ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Rising costs associated with higher energy costs and tariffs are affecting local small businesses in a variety of ways. An executive of one Central Florida vitamin and supplement store is uncertain about what the new year will bring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
ADP reports that small businesses lost 120,000 employees in November\u00a0
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Natural Living in Apopka is being forced to bulk buy and spend more overall
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Tariffs and other costs can hurt small businesses more than commercial companies, an expert at Rollins College says\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tucked away in Apopka is a small, family-owned business called Natural Living. The company was founded in 1990, out of the garage of Jose Alvarez\u2019s parents, where they made vitamins and supplements.<\/p>\n
Currently, the family business has multiple buildings and over 20 employees who sell to customers across the state, the Caribbean and South America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the ingredients that we purchase are not available in the U.S.,\u201d Vice President of Natural Living Jose Alvarez said. \u201cThey are just not manufactured in the U.S. They are mined or grown in other parts of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means Alvarez has had to pay tariffs on items like magnesium, botanicals and minerals that come from Asia or the European Union.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis order right here (of plastic wrap) will last me at least a year-and-a-half,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cIn reality, I have no reason to keep this much plastic in stock.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just plastic wrap. It\u2019s cardboard, packing materials and ingredients for his vitamins. Alvarez had to lease a separate building to hold all the excess materials he now has. But those added costs mean some costs also had to be offset.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a problem that could have larger implications for small businesses across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll businesses are a balance of labor and capital,\u201d said Dr. Richard Lewin, an associate professor of international finance at Rollins College. \u201cInevitably, if more capital has to go into the inventory side of the business, then that means less capital for hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alvarez said that his prices remained stable from 2010 through 2019. They also did in 2023 and 2024, but this year, he said prices have gone up 10%-40%.<\/p>\n
Businesses also continue to see increases in energy costs, commercial rent or lease costs, commercial property taxes and employee wages.<\/p>\n
\u201cInventory is all about scale,\u201d Lewin said. \u201cLarger businesses have access to the capital markets, so they can borrow money or raise money from shareholders. Small businesses tend to be self-funded, and when you are self-funded, it\u2019s a struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
With rising costs, Alvarez said he\u2019s uncertain how 2026 will go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hoping to be able to maintain what we did in 2025,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not sure, we are not sure what 2026 has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewin predicts a loss of small businesses in 2026 \u2014 whether they close from consolidation, or because they are forced to because they cannot overcome the increased costs they are taking on.<\/p>\n
Marie Aliberti, president of the Lake Eustis Area Chamber of Commerce, said many of her members admit to struggling currently in their downtown area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Rising costs associated with higher energy costs and tariffs are affecting local small businesses in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1011,2031,274,2202,558,28,1190,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":["post-89426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-asher-wildman","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-human-interest","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}