Georgia small businesses struggle with tariffs and rising operating costs

Georgia small businesses are feeling the pinch from tariffs and rising costs.

Katrina Golden owns Lil Mama’s Sweet Treats which serves coffee and baked goods at the VA Medical Center in downtown Augusta. 

She said rising costs and job uncertainty caused less people to buy from her shop.

“Long term, it’s not sustainable for small businesses,” Golden said. “Just bottom line, it’s not. In the past year in my area, there’s been three bakeries that closed, just in the past year. One of them wasn’t even open longer than about a year. We’re still open simply because, one, I refuse to give up.”

Golden said she used to make $600 per day at her shop and now she only makes $300. At the same time, she is spending between 30-40% more daily due to rising costs of coffee, cups and packaging for desserts from tariffs.

The Trump Administration has instituted tariffs saying the long-term gain of protecting U.S. manufacturers will outweigh the short-term cost to small businesses.

Golden also lost a longtime employee because she was no longer able to afford health benefits after the Affordable Care Act tax credit expired.

Patrice Hull owns the clothing store in downtown Atlanta called Stuff We Wanna Say and is also the founder of the clothing and bag line Created to be Noticed.

She has worked with manufacturers abroad to produce her clothing line, but tariffs have made importing goods unaffordable.

“I just stopped ordering because it just wasn’t feasible,” Hull said. “So then I decided to just sell miscellaneous things like pens, journals, hats that some of them I make myself, or not actually make, but I embroider and do things myself. So, in essence, I diluted my brand in order to stay afloat just by selling whatever I could to make a dollar at that point.”

The increase in gas prices has also impacted shipping costs, which causes a deeper strain on Hull’s business.