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Want to listen to the tip? Use the play button below. For other ways to navigate these challenging times with confidence, get the free complete Trade-War Success Guide for Small to Mid-Size Companies below. If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company through these turbulent times, more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.  What opportunities are you seeing in this trade war? Every market challenge can also create opportunity. Spend time mitigating risk and also time analysing opportunities. The trade war and potential recession will pass, although it’s uncertain when. What can we do now to improve margins and increase customers? What opportunities do the scenarios present? Any trade war or economic downturn will have an overall effect on the economy. However, that effect is on aggregate, meaning each industry will be affected differently. Some industries will be affected very negatively, some will be affected positively, and others somewhere in between. Some customers may have less need in certain areas, and more need in others. It’s essential to look for areas of growth and to focus on how to capitalize on those opportunities. With Canadian businesses and consumers looking to buy Canadian, there could be more opportunity than ever to grow within the national, provincial or local market. Canadian companies who previously weren’t able to work with great Canadian suppliers who only served US customers may now have access to them if these suppliers are exposed to US tariffs. Similarly, there may be opportunities to get better pricing from Canadian suppliers who are looking to increase their number of Canadian customers. In economic turmoil, assets from struggling companies can become available at a steep discount. Those companies with strong cash reserves are in a position to take advantage of those situations to grow the business in a cost-efficient way. Such a challenging environment can also result in great people being available and looking for work. Watch your competitors. If they are struggling, their A players may be more open to moving to a new company. Should a competitor falter, great employees there could become available to pick up. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) exercise can be a great way to assess what is possible. Keeping your SWOT up-to-date at your quarterly planning sessions helps you and your senior team keep your eyes open to emerging opportunities. While this trade war may present challenges, the changing landscape may provide interesting opportunities you never thought possible. For other ways to navigate these challenging times with confidence, get the free complete Trade-War Success Guide for Small to Mid-Size Companies below. If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company through these turbulent times, more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.
Want to listen to the tip? Use the play button below. Click here for our 15-page simplified list of the specific products subject to Canada’s March 4 and 13 counter-tariffs. For other ways to navigate these challenging times with confidence, get the free complete Trade-War Success Guide for Small to Mid-Size Companies below. If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company through these turbulent times, more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.  Is your prairie-based company getting dinged with price increases that aren’t legitimate? In March 2025, the government of Canada placed 25% counter-tariffs on $60 billion worth of US goods. This included a broad swath of products from agricultural products to office electronics. One would think this would result in price increases on products we buy from Canadian retailers, manufacturers and processors who source products, parts or materials from the US. However, this is only partly the case, at this point in time. In April, the Canadian government announced a 6-month exemption of tariffs on goods imported from the U.S. that are used in Canadian manufacturing, processing and food and beverage packaging, and for those used to support public health, health care, public safety, and national security objectives. This was done to “provide immediate relief to a broad cross-section of Canadian businesses that must rely on U.S. inputs to support their competitiveness, and to provide businesses with additional time to adjust their supply chains and prioritize domestic sources of supply if available”. Therefore, Canadian manufacturers and processors don’t yet face these tariffs. So, you, as their customer, shouldn't yet either. If your company buys products or supplies, whether as inputs or overhead, from Canadian manufacturers or processors, and they are announcing price increases based on tariffs, their claim may not be legitimate. On the other hand, for products purchased from Canadian retailers, price increases could be warranted. End-products on the Canadian tariff list that are bought from the US by Canadian distributors and retailers are still subject to Canada’s 25% counter-tariff, with no 6-month relief. One issue with wide-spread tariffs is that some companies can take advantage of peoples’ expectations of price increases and increase their prices even if the products they source are not subject to tariffs. Therefore, it helps to be well informed as to whether tariffs are currently imposed on a supplier’s products, parts or materials. That said, this can be difficult to know for sure, even with Canadian manufacturers and processors benefiting from the 6 month tariff relief. With Canadian retailers, identifying what country the product is sourced from is relatively easy, by asking the retailer or looking up the product’s manufacturer online. But one must also know whether that US product is actually subject to Canadian tariffs. One way is to check the government of Canada webpages listing the US products subject to tariffs. However, those lists are hundreds of pages long and excruciatingly detailed. Alternatively, you can check the simplified list we put together. US products that are currently subject to 25% Canadian counter-tariffs may, in fact, see large price increases from Canadian retailers. As well, prices from Canadian retailers, manufacturers and processors sourcing from US manufacturers can increase even if they are not subject to Canadian tariffs, or have the 6 month exemption for Canadian manufacturers and processors. This is because those US manufacturers may be facing higher parts and material costs due to US tariffs placed on other countries they source from. While US manufacturers may shift their sourcing to the United States, their costs may still increase, although less than the tariffs they face. Canadian retailers, manufacturers and processors, whether sourcing from US manufacturers or not, may also increase prices due to higher overhead costs, as I outlined in a previous article. However, such cost increases should affect their product pricing much less than direct tariffs on their products, parts or materials. Small price increases may be due to such overhead cost increases. In some cases, depending on your buying power with your supplier, it may not be possible to check whether their price increases are legitimate. In those cases, the only recourse is to look for alternate suppliers in order to: 1) verify your current suppliers’ pricing, 2) have a lower-priced alternative to negotiate with, or 3) switch suppliers. One thing is certain: watching your costs closely and proactively identifying alternate suppliers will put you in the best position to avoid illegitimate price increases. For other ways to navigate these challenging times with confidence, get the free complete Trade-War Success Guide for Small to Mid-Size Companies below. If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company through these turbulent times, more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.
Want to listen to the tip? Use the play button below. For other ways to navigate these challenging times with confidence, get the free complete Trade-War Success Guide for Small to Mid-Size Companies below. If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company through these turbulent times, more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.  How is your prairie-based small to mid-size company managing pricing and customer relationships through this trade war? Upward pressure on supply prices will ultimately mean needing to gauge carefully how much of those price increases can be passed on to customers in order to protect your bottom line. This will be trickier in some industries than in others depending on how price sensitive your customers are with your product or service, the level of competitiveness in the industry, how deep your competitors’ pockets are to weather potential losses, and what alternatives customers can turn to rather than accepting a higher price from your company or your competitors. A good tool to evaluate this is a Porter’s Five Forces analysis, which evaluates the competitive threats in the industry. Check your customer contracts and terms & conditions to ensure it’s clear that, if a customer purchases your product or service after tariffs are imposed in their country, the customer will have to pay them. Let customers know you are closely tracking supplier prices in order to give them some advance notice of any pricing increases they may see. If possible, don’t surprise your customers with sudden price increases. Aim to give them a certain amount of warning so they can plan accordingly in their business or family household. This shows you care about their cash flow, survival and wellbeing, and it will help maintain and even strengthen relationships with them, which will serve your business now and beyond the trade-war. In higher-ticket relationships, stay in touch with customers in order to understand how they are doing such that you can become aware of any risks to your receivables and/or sales volumes. For lower priced product or service relationships, monitor information about the balance sheet health of your customers on aggregate. You may want to check your customers’ creditworthiness to gauge their cash flow health. Continue to communicate the value and uniqueness of your product or services. While prices are important to customers of all kinds, the value of your offerings are just as important, if not more so. Reinforcing the difference you make for customers, and how your offerings are unique and valuable, addressing your core customers' key pain points, needs and wants, will increase your chances of retaining the business even if or when you have to increase prices. Continue marketing and selling aggressively to keep growing the business, and to replace customers who go elsewhere. Communicate regularly and frequently with customers. Clarity and consistency are critical. Empathy, caring and doing the right thing will go a long way to maintaining and strengthening these relationships through the trade war and beyond. For other ways to navigate these challenging times with confidence, get the free complete Trade-War Success Guide for Small to Mid-Size Companies below. If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company through these turbulent times, more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.
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