Coming New Year: What Are Your Plans With Pricing Considering The Coming New Year

[ReneesGreetings]

With all of the information in the news recently concerning tariffs and rising prices, what are your thoughts in regards to your small business? Obviously, if prices do rise, we will all likely have to make adjustments.

I personally had decided to change my prices beginning December 1st, but this decision was made based on my own research and ideals and was made before the recent election was completed. 

I'm genuinely curious as to how much small business will be effected with the impending tariffs and potential rising costs.

[maxpete]

@ReneesGreetings great conversation topic, glad you posted! This is definitely something that I am sure is on a lot of people's minds. Tagging some folks here too. @IntermissionArc, @AnnaBYLY, @ehflower, and @hay2go 

[CareyJo]

Since the first tariff on steel and other metals went into place during Trump's first administration, we've seen increases across the board on our equipment.  Since Covid, those increases have been coming as many as eight times per year.  We have never changed the markup on what we sell but we have increased our hourly rate to keep up with inflation.  We still have to pay our bills and make a profit.  We will actually be slightly increasing our largest commercial contract in January.  It normally gets reviewed in the fall and goes up slightly each year.  This year, there is a new carrier to that contract and we're no longer required to review in the fall.  So I'm choosing to do a yearly review and increase in January and will continue to do so going forward, unless something major shifts in the middle of the year that drastically effects our costs.

We went for several years without increasing our hourly rate.  One reason was supply and demand.  We were the lowest price with the highest education in our field - that gave us great supply that no one else could beat.  The other reason is that it was pre-covid and we weren't seeing huge increases in costs, so we could afford to stay at that rate.  That's no longer the case.  An annual increase is never wrong if you're keeping up with inflation and not price gouging.  

[alpacachick]

I believe it will have a huge impact since the US market for Alpaca products is Peru.  I do make alot of my products but not enough to keep my farm store fully stocked.  

The US market for Alpaca Fiber is developing slowly my hope is this will force the internal supply to grow.

[Doran]

I am in personal services--skincare. All of my suppliers raise prices yearly on my products.  It is usually around 1-3% but this year two went up 10%!  I'm researching replacements in case clients aren't willing to pay so much.  I know I need to raise service prices, but I will wait a year and see how things go.  I may do an increase mid-year if things start to get bad but I know it is something I need to keep an eye on actively.  

[BrianaJo]

As far as I'm aware the tariffs are only for things we don't have in the US, so I don't expect coffee beans to rise because we technically can't grow them in the US. Over the past decade coffee beans have gotten more expensive because of the coffee belt shrinking and a few coffee tree diseases wiping out whole seasons of crops. But I don't know, I'm in a wait-and-see mode. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, we'll raise our prices if we have to.

[DinaLRosenberg]

You never know... it could be on items we don't make here OR it can be for political pressure for other countries to be threatened into an action of some kind or another.

Right now the bulk of what we sell are books/tarot decks (ALL of these are printed in China) and crystals/mineral specimens. Our Crystals/Minerals come from all over the world. Hopefully we'll have a better idea end of January at the Tucson Gem & Mineral show as to what's going on, At that point, everything that is being sold will be in the country (it's likely already here) prior to the tariffs taking effect.

I'm concerned about other costs that are components or COGS going up. We know he's mentioned Canada/Mexico and I've heard we import quite a bit of crude oil. This can impact shipping costs which impacts everything. 

[BofBArtStudio]

@DinaLRosenberg maybe I will see you at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show.  I live in Arizona and enjoy going to that show.

[DinaLRosenberg]

We will be there the first week in February 🙂

[ryanwanner]

@BrianaJo  I'm with you on believing that the coffee itself won't be affected by any new tariffs or laws, but I am worried about the costs of the paper products. It's definitely something I'm keeping an eye on.

However, with the coffee commodity market spiking like I haven't seen in over 15 years, I have already noticed a bump in pricing on my unroasted coffee. One of my main coffees just went from $4.83/lb to $5.10 overnight. UGH. If that trend continues, the tariffs will be the least of my worries.

[BofBArtStudio]

Most of our products come from China, Taiwan, Italy, Denmark and Mexico.

I serve on a Board that is an association for our industry.

Our Board also includes our Vendors, who are all saying that they are in a wait and see pattern and they will all advise us when they know more details.

[JayElleBee]

Very interesting! I used to purchase large quantities of shea, mango, and murumuru butter from collectives in Africa. In the last three years, all have commercialized, and prices skyrocketed. I am not against paying livable wages or fair market value for raw ingredients, but wowza! Also, many of the most popular US suppliers for soap and candle makers were bought out by a private equity firm - hence, huge price hikes in even the most basic of ingredients. I am now looking towards suppliers that are still independent.