Trump Tariffs Rattle Small Business Owners Already Dealing With Tight Margins

President Donald Trump's continued roll out of a wide array of tariffs is rattling small business owners already dealing with tight profit margins.

Trump on Monday announced a 25 tariff on steel and aluminum and promised more import duties to come. Last week, the administration imposed a , 10 tariff on Chinese goods coming into the U.S.

Sandra Payne, owner of Denver Concrete Vibrator, imports steel and other raw materials for her business. Her company makes tools to settle concrete and other industrial tools. Most of the steel the company uses comes from China, and she gets material from Canada and Mexico, too.

"Small businesses run on very small margins. And so a 25 increase in any product is going to hurt," she said. "And we can't just raise our prices every time the cost goes up to us. So we are losing a lot of money."

In addition to the steel and China tariffs, other tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods have been temporarily put on hol d, but they could be implemented later. So, small business owners still need a strategy for mitigating the costs of the tariffs if they go into effect.