President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on Chinese language imports affected many U.S. companies final yr. We verify in with one small enterprise proprietor to ask what the yr and vacation season had been like.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The common U.S. tariff on Chinese language merchandise is 47.5%. Now that the vacation buying season is over, we wished to verify again in with a small enterprise proprietor affected by these tariffs.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Beth Benike is the CEO of Busy Child, a Minnesota-based firm that makes child merchandise.
BETH BENIKE: My enterprise and my life have been an entire curler coaster (laughter) full of uncertainty, full of good issues and unhealthy issues.
MARTIN: Again in Could, after I spoke with Benike, she was scrambling to determine easy methods to take care of altering tariffs on merchandise her firm makes in China.
BENIKE: It was like, now we’re a misplaced trigger. And our merchandise had been able to ship. So I rapidly referred to as the manufacturing unit and mentioned cancel the reserving. There isn’t any manner we are able to provide you with that sort of cash in a month. After which it went up even greater (laughter). And that is after I hit the ground and simply cried.
MARTÍNEZ: U.S. tariffs on Chinese language merchandise went as excessive as 135% earlier than the Trump administration rolled them again. Benike was pressured to maintain stock in China, leaving her with out merchandise to promote for 2 months.
MARTIN: A silver lining, Benike says, has been increasing internationally and dealing with different entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, issues stay powerful.
BENIKE: We had the low income and issues had been fairly troublesome and debt was piling up. I needed to let my brother go, after which I really did not pay myself for the entire summer season. I went by means of my financial savings and I cashed in my retirement to maintain the enterprise afloat.
MARTÍNEZ: This vacation season, Benike offered issues at a deep low cost.
BENIKE: We ran a sale the place we really minimize our costs as little as attainable, probably not making a revenue however at the very least getting some gross sales to get the payments paid and pay my two workers as a result of the price of every part has gone up a lot. We obtained some gross sales within the door. Our vacation gross sales ended up – I simply did the mathematics – 30% lower than what they had been final yr.
MARTIN: Since we spoke final Could, Benike has been advocating for small companies nationwide. And for the brand new yr, she supplied some reflections.
BENIKE: There have been occasions which have been extremely arduous for me the place I ponder, do I want to simply let this dream go? After which I’m reminded that I’ve a terrific enterprise. I’ve constructed this dream. And what’s taking place is out of my management. It is not a mistake I made. And what I am doing by making an attempt to advocate for myself and for all small enterprise within the U.S. is giving that very same hope to different small enterprise homeowners.
MARTIN: She says messages of assist and kindness from prospects and different small enterprise homeowners hold her going.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEVE CRADOCK’S “LAPIS LAZULI”)
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its authentic broadcast or publication. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
