Her small business was struggling because of Trump’s tariffs until she found a lifeline

Gisela Espinoza started her custom jewelry business last year in August after visiting her hometown in Peru and finding the beauty and uniqueness of the pieces. She managed all logistics to import from Peru to Riverside county, where she resides. 

However, the constant changes in tariffs by the U.S. government are making it difficult for the new entrepreneur to thrive. 

She started her business by investing $1,000 in inventory. She paid about $300 for tariffs, insurance and other expenses. Recently, for the same amount of $1,000 in inventory, she paid about $600 in extra costs to import the jewelry from Peru.

“This is difficult because now I have to increase the price of the pieces and I’m barely starting my business,” she said. 

Espinoza takes pride in the product she sells, which is resistant to liquids, sweat and even seawater. 

“These are resistant pieces, not something that you wear today and [it fades] tomorrow,” she said. 

Learning about help for small businesses

Espinoza said at the beginning of the year, while she was scrolling through social media, she found an organization announcing training for small business owners.

She signed up with the CAMEO Network, the largest statewide network of micro business development programs in the country, which includes more than 400 organizations, agencies and individuals. 

Espinoza was able to complete an eight-week training and she felt more informed and prepared to continue working on her business. 

As for now, she’s investigating how to import the same pieces directly from China, which could be an alternative to Peru. 

CAMEO CEO Carolina Martinez said the most recent tariffs of 10% or 15% add up to previous tariffs, negatively impacting many small businesses. 

“We know that many small businesses have raised or thin margins in charge runways, especially when we're talking about local restaurants or hardwood stores,” she said. “The majority of the time they don't have research that can help them navigate and weigh out uncertain moments like this.” 

Martinez said these changes impact in different ways, from the increase in costs to the ability to hire or make new investments, which in turn affects the economy. 

“Even the hiring piece is just such a key part of all of this because in California, we see small businesses employ 7.6 million people and create 99% of net new jobs,” she said. “So if the small businesses aren't hiring, the economy is in trouble, and they might prefer to either save the money to cover increased expenses instead of hiring, or they might actually be with no research and no budget and getting into predatory loans to cover [expenses].”

Resources available

Martinez said it is in these moments that all businesses, but especially small ones, need support to decide how to assess and navigate tariffs and improve their business’ finances. 

One of these resources is California’s program called SCALE, which connects small businesses to free and low-cost business coaching. The help is available for all small entrepreneurs regardless of immigration status in California. 

Small businesses often look for capital to bridge the gap that they're seeing with all these increased expenses and uncertainty, but it is important to bring attention to the increase in predatory lenders to small businesses that are looking for extra cash, Martinez explained.

“We want to make sure that small business owners are very aware of this and take their time to really look into what are the terms of the capital they are accessing it,” she said. “We are seeing a lot of merchant cash advance providers that are actually promising cash, but then the agreements come with such a high and exorbitant fees and interest rate.” 

She encouraged small businesses to join the SCALE program and CAMEO network to help them connect with support, meet responsible community lenders\ and to learn how to navigate their particular situation.

To access SCALE, visit scalenetworkcalifornia.org