Cassie Abel, after three years at Smith, realized that not many brands were built specifically for women. In 2016, she founded Wild Rye, a brand of outdoor clothing for women in rural Idaho.

Building your own business is a passionate labor that includes big risks, such as using her house to go to the capital. She won't make a profit until 2021. Now, her business faces another existing threat: high tariffs will increase her costs, and she is not sure she can keep the business for a long time.

Abel is expected to arrive in July with a $700,000 purchase order that includes the brand’s full fall lineup, which she ordered from suppliers in China in December. Wild Rye, which is imported twice a year, will now be subject to a $1.2 million tariff on upcoming shipments, she said.

"I don't have cash to pay these tariffs. These tariffs should be paid when entering the country. I don't have time to sell this product until the tariffs are imposed. We may be closed for the next four months," Abel said.

Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed a 145% tariff on China and 10% on all other countries. The president claims tariffs incentivize businesses to bring manufacturing back to the United States. But this has led hundreds of small businesses, such as Abel's contenders, to find ways to manage a lot of expenses.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a group of reporters at a White House briefing last week: "The goal here is to bring quality industrial work back to the United States. President Trump's work on the future, not the past work."

His comments put additional pressure on employers like Wild Rye. To avoid the storm caused by the Trump administration’s tariffs, Abel frozen recruitment, suspended pay increases for her 11 full-time employees and delayed new product development. She said she needs to raise prices for her products in the fall, ranging from 10% to 20%.

On April 29, she met with hundreds of members of the outdoor clothing community with the leaders of Washington to seek assistance. Abel said that in Republican control over the House and Senate, Democrats are not sure what they can do, while Republican leaders are worried that they will retaliate if they oppose the president.

"I heard it from both sides of the aisle (attention). It's frustrating, like it's hard to find a way forward. Everyone knows that small businesses will collapse, and everyone feels like there is no such script," Abel told Al Jazeera.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also prompted the White House to provide exceptions to small businesses like Wild Rye, an exception that the Trump administration quickly dismissed.

There is no comparable alternative to us

Abel said she was originally a brand made in the United States, but that was not financially sustainable.

“It almost put the business in a dilemma before we started because the U.S. simply has no ability or ability to produce technical clothing,” Abel said.

Most textiles (such as clothing and shoes) purchased in the United States are not produced in the United States. The United States imports about 97% of clothing, mainly from Asian countries, including China, which are valued by 145% of tariffs, but also from Vietnam and Bangladesh.

But it's not just the apparel industry facing this challenge. This is the entire small business community (defined as a business with 500 employees or less), with a portion of the economy employed about 61.7 million Americans, accounting for 45.9% of the U.S. labor force and 43.5% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

The wider economies have also felt the shock wave of tariffs that affect small businesses. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s first quarter, U.S. GDP fell 0.3% in the first quarter and grew 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Job growth accidentally dropped to 62,000, an indicator more immediately than the U.S. Department of Labor’s work report, which lagged one month behind and added 177,000 jobs.

Consumer confidence hit a 13-year low, and consumers are returning spending due to concerns about rising costs, which in turn means fewer people can buy products ranging from outdoor clothing to single tea and spices.

“In a difficult place”

In 2014, Chitra Agrawal founded Brooklyn Delhi with her husband Ben Garthus, a food brand inspired by Indian food.

Over the past decade, they have created a range of products, including 14 different condiments and boiled seasonings that have since grown into a massive business, distributed to major retailers such as Whole Foods and Kroger, as well as tableware kit services such as Hellofresh and Blue Apron.

Since hers is a professional brand, sourcing certain ingredients from other parts of the world is not only an attractive part of the brand, but therefore necessary.

"We are making these authentic Indian products that require ingredients not grown or large-scale in the United States. This puts us in a tough position," Agrawal told Al Jazeera.

Agrawal said 65 to 70% of the ingredients she uses come from outside the United States, mainly from India, with a few from Mexico and Sri Lanka, as well as glass from China.

Like Agrawal, Anjali Bhargava faces a similar challenge. Founder of Anjali's Cup, the brand that produces single-original spices and teas from around the world, Ginger from Vietnam, turmeric from Thailand, and tea from India, makes the brand so special in her opinion.

In 2024, the United States is ginger and several different varieties of tea, including black and green, according to Tridge, a global food procurement data analysis company.

"If I want to continue to produce these products, I will have to pay tariffs on these things," said Balgava.

She said she was trying to find domestic alternatives to her production aspects, such as packaging, a fee, to cut costs. Before her promotion, she imported canned food from China. Once the stock runs out, she may have to stop offering four to six of the 11 products because she can't afford the extra cost of importing.

"Basically, to keep the business going, I was forced to do a full overhaul of my retail packaging (which can be made in the US), which means redesigning, re-photographing, and with the cost," Bhargava added.

She said she will need to stay away from cans, she imports from China and explores other types of packaging options, such as pouches. The unexpected one-time fee is $10,000 to $20,000, which will consume her already slim profit margins, Balgava said. She is the only full-time employee, but employs freelancers and outsources to other businesses, tasks ranging from packaging to delivery.

Prices rise

Unlike large companies, it is difficult for small businesses to absorb tariffs.

"We've seen small businesses have very small profit margins, so it's hard to balance those costs. They're going to be the biggest hit."

D'Amato added: "They are on the impact of how to eat these costs or pass them on to consumers who no one wants to do it."

Prices responding to market pressures do not guarantee that they will fall when costs fall. Supply chain disruptions forced producers to raise prices at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. But even after reducing costs, grocers kept high prices as consumers continued to pay them, and there was no policy or market force that forced a reduction.

The burden was pressed on agrawal.

"Once you make a change and say a little bit, I want to lower these price increases, there is no guarantee that on the shelves, prices will drop. It's very difficult when you work with a grocery store to get your price down again. We still have to be very cautious. We are still thinking about this move. We are still thinking about this move."

But these imminent concerns have caused consumers and businesses to import goods before the tariffs begin to stockpile key items that may help them avoid price-raising, at least for some time.

In the first quarter, U.S. imports soared 41.3%, including entrepreneurs like Sean Macckowski, owner of Tallon Electric, a company that makes guitar pedals in Columbus, Ohio.

"We do have a lot of stockpiles. I think everyone is trying to scramble for it, hoping that will bridge that gap. But if we get to the end of that bridge, we either need to find another way or we will start running out of stuff," Mackowski told Al Jazeera.