The insanity first hit Jake Shivery this year, after he ordered a supply of camera film from China. He’s the owner of Blue Moon Camera and Machine, a shop for classic photography equipment in Portland, Oregon, so it started with a pretty standard order. “The film arrived, and we started selling it,” says Shivery. “And then, two weeks later, we got hit with a tariff bill that put us underwater.”
As trade policy keeps shifting, he finds himself wondering: Do I buy this product now and load up? Or, with the tariff uncertainty, should I wait? The volatility ties up his cash and inventory until the bill comes. On top of that, he says his latest order from the German camera company Minox came with a surprise tariff of 16% — and he’s stuck in a 10-year contract with them.
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There are a lot of people like Shivery these days. In a June survey by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, 73% of owners said they were concerned about tariffs, and 53% reported that tariffs already had negative effects on their operations. Inflation also remained a top concern.
Holly Wade, executive director of research at the National Federation of Independent Business, has seen this kind of anxiety ripping through mom-and-pop shops across the country. In the organization’s monthly surveys of small businesses, the “uncertainty index” has been going through the roof over the last year — hitting the highest score since the index’s inception in 1974.
“Owners don’t feel confident in the environment they’re operating in and aren’t sure how to adjust their businesses or move forward,” Wade says. “Some are uncertain because of the trade negotiations, others because of immigration reform policies or shifts in consumer spending. Some are caught in long-term contracts. And all of that can lead to hesitancy in investing in their business.”
To stay afloat, business owners often have to raise prices. “And unlike larger companies, they directly feel the heat from their customers,” Wade says. “It gets really precarious as far as trying to manage expectations.”
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Nan DeStafney knows this well. She owns Blues Angel Music with her husband in Pensacola, Florida, and many of the guitars and brass instruments they sell are made overseas. “When tariffs have gone up, unfortunately those costs often have to be passed on to the customers — or we have to absorb them, which shrinks our already tight margins,” she says. “We’ve also felt the broader impact of rising costs.”
To keep costs down, DeStafney has started using fewer suppliers, trying to place larger orders in advance and leaning into their repair offerings (which don’t require importing anything). “In uncertain times, many people would rather maintain what they already own than replace it,” she says. “So we’re making a strategic long-term investment in our service department, not only as a revenue stream, but as a way to keep customers loyal.”
If you’re struggling with similar issues, Wade’s advice is to crowdsource. “Talk to your accountant and tax professional, somebody at your bank, and other business owners,” she says. “Hopefully, some of this will be off the table by the end of the year.”
As for Shivery, so far he’s been able to weather the tariffs, “but we’re in for turbulence,” he says. He keeps steady by focusing on the community his store has built. When they put on their annual show of photos from their customers, he says, “I walk in there and just take a deep breath and see what we did.”
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