Speaker 1: Let's say good morning to the chief executive officer of
Speaker 1: the Women Business Collaborative. It's Gwen Rece. Good morning, Gwen.
Speaker 1: So I'm sorry, it's Gwen.
Speaker 2: Ye morning Amy when Yeah, no problem, good morning, Hell,
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Brenda Reese a little bit later, so
Speaker 1: I just mixed you guys up. So, Gwen, before we
Speaker 1: get started and jump in and talk about these the tariffs,
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about what your organization, Women
Speaker 1: Business Collaborative does. So we have a frame of reference.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So we are a collaborative, which means we have
Speaker 2: eighty seven organization, sixty seven sponsors, and three hundred individuals
Speaker 2: that are committed to growing women in business. And related
Speaker 2: to this conversation, about forty percent of our collaborative is
Speaker 2: women own businesses. So we are there to support and
Speaker 2: grow these businesses and help continue to grow the economy.
Speaker 1: Okay, awesome, So let's talk about tariffs. A lot of
Speaker 1: focus has been on the car makers and things like
Speaker 1: lumber and steal. We just had a story about Ford
Speaker 1: sent on a memo to its dealership saying, hey, if
Speaker 1: the tariffs take hold, prices are going to go up.
Speaker 1: But as the tariffs take hold. If they do, they
Speaker 1: could have a huge effect on small businesses. So what
Speaker 1: kind of things are the small businesses experiencing?
Speaker 2: Well, i'm the small businesses which are about either you know,
Speaker 2: forty four percent of economic activity and actually have small
Speaker 2: businesses and all businesses women are about forty percent. You know,
Speaker 2: what we're seeing is these are mass market goods, these
Speaker 2: are necessities, these are consumer goods, These are toys, these
Speaker 2: are clothing, apparel, makeup, and so forth. So it's a
Speaker 2: really interesting, you know, group of businesses. And these are
Speaker 2: businesses and have smaller profit margins, right, which means that
Speaker 2: any disruption in their supplies if they put into their
Speaker 2: business or their outputs, you know, they just don't have
Speaker 2: that ability to weather a shock, right, So that means
Speaker 2: can they pass it on to the consumer? Do they
Speaker 2: have to shutter? Do they have access to financing? And
Speaker 2: unlike those those bigger companies, they have less access to
Speaker 2: financing an opportunity, So they're really being impacted by you know,
Speaker 2: what may or may not happen in the shifts in
Speaker 2: what the tariffs are going to be.
Speaker 1: And have they already started to feel the effects. Are
Speaker 1: we still sort of in a holding pattern since almost
Speaker 1: everything's been passed, well not China though, but pretty much
Speaker 1: everything else has been paused for ninety days. But those
Speaker 1: tariffs are still in place for China. So are people
Speaker 1: feeling the pinch already.
Speaker 2: They are peeling the pinch already, and they're already starting
Speaker 2: to advocate, you know, describe what that what that effect
Speaker 2: looks like if you're a business that regards on a
Speaker 2: supply that you would, you know, bring from China. Clothing
Speaker 2: is one of the biggest things. Where the world's biggest
Speaker 2: importer of clothing, so they're starting to fill at effect.
Speaker 2: Prices are going up and I think it was last
Speaker 2: week we saw an article that said you can expect
Speaker 2: prices to raise by ten to twenty five percent right now,
Speaker 2: and things like toys by about twenty three percent. So
Speaker 2: the impacts are immediate and it's impacting. Also, you know,
Speaker 2: local businesses are people that we're going to start a
Speaker 2: business because where are you going to get those supplies?
Speaker 2: Where are you going to find that financing?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then even if they can whether the storm,
Speaker 1: like you said, they've got a lot of decisions to make.
Speaker 1: I mean, like do they cut hours for their workers,
Speaker 1: Do they increase prices, do they offer fewer items. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of decisions that are going to have
Speaker 1: to be made.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And part of it too is, you know, like
Speaker 2: I said earlier, you know, we get packaging things for
Speaker 2: packaging manufactured outside of the United States. So if you
Speaker 2: don't have somewhere to buy that, that changes your financials,
Speaker 2: It changes your you know, investment and money that you need.
Speaker 2: And women still access only two percent of all available capital.
Speaker 2: So you're making immediate decisions about what you can do
Speaker 2: and how you can operate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so you mentioned women, and I know you
Speaker 1: work with a women business collaborative. What extra challenges do
Speaker 1: women owned businesses have?
Speaker 2: Well, I think they say, you know, they say, sort
Speaker 2: of two extra challenges, right, myn owned businesses is one
Speaker 2: is they don't have the same networks and they are
Speaker 2: not represented in some of these larger industries at the
Speaker 2: same rate as men are, which means what they don't
Speaker 2: have the type of partnerships, they don't have access to
Speaker 2: capital and finance, and then definitely probably don't have that
Speaker 2: sort of advocacy power or that flexibility to figure out
Speaker 2: where to absorb those prices or how they can raise
Speaker 2: the prices. Plus many are manufacturing you know, many of
Speaker 2: our consumer goods and the goods that we use every day,
Speaker 2: so you know, passing that price along to the consumer
Speaker 2: really is going to impact their business and what they're
Speaker 2: going to be able to sell. So they really do
Speaker 2: facing new challenges.
Speaker 1: Okay, Gwenn, is there anything that we wake up call
Speaker 1: listeners can do to help out the small businesses?
Speaker 2: Well, I think a couple of things. I mean we
Speaker 2: always say, you know, by local, you know, and that
Speaker 2: sort of thing, and try to do what we can do.
Speaker 2: But you know, the advocacy right now is let's get
Speaker 2: some exemptions for those small businesses. Let's look at the
Speaker 2: impact on the small businesses, and let's find where big
Speaker 2: companies you know and local, national, and federal government can
Speaker 2: support those small business So if we can continue to
Speaker 2: make that drum week drumbeat call for that action and
Speaker 2: support those small businesses, that's what we can do to
Speaker 2: help them stay alive.
Speaker 1: Local and small is always good. Gwen Young, the CEO
Speaker 1: of Women's Business Collaborative, thanks so much for helping kind
Speaker 1: of sort through this with us today. Go small business,
Speaker 1: Thank any goo.
Speaker 2: Small business looks working together take care