08/24/2026
Effective immediately:
The only item we will continue shipping to the US is our growth charts. Want to see why?
This client paid $33.15 CAD for a 4” x 4” x 1” Dimes From Heaven piggy bank. After fees, I lost about $4 before even factoring in my time, materials, packaging or the cost of shipping it.
I should have shipped this before the tariffs took effect. It was supposed to go out last week, but if I’m being completely honest, I’m running ragged. I missed it before the cut off.
And that one missed shipment is now costing me money.
This isn’t a post looking for sympathy. I’m sharing this because I don’t think people realize just how damaging these tariffs can be for small businesses.
I’m not a large company with warehouses, huge profit margins and an entire department dedicated to handling customs and tariff changes. I’m a small business. I make these items, package them, answer messages, design, order supplies, handle customer service and then somehow try to keep up with all of the constantly changing rules around shipping across the border.
The United States is where approximately 80% of my orders come from. I have shipped all over Canada and the US, and for years, shipping to the US has been a huge part of keeping my business going.
Now I have to look at each item and decide whether I can realistically continue selling it to my American customers without either losing money or raising my prices so much that nobody wants to buy it.
For this particular $33 item, the answer is no.
I simply cannot absorb these costs on smaller products. And I know I’m not the only small business in this position.
So, effective immediately, our growth charts will be the only item we continue shipping to the United States. They are one of the few products we sell where the value of the item and the profit margin make the additional costs somewhat manageable.
This is the reality of what these changes are doing to small businesses like mine. It may look like “just another tariff” on paper, but for a small business, it can mean losing an entire market overnight.
And honestly, we should all be terrified.
