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\n Like other small businesses, ETM Manufacturing can\u2019t take advantage of growth opportunities because financing is so expensive. The average rate on a new urban small business term loan was over 7% at the end of last year, according to the Kansas City Fed<\/a>, but many small businesses face rates well north of 10%.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s infuriating,\u201d Scheffel said.\n <\/p>\n \n High prices at the grocery store and elsewhere have left some of ETM\u2019s employees preoccupied with their own finances.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMost of our employees are distracted. They\u2019re worried about putting food on the table and buying shoes for their kid,\u201d Scheffel said. \u201cBad stuff happens when they\u2019re not totally focused.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Scheffel\u2019s employees are hardly alone. About one in four US households are living paycheck to paycheck<\/a>, meaning they are spending over 95% of their income on necessities like housing and groceries, according to estimates from Bank of America.\n <\/p>\n \n The mood among mom-and-pop shops on Main Street is mixed. While small business owners tell CNN they are hopeful about the future and excited about how artificial intelligence can help them, some are concerned about the headaches incurred by the ever-changing trade war and high costs.\n <\/p>\n \n Bryan Pate, CEO of San Diego-based PT Motion Works, an exercise equipment company that sells elliptical bikes, GIBBON SlackBoards and Indo Board balance boards, told CNN that his business is struggling to keep up with rapidly rising healthcare costs.\n <\/p>\n \n Over the past two decades, the average cost of single coverage health insurance has surged by 120%<\/a> for companies with fewer than 50 employees, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a nonprofit that advocates for small businesses.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable how much healthcare has gone up,\u201d Pate said, noting this is a big disadvantage small businesses have against large corporations. \u201cIt\u2019s an unfair barrier to hiring.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Those healthcare and payroll expenses add to the pressure from the historic tariff hikes under President Donald Trump.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe just don\u2019t know what the guy is gonna do. It creates so much anxiety and time-wasting,\u201d Pate said of Trump\u2019s evolving tariff policies.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump has raised tariffs on US imports to an average rate of 16.8%, the highest since 1935, according to estimates<\/a> released by The Budget Lab at Yale on Monday.\n <\/p>\n \n Pate said his businesses have been hammered by tariffs \u2014 including the 20% levy on Taiwan, where its bikes are manufactured.\n <\/p>\n \n Ironically, the tariffs are wiping out some US manufacturing jobs.\n <\/p>\n \n Pate said his company recently ended contracts with seven assembly workers based in San Diego and now employs workers in Mexico instead. And Pate plans to raise prices on bikes to offset the cost of tariffs but worries that will erode demand.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s been economically painful, and long-term, if tariffs stay where they are, it\u2019s just not going to work,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Troy Rackley, CEO at The Next Level of Performance, a Sarasota, Florida-based water treatment technology company, told CNN on the sidelines of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington he has had to raise prices on some of his products due to US tariffs on imports from Australia and China.\n <\/p>\n \n Rackley dismissed the argument that exporting countries are paying US tariffs and hopes the Supreme Court rules<\/a> against the Trump administration\u2019s use of emergency powers to justify<\/a> its global tariffs.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cChina, Mexico and Canada don\u2019t pay. I\u2019m the one that\u2019s paying for it,\u201d Rackley said. \u201cI pay taxes on my income, and now I have to pay additional taxes on what I bring in.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Khari Parker, a graduate of the Goldman Sachs small business program and co-founder of Connie\u2019s Chicken and Waffles in Baltimore, isn\u2019t facing any tariff trouble, but he\u2019s struggling to find affordable capital.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ve being hit with very, very high rates of 20% to 30%,\u201d Parker said.\n <\/p>\n \n The Trump administration has worked to support small businesses by providing capital through the Small Business Administration (SBA).\n <\/p>\n \n Since Trump took office, the SBA estimates<\/a> it has approved more than 58,000 small business loans worth over $32 billion. For fiscal 2025, which closed at the end of September, the SBA said it guaranteed a record-setting $44.8 billion of small business loans.\n <\/p>\n![\"Shipping](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gettyimages-2228128580-20251117165839391.jpg\")
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