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Tariffs are on hold... Tariffs not on hold… All that’s known is… | Sam Hill

Tariffs are on hold... Tariffs not on hold… All that’s known is uncertainty. Here's what I'm doing internally and with clients to 1) Decrease paranoia, and 2) War-game best options... In times of uncertainty, I focus on controlling what I can control – preserving capital, and business fundamentals. Things like: -Triple checking budgets/cash flow -Pause all non-essential hiring and marketing initiatives -Review/cut fixed spend Fundamentals. A lot of these aren’t actually tariff-driven – you likely needed to do them long before tariffs ever went into play – but they’re tariff-triggered. The tariffs are the final straw forcing you to take action. Here’s what we’re doing in our own business: 1. Decrease Paranoia: We’ve paused all non-essential hiring and are reviewing spend/cash flow more regularly. We’ve also ramped up communication both internally, and with clients. The communication is the most important thing, so that: -Clients know we’re accessible/available -We know how they’re feeling and what they’re struggling with -We can convey that to the team Our team is in the loop. Our clients feel supported. We may not have all of the answers, but more communication helps alleviate some of the paranoia. 2. Re-evaluate Your Product Offering: Sometimes something happens that gives you reason to re-visit parts of your business model you should have looked at long ago. In our case, a key employee left. That gave me an opportunity to re-examine parts of our model I should have addressed months ago. Again, not tariff-driven, but tariff-triggered. Our advice to clients is similar. First, decrease paranoia by triple-checking your cash flow and forecasts, and pause all hiring/spend that isn’t tied to clear ROI. Then, war game scenarios and contingencies across the three heaviest impacted parts of the business: Supply Chain, Catalog, Marketing. Supply Chain | Priority number one is negotiating with current suppliers assuming the same supply chain. What are the inflection points? Two, what are potential alternatives, assuming... -Same supplier, but different chain? -New supplier, and new supply chain? Catalog | Under what conditions will you… -Allow certain items to stock out? -Reorder best-sellers, even at 20% or 30% higher cost? -Pass those costs onto the consumer slowly? Or all at once? Marketing | Consider how these price changes affect LTV, CAC, and general offering models. For example, will you... -Grandfather existing customers into the “old” price? -Reconfigure offers (ex. raise prices but decrease the floor on free shipping, increase discount percentages, etc.) I’ve written about “War Time” before. This is war time. No one knows what will happen, but know what you’re going to do when it does.

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