of small-business owners grappling with these challenges. And what they tell us is that tariff uncertainty is stressing their time, resources and attention.
The data backs up our anecdotal experience: More than 70% of small-business owners say constant shifts in trade policy create a “whiplash effect” that makes it difficult to plan, a recent national survey showed.
Unlike larger organizations with teams of analysts to inform their decision-making, small-business owners are often on their own. In an all-hands-on-deck operation, every hour spent focusing on trade policy news or filling out additional paperwork means precious time away from day-to-day, core operations. That means rapid trade policy shifts leave small businesses especially at a disadvantage.
Planning for stability in an uncertain landscape
Critics and supporters alike can agree: The Trump administration has taken an unpredictable approach to trade policy, promising and delaying new tariffs again and again. Consider its so-called “reciprocal” tariffs. Back in April, Trump pledged a baseline 10% tariff on imports from nearly everywhere, with extra hikes on many countries. Not long afterward, it hit pause on its plans for 90 days. That period just ended, and the administration followed up with a new executive order on July 31 naming different tariff rates for about 70 countries. The one constant has been change.
This approach has upended long-standing trade relationships in a matter of days or weeks. And regardless of the outcomes, the uncertainty itself is especially disruptive to small businesses. One recent survey of 4,000 small-business owners found that the biggest challenge of tariff policies is the sheer uncertainty they cause.
This isn’t just a problem for small-business owners themselves. These companies employ nearly half of working Americans and play an essential role in the U.S. economy. That may partly explain why Americans overwhelmingly support small businesses, viewing them as positive for society and a key path for achieving the American dream. If you’re skeptical, just look at the growing number of MBA graduates who are turning down offers at big companies to buy and run small businesses.
But this consensus doesn’t always translate into policies that help small businesses thrive. In fact, because small businesses often operate on thinner margins and have less capacity to absorb disruptions, any policy shift is likely to be more difficult for them to weather than it would be for a larger firm with deeper pockets. The ongoing tariff saga is just the most recent example.
Slow, steady policies help small-business owners
Given these realities, we recommend the final negotiated changes to trade policy be rolled out slowly. Although that wouldn’t prevent businesses from facing supply chain disruptions, it would at least give them time to consider alternate suppliers or prepare in other ways. From the perspective of a small-business owner, having that space to plan can make a real difference.
Similarly, if policymakers want to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S., tariffs alone can accomplish only so much. Small manufacturers need to hire people, and with unemployment at just over 4%, there’s already a shortage of workers qualified for increasingly high-skilled manufacturing roles.
Making reshoring a true long-term policy objective would require creating pathways for legal immigration and investing significantly in job training. And if the path toward reshoring is more about automation than labor, then preparing small-business owners for the changes ahead and helping them fund growth strategically will be crucial.
Small businesses would benefit from more government-backed funding and training. The Small Business Administration is uniquely positioned to support small firms as they adjust their supply chains and manufacturing – it could offer affordable financing for imports and exports, restructure existing loans that small businesses have had to take on, and offer technical support and education on new regulations and paperwork. Unfortunately, the SBA has slashed 43% of its workforce and closed offices in major cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans and Los Angeles. We think this is a step in the wrong direction.
Universities also have an important role to play in supporting small businesses. Research shows that teaching core management skills can improve key business outcomes, such as profitability and growth. We recommend business and trade schools increase their focus on small firms and the unique challenges they face. Whether through executive programs for small-business owners or student consulting projects, universities have a significant opportunity to lean into supporting Main Street entrepreneurs.
Thirty-five million small businesses are the engine of the U.S. economy. They are the job creators in cities and towns across this country. They are the heartbeat of American communities. As the nation undergoes rapid and profound policy shifts, we encourage leaders in government and academia to take action to ensure that Main Streets across America not only endure but thrive.
Peter Boumgarden is Professor of Family Enterprise at Washington University in St. Louis. Dilawar Syed is Associate Professor of Instruction at the Department of Business, Government and Society at the The University of Texas at Austin. The authors would like to thank Gretchen Abraham and Matt Sonneborn for their support.
don miller says
how about an article about how the tariffs are helping the USA sell more goods overseas, employ more here people and help small businesses in the meantime? address how it ever got to the point where other countries were allowed to add tariffs to our goods with the intent to freeze us out off their market, effect our labor market and force their citizens to buy their countries stuff. Without two way discussion, this is what happened to npr and pbs.
Ed P says
General guideline for a small business is fewer than 500 employees. Not what most people would think. Some focus on revenue and define small as revenues from $1 million to $40 million. What?
Point is, how can you actually define what is a “small business” when the definition covers 33.2 million businesses. How can anyone identify a single economic event and report that it’s negatively impacting 99.9% of all American businesses?
Many of these “small businesses” are pass through entities (single owner’s, partnerships, LLCs , and S-Corps who don’t pay corporate taxes but rather individual income taxes) hence the permanent tax cuts benefited them. Deregulations benefits them.
And finally, every business is universally effected by the tariffs, so the playing field is somewhat leveled.
Approximately 90% of every new start up will fail. Those that make it are pretty damn savvy, adopted a solid business plan and will navigate tariffs no differently then any other impediments that they encounter on a daily basis.
Laurel says
The goal is to crush the middle class as they are the hardest to control.
Where’s that decade old “concept of a plan” for healthcare? Has the price of groceries gone down, or up? Has your insurance gone down, or up? Has the cost of living gotten better? Are your children safer? What happened to “free enterprise”?
Why? It’s August, and it’s now Trump’s economy. Y’all can blame the past all you want, but it won’t fly.
After all, don’t look at Trump, look where he’s pointing. Right now, he’s keeping you busy with tariffs and ICE, and keeping his own ass out of prison.
Pogo says
@Just give this a little time
… 35 million will become 34, and so on…
MAGA — bitches.
FlaglerLive says
Sure. When it’s factual. We don’t run fictions (such as your disingenuous reference to “what happened to NPR and PBS”).
Deborah Coffey says
@ Don Miller
I’m sure FlaglerLive would write the article you describe IF any of it were true. But, what you “think” is true is FALSE. Therefore, FlaglerLive will not put it into print. Okay? FACTS first. Thanks.
JimboXYZ says
Well Trump tariffs reduced the inflation that soared to it’s highest levels in USA History. Bidenomics of 2020-resent ushered this era in. And it’s record profits for lower quality of life anywhere in planet Earth. We went from saving the human race from Covid, back to managed hot spots for wars & mass killings. Imagine the irony ? Nobody was at war because they were afraid they’d die of Covid. The fraud of a Covid pandemic declared over by the Biden, his policies created the diseases of the human race spreading into America for a border crisis. And he funded FEMA to make it happen.
Here’s Biden’s Fentanyl crisis & how the usual suspects of any local village idiots for Americans, and this is where we are. Hunter Biden, he’s part of the problem too. This really hits home in Flagler County, how many of our neighbors are part of this problem ? What Alphabet section of Palm Coast or even Bunnell does this look like where any of us live. 4 years of Biden letting this crap cross the borders. Time to stop feeling empathy or sorry for the addicts/junkies for being victims of their own accords. The rest of us are victims and we don’t even abuse this crap. Have no use for it, don’t want it around us. I have to clean up spent Narcan packets out of the yard & driveway, who knows how close the Fentanyl addicts are, but a good bet for connecting those dots are where the PCFD ambulatory truck was last dispatched to & parked in front of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbPhzv2ojXM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm6n-uzU2R8&list=RDNSrm6n-uzU2R8&start_radio=1
I’m just over all of this post pandemic greed. This is Biden-Harris, the Democrats dream, they had a 4 year head start to implement this fraud of an out of control, man-made inflationary economy.
Sherry says
When you get your news from “youtube” this is the total crap you believe and write. . . LOL!
Sherry says
NPR and PBS the very best sources for “Factual” information. . . precisely why trump couldn’t wait to get rid of them. Credible facts simply do not mix well with fascism/dictatorships!
Laurel says
You know, Dennis, there are a few Nazis still alive today who do not regret what they did in Germany, in the 1930s? Calm down, get off confirmation bias websites and shows, and open up to just listening to what’s happening outside your current bubble. It could save you a lot of heartache down the road. Same with Jimbo and Don M. Y’all are so hardwired, and so dependent on one way thought, and that is never good for anyone.
Ray W, says
A few FlaglerLive commenters asked for information about tariff effects on American small business owners.
Here are a few bullet points from a U.S. Chamber of Commerce article updated on August 1, 2025. The story is titled, “Helping Small Businesses Navigate Tariffs: Seeking Relief, FAQs”
– “Tariffs are having a real and devastating impact on thousands of small businesses across the nation as uncertainty, rising costs, and cancellations are hitting home.”
– “Here are several important updates small businesses should know about tariffs as on August 1, 2025:”
– “The Trump administration is imposing ‘reciprocal’ tariffs ranging from 15% to 50% on 65 of the U.S.’s largest trading partners and 10% on nearly all other countries.”
– “The new tariffs range from 10% for many Latin American and African countries; 15% for major trading partners such as the EU, Japan, and South Korea; and about 20% for most of Southeast Asia.”
– “About 85% of goods imported from Canada and Mexico comply with USMCA — and can enter the U.S. market duty-free — but the remainder face new tariffs of 35% and 25%, respectively.”
– “The average tariff on goods from China today is 55%, with significant differences between product categories.”
– Disputes with Brazil and India have strained relations, and the White House is imposing tariffs of 50% on Brazilian goods and 25% on Indian goods.”
– “Worldwide, the U.S. has imposed new tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminum and 25% on autos and many auto parts.”
– “Additional product-specific tariffs on products such as semiconductors (and the consumer electronics made with them) and pharmaceuticals are expected in the near future.”
– “There are about 42,000 small businesses that import things into the U.S. every year and will feel tariffs cut into already slender margins. They represent about a third of all total imports, and many of those small businesses are struggling both with the tariff uncertainty and these higher tariff levels.”
– “Many of America’s most advanced manufacturing industries — including aerospace, medtech, and automotive — depend on global supply chains. Even industries that are largely domestic in production — such as the manufacture of windows or cement — will see heavy new costs, and the prices of domestically produced goods will rise in parallel with those of tariffed imports.”
– “The impact [of tariffs] has already started, and manufacturers and wholesalers have been ‘eating’ tariff costs to some degree while awaiting clarity from August’s big tariff decisions. However, costs are inevitably being passed on to consumers, who are beginning to see price increases.”
– “In our latest Small Business Index survey, 70% of small businesses reported that they are paying higher prices for the goods and services that they buy. And, since they can’t just eat these higher costs, they’re having to raise prices themselves. About 60% reported that they have raised prices recently for the goods and services they provide.”
– “At the beginning of the year, about half of all imported goods paid no tariffs, but the administration granted no exceptions to its sweeping new tariffs to date (except for select products such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and lumber that the administration plans to subject to a different class of tariff in the near future). A rare exception is energy and some minerals.”
– “Administration officials have uniformly said there will be no formal process for businesses to seek exemptions.”
– “Tariffs also impact global competitiveness. Fifty-six percent of everything the United States imports is raw materials that manufacturers use to make their products domestically. Higher costs go right into the margins of manufacturers and, in many cases, compel them to raise their prices. If their prices are forced up, they’re not going to be able to compete in international markets.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
I accept that this story is anecdotal.
A Wasco County, Oregon, cherry orchard operator told a CNN reporter that he expects to lose between $250,000 and $300,000 in revenue due to crop decay, as his “loyal seasonal workforce”, pickers who have shown up year after year and who keep in touch with the farmer during the off-season through Christmas cards and birth announcements, hasn’t shown up this year. The farmer added that many of his neighboring orchard owners are short pickers, too.
Said the farmer: “It’s lost revenue for the operation, which is one thing, but it’s also lost revenue for the workers that would have been able to pick them had they been here. … The beginning of the season, it coincided, unfortunately, with a lot of really strong immigration enforcement down in southern California, where our workforce comes from, and that had a chilling effect on people wanting to move.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Our Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, is on record as claiming that the 34 million people who receive Medicaid can be forced to fill the depleted picker ranks. Who knew that children who have lost parents can be forced to leave school to pick cherries in order to continue receiving Medicaid assistance? What of those who have lost limbs or suffered traumatic brain injury? Should they lose Medicaid coverage if they cannot work in the fields? What of the 70% of those receiving Medicaid benefits who are already working? What of the intellectually disabled who cannot work at all?
Somehow that 34 million number that Secretary Rollins claims can work in the fields was never really anything close to 34 million, but when one belongs to a professional lying class, what do numbers mean? Just pick a number and say it over and over again!
Laurel says
It’s only a matter of time when Trump steps on the wrong foot, or wrong feet.