December 30, 2024 • 26 mins
Canadian small business owners - including artists and makers - are facing the uncertainty of potential US tariffs in 2025. So what can we do?Â
While we have no say in whether or not another country decides to levy tariffs against us, we do have the ability to prepare ourselves to weather what could turn out to be a few clouds on an otherwise pleasant day or a full on tornado that rips up the landscape. The truth is right now, we just don't know. But don't stick your head in the sand and wish it all away or ignore it until it happens. This is one instance where preparation is not only key, it's doable. This subscriber only episode looks at some proactive strategies that can help you shore up your creative business in the face of uncertainty.
You can connect with the podcast on:
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For a list of all available episodes, please visit:
And She Looked Up Creative Hour Podcast
Each week The And She Looked Up Podcast sits down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. This podcast is for Canadian artists, makers and creators who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.
Your host, Melissa Hartfiel (@finelimedesigns), left a 20 year career in corporate retail and has been happily self-employed as a working creative since 2010. She's a graphic designer, writer and illustrator as well as the co-founder of a multi-six figure a year business in the digital content space. She resides just outside of Vancouver, BC.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new premium
supporter episode.
This is your December episode.
I'm getting it in, as usual,under the wire, and this is one.
I kind of left this to late inDecember on purpose, in the
hopes that we would have alittle bit more information on
(00:22):
this, but we really don't, andso I thought I'm going to put it
out now, and what I willprobably do is do a bigger, more
expanded version of this on thepublic podcast in January, if
necessary.
But, of course, I am talkingabout these potential 25%
(00:44):
tariffs that we, as smallbusiness owners in Canada, may
be facing in the new year whenthe new president-elect takes
office.
So, regardless of how you feelpolitically about any of this,
(01:04):
if you are a small businessowner which we all are this has
the potential to affect us verydramatically, and the most
frustrating part about this isthat this is something we really
don't have control over.
We will have no say in whetherthese tariffs are enacted.
(01:25):
It is not our government thatis going to potentially do this,
and we don't have.
There's, quite literally, verylittle that we can do besides
advocate for ourselves with ourown government, which, let's
face, it, is a bit of a gongshow right now to make sure that
(01:48):
they are doing everything theycan to minimize potential impact
, and you know there is apossibility that none of this
may come to fruition, butthere's also a very real
possibility that it will, orthat some form of it will.
So, without getting into thepolitics of it all, what I
(02:08):
wanted to talk about today iswhat we can do.
So, while we cannot controlwhether this goes ahead or not,
there are things we can dowithin our businesses to prepare
, and so I wanted to put thoseout there for all of you, so
that you can at least bethinking about them, because I
think, at this point, this issomething we should all be doing
(02:31):
.
We should all be thinking abouthow we can potentially protect
ourselves to the best of ourability.
It's going to be rough if itgoes ahead, and the better we
can be prepared, the better offwe will be.
So I think, to give you a fewthings that you can look at, I
(02:54):
think one of the first thingsthat I would do is and I talk
about this a lot in our premiumsubscriber episodes is make sure
that your pricing is nailed.
If you are working with very,very small margins, you are not
going to be able to tweak yourpricing.
I also think it's important tounderstand how tariffs work.
(03:15):
Tariffs are not something thatwe put in place.
It is something that is put inplace on the other end, on the
end of the importer.
So the tariffs mightpotentially be added.
If you sell on Etsy, etsy mightadd the tariff on at the
checkout.
It's not something that weinclude in our prices, because
(03:38):
all that's going to result in isthat the tariff will be applied
to the new, higher price on ourend.
On the other end, it's a littlebit complicated.
So this isn't like somethingthat we apply on our end in our
shops.
It is something that is applied, like I said, etsy might
collect it or it might becollected at the border, almost
(04:03):
like a duty or a tax or customsfees, those types of things.
So this is all going to.
We're not sure how this mightpotentially play out, but if you
have some room in your wiggleroom in your pricing, if you
have good margins particularlyif you price for wholesale you
probably have some very healthymargins which might be able to
(04:23):
allow you to do some differentpricing for your US customers
where you actually lower theprice for them.
Etsy allows you to do this.
You can have a domestic priceand you can have a price for the
rest of the world which iscould be lower, it could be
higher, so there's thatopportunity there.
(04:44):
If you have your own website,that might be something you want
to look into to see if there isan app or a plugin that gives
you that kind of functionality.
But again, if you have very lowmargins to begin with and
you're not pricing for wholesale, that's going to be really
challenging for you.
So that might be something thatyou need to think about.
Do you want to raise yourprices so that you have those
(05:06):
margins?
That can be tricky too and thento raise a price and have a
tariff on your new raise price?
That can be really rough.
But this is why pricingappropriately is so important,
because it does give you someflexibility in these situations.
Give you some flexibility inthese situations.
(05:29):
I would also be looking atnurturing your own domestic
market.
We obviously don't have thesame population that the US has.
They are almost 10 times ourpopulation.
There's a lot more potentialcustomers in the US, but we
still are sitting at.
I'm not sure what our currentpopulation is.
I think it's around 38, 39million.
That's still a lot of people,and this is where you really
(05:53):
want to focus on that domesticmarket and ask yourself what
you're doing to marketspecifically to your own
neighborhood, your own province,your own country.
There is a very strongpossibility that we will lose
some of our US-based customers,and I know on Etsy, a lot of
(06:15):
people focus on selling to theUS market.
Now is the time where you mightwant to focus on your Canadian
market and that may mean lookingat other options besides Etsy
and I'm picking on Etsy herebecause that's where I know a
lot of you do sell.
(06:36):
So maybe that means getting outand doing more in-person
markets.
Maybe it means marketingyourself on Facebook to a
Canadian audience, talking aboutthings like the fact that you
are made in Canada, that this isa local business, all those
types of things that reallymotivate people to support you
(07:02):
here.
I think those kinds of thingsare important and it's really
important to remember thatmarketing doesn't change habits
overnight.
It's very hard to get people tochange their habits overnight.
It is very much a long game.
It's something that you have tostart and work on every single
day until it starts to snowball,and it's not something that you
(07:23):
can just do on January 16th orFebruary 1st or whenever this
could potentially happen.
It's something that I wouldstart focusing on right now.
And even if none of this comesto fruition, at the very least
you are nurturing your localmarket, and that never hurts to
do.
It never hurts to become a namethat everyone recognizes
locally or within your owncountry.
(07:46):
On that note, this would be areally great time to nurture the
loyalty of your US-basedcustomers.
So focus in on different waysthat you can let them know that
you're there for them.
Let them know what makes youspecial.
Let them know that you're therefor them.
Let them know what makes youspecial.
(08:07):
Let them know what might makeit worth the extra potential 25%
to continue shopping with you,because there will be people who
will be able to absorb thatprice increase and who will
potentially want to stay withyou.
So what are you doing tonurture those people right now?
Are you making the most of youremail list?
(08:29):
Are you letting them know whoyou are, what you're about your
story, because that's reallyimportant when we're small
businesses and makers andartists.
It's you know.
People support people who theytrust.
People support people who theyfeel that they have a connection
to.
So now is the time to reallyforge those connections and see
(08:53):
what you can do to strengthenthem.
Looking at doing digitalproducts, particularly if you're
an artist or an illustrator Idon't think tariffs at this
point are being talked about fordigital products we will have
to wait and see but that ispotentially an option as well as
something that you can do,especially if you are in art,
(09:17):
illustration, graphic design,any of those types of things.
Also, consider whether you canadd services to your offerings,
because I don't think servicesare going to fall under this
tariff.
I certainly hope not, because Irun a service-based business
and the majority of my customersare in the United States, so,
(09:40):
but it doesn't sound likeservices are something that is
being looked at right now, somaybe that's a potential thing
you can do.
That could be things likecourses.
So services and digitalproducts could be things like
templates, courses, e-books, allthose types of things.
So that's another thing thatyou can look at.
(10:01):
You can look at other marketsoutside of North America.
This has also gotten trickier,unfortunately, this year,
because the EU now has some veryinteresting regulations and
restrictions.
You need to have an EUrepresentative if you sell to EU
(10:23):
countries now, which is verychallenging.
I know a few small businessesin the UK who are going through
this, trying to, to, to to makesure that they can continue
selling to the EU, where forthem it is much more of a
concern than it is for us.
But where else could youpotentially target?
What other markets could youlook at?
I think also, now is the timeto really focus on finances, so
(10:50):
do you have an emergency fundfor your business as well as for
yourself personally?
What could you do to cutexpenses or costs and look at
where you get your materialsfrom, because there is also the
possibility that retaliatorytariffs will be put in place and
(11:12):
that may mean that if you getsupplies and things from the
United States, there is thepotential that those are going
to go up in price as well.
It's so hard to know how thisis going to impact everyone,
because our supply chaincross-border supply chain is so
intertwined and there are thingsthat start out in Canada, get
(11:33):
finished off in the UnitedStates, get imported back into
Canada and you have thepotential for tariffs to be
added on multiple times.
This is why the auto industryis so stressed out about this,
because when a car is made inCanada, or the US parts and
things go back and forth acrossthe border multiple times and it
has the potential to reallyimpact that industry, but it has
(11:56):
that potential to impact us aswell.
So where do you order your rawgoods from, your and your
supplies and your materials?
I would start looking to see ifyou can find Canadian suppliers
.
It might be a little moreexpensive initially, but it has
the potential to be cheaper inthe long run.
It doesn't mean you need toswitch over to them right now,
(12:19):
although I know a lot of peopleare doing that because they are
not willing to support the US ifthe US puts these tariffs into
place.
That's a whole.
That's up to you.
I'm not advocating one way orthe other, but maybe there is a
possibility that you can findother options in Canada where
(12:41):
you can order your materialsfrom, and if things do start
going the wrong way, then youknow at least that you can get
what you need from anothersource.
That might, in the long run, becheaper, if that makes sense.
I hope that makes sense.
Um, I think also.
(13:01):
Uh, take a look at things likeyour inventory.
Uh, inventory is costly.
Um, if you sell to wholesaleoutlets uh like on platforms
like fair and things like thatto to us clients, uh, this has
the potential to impact you aswell, and so maybe you want to
(13:25):
start paying attention to, um,finding wholesale retailers, et
cetera, in Canada to fill whatcould potentially become a gap
or a void.
So those are all things thatyou really want to be paying
close attention to right now.
It is better to have plan B, c,d, e and F in the back of your
(13:48):
mind now rather than scramblinga month or two from now.
I think a lot of us experiencedthat with the postal strike.
We kind of thought, oh, it'snot going to happen, they'll
settle.
And then, when it looked likethey wouldn't settle, we were
like, oh, but last few timesthey've done rotating strikes.
And then there was no rotatingstrikes, and then the strike hit
(14:08):
, everything shut down andpeople were scrambling to find
another option.
You don't want to be scramblingat the last minute.
You want to be very aware ofwhat's going on and make sure
that you have backup plans inplace to handle whatever comes
our way.
It has the potential to bereally sucky.
(14:30):
So, yeah, start, start thinkingabout what your backup plans
will be, whether that isfinancial, whether that is
finding raw materials, whetherthat is marketing to a new group
of people.
Um, I would start marketingefforts Now.
Marketing efforts are neverwasted.
If you grow a new marketwithout losing an existing
(14:52):
market, that is great.
That is going to set you up fora fantastic 2025.
If you do lose one market, thenyou're going to want that other
market to step in and fill thevoid, so that's not wasted.
I would start that now.
I would also start preparing anemergency fund right now if you
don't have one in place.
If you do have one in place,maybe start putting extra money
(15:15):
into it while you can, whereveryou can, just in case and you
know what Best case scenario youdon't need it, and then you
have a nice little cash fundwhere you can reinvest in your
business in other ways, maybesix months or a year from now.
So you know again, moneydoesn't go to waste when you
(15:39):
have it.
It's always a bonus.
It just gives you more optionsand more flexibility, and that's
really what we want to befocusing on right now is making
sure that we're in a flexible,that we have flexibility, that
we can move back and forth, thatwe can move back and forth and
we can toggle switches and pulllevers and hopefully not suffer
too much from anything thatpotentially comes our way.
(16:01):
There are some other things thatyou can do, depending on where
you live.
Maybe take a look at whether ornot you can do some events in
the US this year.
If you live in a border town,that might be an option.
I don't know the logisticsbehind that, or particularly
selling in a country that you'renot located in, so that's
(16:21):
something that you would have toresearch, but again, that's
part of the planning process.
Is that a viable option for you?
I'm just going to pick BCbecause that's where I live, but
you know, if you live near aPeace Arch border crossing, are
there some markets in Blainethat you could go down and do
for an afternoon.
Those are close enough.
In some cases they might becloser to you than driving into
(16:43):
Vancouver and you can go downand do set up early in the
morning and be back home atnight without having to stay
overnight.
So that might be worth taking alook at.
I think, too, one of the thingsthat we don't have a great
presence with in Canada is wedon't have platforms like Etsy
(17:06):
that are Canadian made.
There are a couple of them, butthey're not great.
Maybe this is an opportunity totry some of them out and maybe,
if enough of us get onto thoseplatforms, there's a potential
that they could grow intosomething better.
I know the UK has their ownplatform and there are other
(17:28):
platforms in different countries, so that's something to maybe
look at.
I don't think it would hurt totry a few of those platforms out
.
I don't have names of the ones.
There's one in particular I'mthinking about because I see
their ads on Instagram all thetime.
That's a possibility.
Pair up with other makers andmaybe do create your own pop-up
(17:54):
sales or, um, different waysthat you can potentially uh,
work together to to createexperiences for local, local
customers.
Um, and yeah, I think basicallythat's what you need to do and,
(18:16):
at the end of the day, focus onwhat makes you unique, what
makes your products, what givesthem their value.
I know, sometimes when we createart or and when I say art I'm
not just talking about paintings, which is what everyone assumes
by art, but I'm talkinganything that we make or create
(18:38):
artisanal goods I think for usit's very hard to figure out
what the value proposition is,because we sort of view what we
create as a want and not a need,but lots of people spend money
on their wants and not theirneeds.
So what is it about what you dothat makes you different from
(18:59):
everyone else?
And really work on honing in onthat.
Messaging in your social media,in your email newsletters, in
however you market, when yousell at markets.
Look at yourself on Etsy.
Do you look like everyone else?
If you were to search for whatit is that you sell on Etsy,
(19:20):
does your listing look likeeveryone else or do you stand
out Like?
What is it that makes youdifferent?
And and you really need to Ithink a lot of times we change
one little thing and we thinkthat makes us different from our
competitors or or other peoplecreating the same type of work
that we do, and in the eyes ofthe consumer, it's usually not
(19:41):
enough for them to notice thedifference.
I think we really have to focusin on what makes us unique.
What's your voice?
What is your style?
Focus in on the handmademessage.
I think a lot of people arestarting to realize that there's
a lot of crap on platforms likeEtsy that is not handmade and
(20:03):
they're really looking to findthose makers to get back to what
Etsy used to be.
So you start really working onthat messaging.
I find the same thing when I goto markets.
More and more people arestarting to realize that a lot
of stuff at markets isn'thandmade or it is, and when I
(20:24):
say handmade I mean made by theartists selling it.
So I think that's somethingelse to think about.
But on that note, there arethings where if your item is
made in the US so print ondemand situations where somebody
in the US purchases somethingthat you sell but it's actually
(20:45):
printed and shipped from the US,I don't think again, we won't
know, but I don't think thosewould be subjected to tariffs.
So if you sell things liket-shirts, sweatshirts, anything
that's sort of print on demand,those might be exempt from
tariffs.
So that might be something elsethat you want to look at.
(21:06):
But again, in that situationit's not handmade, it is being
made by another company, it'sbeing manufactured at that point
.
So again, you're going to haveto be very careful on your
messaging with that and thetypes of words that you use.
But print on demand is a legitoption to potentially avoid
(21:27):
tariffs for your US clients.
I know, like with Amazon.
I sell notebooks on Amazon.
The notebooks are made with mydesigns on the cover and I
design the inside of thenotebook.
But they are printed on demandwhen a customer orders on Etsy.
(21:47):
So if a customer in the USorders, or a customer in Japan
orders, or a customer in the UKorders, their book is going to
be printed, made and printed intheir country.
Same within Canada.
If somebody in Canada orders it, it is going to be made in
Canada.
So that's another way.
But it can be very difficult tostand out on places like Amazon
(22:10):
.
If you think Etsy is crowded,amazon is even more crowded.
I think so, but there's options.
So, anyway, that's what Iwanted to cover off this month.
Like all of you, I'm reallyhoping that this doesn't turn
into the mess that it couldpotentially turn into, but we're
(22:31):
not going to know.
We're just not going to know.
This new president is, ifnothing, if not unpredictable,
but this has been something hehas been talking about
implementing for months, so itshouldn't come as a surprise to
any of us, and I do think I'vetalked about this before in
(22:52):
other episodes.
It is really important for us,as small business owners, to
stay on top of the latest newswith these things.
Don't find out.
There's a Canada Post strikethe day before it happens.
If you had been payingattention to the news, you would
have known that was in theworks for weeks prior to it
happening.
This has been in the works formonths prior to it happening.
(23:13):
So stay on top of things.
Don't be afraid to advocate.
Contact your MPs, contact yourMLAs, counselors, whoever,
(23:34):
whatever you call them in yourcity, your mayor, your business
association, all those likeCanadian Small Business
Association, your local chamberof commerce, boards of trade all
of those associations are thereto advocate for us.
And we are small businessowners.
We have just as much voice aslarger manufacturers and bigger
(23:58):
companies, because this isaffecting them too, very much so
.
This has the potential toaffect every industry in Canada,
and so make sure that you letpeople know.
We are heading into an electionyear.
Whether that election is goingto happen in February or October
, nobody knows, but this is thetime to start raising your voice
(24:18):
with your local politicians.
When they come knocking on yourdoor, let them know I run a
small business.
What are you doing?
Not just what are you doinginternationally, but what are
you doing domestically for me?
Because, frankly, I feel likesmall business has been a bit
left behind this year, the lastfew years, honestly.
So, yes, remember that you havea voice.
(24:40):
You can use it.
Band together with your fellowmakers and artists and let
people know that you're unhappyand that this has the potential
potential to really impact youfinancially.
Yes, and small businesses pay.
We pay our share in taxes, andwhen there's less small
(25:01):
businesses, there is less taxrevenue and no government wants
to decrease their tax base.
They want to increase their taxbase.
So it's really on everyoneright right now to minimize the
potential impact of this.
And yeah, so stay informed, beprepared, have a backup plan and
(25:23):
make sure that you are doingeverything you can to be as
financially prepared as possible.
That is it for this month.
As always, I just want to saythank you all so much for your
ongoing support over the pastyear.
It has been very muchappreciated and I don't kid when
I say the podcast would notexist without you.
It would not, and I reallyappreciate everything you do to
(25:45):
keep the show going.
I hope that you all have afantastic New Year's and that
2025 is happy and prosperous andpeaceful.
I'm kind of laughing because Iwas reading a thread yesterday
where somebody said they sentsomebody a text that said I hope
(26:08):
you have a prosperous new yearand autocorrect changed it to a
preposterous new year and I feellike that is probably more
correct.
But we shall have to wait andsee.
If nothing else, I think itwill be an interesting new year,
but thank you all again foryour support and I will be back
(26:32):
in January with another newpremium subscriber.
Only episode.
Happy New Year everyone.
Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new premium
supporter episode.
This is your December episode.
I'm getting it in, as usual,under the wire, and this is one.
I kind of left this to late inDecember on purpose, in the
hopes that we would have alittle bit more information on
(00:22):
this, but we really don't, andso I thought I'm going to put it
out now, and what I willprobably do is do a bigger, more
expanded version of this on thepublic podcast in January, if
necessary.
But, of course, I am talkingabout these potential 25%
(00:44):
tariffs that we, as smallbusiness owners in Canada, may
be facing in the new year whenthe new president-elect takes
office.
So, regardless of how you feelpolitically about any of this,
(01:04):
if you are a small businessowner which we all are this has
the potential to affect us verydramatically, and the most
frustrating part about this isthat this is something we really
don't have control over.
We will have no say in whetherthese tariffs are enacted.
(01:25):
It is not our government thatis going to potentially do this,
and we don't have.
There's, quite literally, verylittle that we can do besides
advocate for ourselves with ourown government, which, let's
face, it, is a bit of a gongshow right now to make sure that
(01:48):
they are doing everything theycan to minimize potential impact
, and you know there is apossibility that none of this
may come to fruition, butthere's also a very real
possibility that it will, orthat some form of it will.
So, without getting into thepolitics of it all, what I
(02:08):
wanted to talk about today iswhat we can do.
So, while we cannot controlwhether this goes ahead or not,
there are things we can dowithin our businesses to prepare
, and so I wanted to put thoseout there for all of you, so
that you can at least bethinking about them, because I
think, at this point, this issomething we should all be doing
(02:31):
.
We should all be thinking abouthow we can potentially protect
ourselves to the best of ourability.
It's going to be rough if itgoes ahead, and the better we
can be prepared, the better offwe will be.
So I think, to give you a fewthings that you can look at, I
(02:54):
think one of the first thingsthat I would do is and I talk
about this a lot in our premiumsubscriber episodes is make sure
that your pricing is nailed.
If you are working with very,very small margins, you are not
going to be able to tweak yourpricing.
I also think it's important tounderstand how tariffs work.
(03:15):
Tariffs are not something thatwe put in place.
It is something that is put inplace on the other end, on the
end of the importer.
So the tariffs mightpotentially be added.
If you sell on Etsy, etsy mightadd the tariff on at the
checkout.
It's not something that weinclude in our prices, because
(03:38):
all that's going to result in isthat the tariff will be applied
to the new, higher price on ourend.
On the other end, it's a littlebit complicated.
So this isn't like somethingthat we apply on our end in our
shops.
It is something that is applied, like I said, etsy might
collect it or it might becollected at the border, almost
(04:03):
like a duty or a tax or customsfees, those types of things.
So this is all going to.
We're not sure how this mightpotentially play out, but if you
have some room in your wiggleroom in your pricing, if you
have good margins particularlyif you price for wholesale you
probably have some very healthymargins which might be able to
(04:23):
allow you to do some differentpricing for your US customers
where you actually lower theprice for them.
Etsy allows you to do this.
You can have a domestic priceand you can have a price for the
rest of the world which iscould be lower, it could be
higher, so there's thatopportunity there.
(04:44):
If you have your own website,that might be something you want
to look into to see if there isan app or a plugin that gives
you that kind of functionality.
But again, if you have very lowmargins to begin with and
you're not pricing for wholesale, that's going to be really
challenging for you.
So that might be something thatyou need to think about.
Do you want to raise yourprices so that you have those
(05:06):
margins?
That can be tricky too and thento raise a price and have a
tariff on your new raise price?
That can be really rough.
But this is why pricingappropriately is so important,
because it does give you someflexibility in these situations.
Give you some flexibility inthese situations.
(05:29):
I would also be looking atnurturing your own domestic
market.
We obviously don't have thesame population that the US has.
They are almost 10 times ourpopulation.
There's a lot more potentialcustomers in the US, but we
still are sitting at.
I'm not sure what our currentpopulation is.
I think it's around 38, 39million.
That's still a lot of people,and this is where you really
(05:53):
want to focus on that domesticmarket and ask yourself what
you're doing to marketspecifically to your own
neighborhood, your own province,your own country.
There is a very strongpossibility that we will lose
some of our US-based customers,and I know on Etsy, a lot of
(06:15):
people focus on selling to theUS market.
Now is the time where you mightwant to focus on your Canadian
market and that may mean lookingat other options besides Etsy
and I'm picking on Etsy herebecause that's where I know a
lot of you do sell.
(06:36):
So maybe that means getting outand doing more in-person
markets.
Maybe it means marketingyourself on Facebook to a
Canadian audience, talking aboutthings like the fact that you
are made in Canada, that this isa local business, all those
types of things that reallymotivate people to support you
(07:02):
here.
I think those kinds of thingsare important and it's really
important to remember thatmarketing doesn't change habits
overnight.
It's very hard to get people tochange their habits overnight.
It is very much a long game.
It's something that you have tostart and work on every single
day until it starts to snowball,and it's not something that you
(07:23):
can just do on January 16th orFebruary 1st or whenever this
could potentially happen.
It's something that I wouldstart focusing on right now.
And even if none of this comesto fruition, at the very least
you are nurturing your localmarket, and that never hurts to
do.
It never hurts to become a namethat everyone recognizes
locally or within your owncountry.
(07:46):
On that note, this would be areally great time to nurture the
loyalty of your US-basedcustomers.
So focus in on different waysthat you can let them know that
you're there for them.
Let them know what makes youspecial.
Let them know that you're therefor them.
Let them know what makes youspecial.
(08:07):
Let them know what might makeit worth the extra potential 25%
to continue shopping with you,because there will be people who
will be able to absorb thatprice increase and who will
potentially want to stay withyou.
So what are you doing tonurture those people right now?
Are you making the most of youremail list?
(08:29):
Are you letting them know whoyou are, what you're about your
story, because that's reallyimportant when we're small
businesses and makers andartists.
It's you know.
People support people who theytrust.
People support people who theyfeel that they have a connection
to.
So now is the time to reallyforge those connections and see
(08:53):
what you can do to strengthenthem.
Looking at doing digitalproducts, particularly if you're
an artist or an illustrator Idon't think tariffs at this
point are being talked about fordigital products we will have
to wait and see but that ispotentially an option as well as
something that you can do,especially if you are in art,
(09:17):
illustration, graphic design,any of those types of things.
Also, consider whether you canadd services to your offerings,
because I don't think servicesare going to fall under this
tariff.
I certainly hope not, because Irun a service-based business
and the majority of my customersare in the United States, so,
(09:40):
but it doesn't sound likeservices are something that is
being looked at right now, somaybe that's a potential thing
you can do.
That could be things likecourses.
So services and digitalproducts could be things like
templates, courses, e-books, allthose types of things.
So that's another thing thatyou can look at.
(10:01):
You can look at other marketsoutside of North America.
This has also gotten trickier,unfortunately, this year,
because the EU now has some veryinteresting regulations and
restrictions.
You need to have an EUrepresentative if you sell to EU
(10:23):
countries now, which is verychallenging.
I know a few small businessesin the UK who are going through
this, trying to, to, to to makesure that they can continue
selling to the EU, where forthem it is much more of a
concern than it is for us.
But where else could youpotentially target?
What other markets could youlook at?
I think also, now is the timeto really focus on finances, so
(10:50):
do you have an emergency fundfor your business as well as for
yourself personally?
What could you do to cutexpenses or costs and look at
where you get your materialsfrom, because there is also the
possibility that retaliatorytariffs will be put in place and
(11:12):
that may mean that if you getsupplies and things from the
United States, there is thepotential that those are going
to go up in price as well.
It's so hard to know how thisis going to impact everyone,
because our supply chaincross-border supply chain is so
intertwined and there are thingsthat start out in Canada, get
(11:33):
finished off in the UnitedStates, get imported back into
Canada and you have thepotential for tariffs to be
added on multiple times.
This is why the auto industryis so stressed out about this,
because when a car is made inCanada, or the US parts and
things go back and forth acrossthe border multiple times and it
has the potential to reallyimpact that industry, but it has
(11:56):
that potential to impact us aswell.
So where do you order your rawgoods from, your and your
supplies and your materials?
I would start looking to see ifyou can find Canadian suppliers
.
It might be a little moreexpensive initially, but it has
the potential to be cheaper inthe long run.
It doesn't mean you need toswitch over to them right now,
(12:19):
although I know a lot of peopleare doing that because they are
not willing to support the US ifthe US puts these tariffs into
place.
That's a whole.
That's up to you.
I'm not advocating one way orthe other, but maybe there is a
possibility that you can findother options in Canada where
(12:41):
you can order your materialsfrom, and if things do start
going the wrong way, then youknow at least that you can get
what you need from anothersource.
That might, in the long run, becheaper, if that makes sense.
I hope that makes sense.
Um, I think also.
(13:01):
Uh, take a look at things likeyour inventory.
Uh, inventory is costly.
Um, if you sell to wholesaleoutlets uh like on platforms
like fair and things like thatto to us clients, uh, this has
the potential to impact you aswell, and so maybe you want to
(13:25):
start paying attention to, um,finding wholesale retailers, et
cetera, in Canada to fill whatcould potentially become a gap
or a void.
So those are all things thatyou really want to be paying
close attention to right now.
It is better to have plan B, c,d, e and F in the back of your
(13:48):
mind now rather than scramblinga month or two from now.
I think a lot of us experiencedthat with the postal strike.
We kind of thought, oh, it'snot going to happen, they'll
settle.
And then, when it looked likethey wouldn't settle, we were
like, oh, but last few timesthey've done rotating strikes.
And then there was no rotatingstrikes, and then the strike hit
(14:08):
, everything shut down andpeople were scrambling to find
another option.
You don't want to be scramblingat the last minute.
You want to be very aware ofwhat's going on and make sure
that you have backup plans inplace to handle whatever comes
our way.
It has the potential to bereally sucky.
(14:30):
So, yeah, start, start thinkingabout what your backup plans
will be, whether that isfinancial, whether that is
finding raw materials, whetherthat is marketing to a new group
of people.
Um, I would start marketingefforts Now.
Marketing efforts are neverwasted.
If you grow a new marketwithout losing an existing
(14:52):
market, that is great.
That is going to set you up fora fantastic 2025.
If you do lose one market, thenyou're going to want that other
market to step in and fill thevoid, so that's not wasted.
I would start that now.
I would also start preparing anemergency fund right now if you
don't have one in place.
If you do have one in place,maybe start putting extra money
(15:15):
into it while you can, whereveryou can, just in case and you
know what Best case scenario youdon't need it, and then you
have a nice little cash fundwhere you can reinvest in your
business in other ways, maybesix months or a year from now.
So you know again, moneydoesn't go to waste when you
(15:39):
have it.
It's always a bonus.
It just gives you more optionsand more flexibility, and that's
really what we want to befocusing on right now is making
sure that we're in a flexible,that we have flexibility, that
we can move back and forth, thatwe can move back and forth and
we can toggle switches and pulllevers and hopefully not suffer
too much from anything thatpotentially comes our way.
(16:01):
There are some other things thatyou can do, depending on where
you live.
Maybe take a look at whether ornot you can do some events in
the US this year.
If you live in a border town,that might be an option.
I don't know the logisticsbehind that, or particularly
selling in a country that you'renot located in, so that's
(16:21):
something that you would have toresearch, but again, that's
part of the planning process.
Is that a viable option for you?
I'm just going to pick BCbecause that's where I live, but
you know, if you live near aPeace Arch border crossing, are
there some markets in Blainethat you could go down and do
for an afternoon.
Those are close enough.
In some cases they might becloser to you than driving into
(16:43):
Vancouver and you can go downand do set up early in the
morning and be back home atnight without having to stay
overnight.
So that might be worth taking alook at.
I think, too, one of the thingsthat we don't have a great
presence with in Canada is wedon't have platforms like Etsy
(17:06):
that are Canadian made.
There are a couple of them, butthey're not great.
Maybe this is an opportunity totry some of them out and maybe,
if enough of us get onto thoseplatforms, there's a potential
that they could grow intosomething better.
I know the UK has their ownplatform and there are other
(17:28):
platforms in different countries, so that's something to maybe
look at.
I don't think it would hurt totry a few of those platforms out
.
I don't have names of the ones.
There's one in particular I'mthinking about because I see
their ads on Instagram all thetime.
That's a possibility.
Pair up with other makers andmaybe do create your own pop-up
(17:54):
sales or, um, different waysthat you can potentially uh,
work together to to createexperiences for local, local
customers.
Um, and yeah, I think basicallythat's what you need to do and,
(18:16):
at the end of the day, focus onwhat makes you unique, what
makes your products, what givesthem their value.
I know, sometimes when we createart or and when I say art I'm
not just talking about paintings, which is what everyone assumes
by art, but I'm talkinganything that we make or create
(18:38):
artisanal goods I think for usit's very hard to figure out
what the value proposition is,because we sort of view what we
create as a want and not a need,but lots of people spend money
on their wants and not theirneeds.
So what is it about what you dothat makes you different from
(18:59):
everyone else?
And really work on honing in onthat.
Messaging in your social media,in your email newsletters, in
however you market, when yousell at markets.
Look at yourself on Etsy.
Do you look like everyone else?
If you were to search for whatit is that you sell on Etsy,
(19:20):
does your listing look likeeveryone else or do you stand
out Like?
What is it that makes youdifferent?
And and you really need to Ithink a lot of times we change
one little thing and we thinkthat makes us different from our
competitors or or other peoplecreating the same type of work
that we do, and in the eyes ofthe consumer, it's usually not
(19:41):
enough for them to notice thedifference.
I think we really have to focusin on what makes us unique.
What's your voice?
What is your style?
Focus in on the handmademessage.
I think a lot of people arestarting to realize that there's
a lot of crap on platforms likeEtsy that is not handmade and
(20:03):
they're really looking to findthose makers to get back to what
Etsy used to be.
So you start really working onthat messaging.
I find the same thing when I goto markets.
More and more people arestarting to realize that a lot
of stuff at markets isn'thandmade or it is, and when I
(20:24):
say handmade I mean made by theartists selling it.
So I think that's somethingelse to think about.
But on that note, there arethings where if your item is
made in the US so print ondemand situations where somebody
in the US purchases somethingthat you sell but it's actually
(20:45):
printed and shipped from the US,I don't think again, we won't
know, but I don't think thosewould be subjected to tariffs.
So if you sell things liket-shirts, sweatshirts, anything
that's sort of print on demand,those might be exempt from
tariffs.
So that might be something elsethat you want to look at.
(21:06):
But again, in that situationit's not handmade, it is being
made by another company, it'sbeing manufactured at that point
.
So again, you're going to haveto be very careful on your
messaging with that and thetypes of words that you use.
But print on demand is a legitoption to potentially avoid
(21:27):
tariffs for your US clients.
I know, like with Amazon.
I sell notebooks on Amazon.
The notebooks are made with mydesigns on the cover and I
design the inside of thenotebook.
But they are printed on demandwhen a customer orders on Etsy.
(21:47):
So if a customer in the USorders, or a customer in Japan
orders, or a customer in the UKorders, their book is going to
be printed, made and printed intheir country.
Same within Canada.
If somebody in Canada orders it, it is going to be made in
Canada.
So that's another way.
But it can be very difficult tostand out on places like Amazon
(22:10):
.
If you think Etsy is crowded,amazon is even more crowded.
I think so, but there's options.
So, anyway, that's what Iwanted to cover off this month.
Like all of you, I'm reallyhoping that this doesn't turn
into the mess that it couldpotentially turn into, but we're
(22:31):
not going to know.
We're just not going to know.
This new president is, ifnothing, if not unpredictable,
but this has been something hehas been talking about
implementing for months, so itshouldn't come as a surprise to
any of us, and I do think I'vetalked about this before in
(22:52):
other episodes.
It is really important for us,as small business owners, to
stay on top of the latest newswith these things.
Don't find out.
There's a Canada Post strikethe day before it happens.
If you had been payingattention to the news, you would
have known that was in theworks for weeks prior to it
happening.
This has been in the works formonths prior to it happening.
(23:13):
So stay on top of things.
Don't be afraid to advocate.
Contact your MPs, contact yourMLAs, counselors, whoever,
(23:34):
whatever you call them in yourcity, your mayor, your business
association, all those likeCanadian Small Business
Association, your local chamberof commerce, boards of trade all
of those associations are thereto advocate for us.
And we are small businessowners.
We have just as much voice aslarger manufacturers and bigger
(23:58):
companies, because this isaffecting them too, very much so
.
This has the potential toaffect every industry in Canada,
and so make sure that you letpeople know.
We are heading into an electionyear.
Whether that election is goingto happen in February or October
, nobody knows, but this is thetime to start raising your voice
(24:18):
with your local politicians.
When they come knocking on yourdoor, let them know I run a
small business.
What are you doing?
Not just what are you doinginternationally, but what are
you doing domestically for me?
Because, frankly, I feel likesmall business has been a bit
left behind this year, the lastfew years, honestly.
So, yes, remember that you havea voice.
(24:40):
You can use it.
Band together with your fellowmakers and artists and let
people know that you're unhappyand that this has the potential
potential to really impact youfinancially.
Yes, and small businesses pay.
We pay our share in taxes, andwhen there's less small
(25:01):
businesses, there is less taxrevenue and no government wants
to decrease their tax base.
They want to increase their taxbase.
So it's really on everyoneright right now to minimize the
potential impact of this.
And yeah, so stay informed, beprepared, have a backup plan and
(25:23):
make sure that you are doingeverything you can to be as
financially prepared as possible.
That is it for this month.
As always, I just want to saythank you all so much for your
ongoing support over the pastyear.
It has been very muchappreciated and I don't kid when
I say the podcast would notexist without you.
It would not, and I reallyappreciate everything you do to
(25:45):
keep the show going.
I hope that you all have afantastic New Year's and that
2025 is happy and prosperous andpeaceful.
I'm kind of laughing because Iwas reading a thread yesterday
where somebody said they sentsomebody a text that said I hope
(26:08):
you have a prosperous new yearand autocorrect changed it to a
preposterous new year and I feellike that is probably more
correct.
But we shall have to wait andsee.
If nothing else, I think itwill be an interesting new year,
but thank you all again foryour support and I will be back
(26:32):
in January with another newpremium subscriber.
Only episode.
Happy New Year everyone.
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