A poem by William Blacker has Oliver Cromwell telling his soldiers to "put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry."
Such advice, figuratively speaking, could well apply to 性视界传媒 business owners looking down the barrel of a proposed 25 per cent tariff on Canadian products that enter the U.S.A. when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Beverlee Rasmussen is a best-selling author and Canadian small business expert who has worked with more than 700 small businesses. Drawing on what she learned from the pandemic and 2008 financial crisis, Rasmussen knows what can happen to businesses that are too slow to react when there's an economic storm on the horizon.
First up, complaining and whining won't help.
"Regarding Trump, small business owners need to put their own political views aside and just look at the facts," she advises. "Whatever you need to do to calm down, because it's a big distraction 鈥� you're running a business and hearing all this fear, and we've had so many things post-COVID, inflation, interest rates, the hits and this could potentially be another hit so just calm down and look at the facts, that's the super-important thing."
Be aware. Say for instance you own a coffee shop and most of your customers work at an auto parts distribution company, "you might not want to sign another three-year lease right now."
Get your books up to date.
Rasmussen says now would be a really good time to spend the next six weeks getting your business's "financial house" in order "so that you truly understand what the impact's going to be. If your sales go down, where do you need to cut costs...in 2008 so many business owners, they just kind-of held on, and they didn't want to hurt their employees, they wanted to keep their family together, and a lot of them went under for that reason, because they weren't watching the money."
"It's about knowing the facts," Rasmussen stresses. "The business owner has to pause and think how will this impact me and my business...what are the facts, for your business? This is the time for reflection, to have a look. And again, is your financial house in order? Let's say you think okay, this actually could be a problem, do you have enough cash to weather the storm? You're not going to get any money when you don't have any money 鈥� banks will only give out money when businesses have money so this might be a good time to take out a loan and just park that money to get you through the next bumpy ride, whatever that looks like."
Jasroop Gosal, spokesman for the 性视界传媒 Board of Trade, says the proposed 25 per cent tariffs would have "devastating consequences" for local businesses as 性视界传媒 is home to the most manufacturers in B.C. and a "significant number of import-export reliant companies, could see increased costs, reduced competitiveness, and potential job losses should the tariffs come into effect as soon as January 20, 2025."
Gosal also noted Canada's economy is recovering from the pandemic, high inflation, supply chain disruptions and labour shortages that already create hamper businesses. "Tariffs of this magnitude would compound these difficulties, further jeopardizing economic stability."
Rasmussen to date has two books under her belt. Her most recent is called Small Business, Big Opportunity.
Her website is
