The US and Canada are escalating tariffs again, with more changes expected in September. If you sell physical goods or buy materials and equipment from across the border, you’ve likely already felt it — or you will soon. The instinct for a lot of owners is to freeze, panic-price, or wait it out. None of those are strategies.
Here are five practical moves to protect your margins while the policy keeps shifting underneath you.
1. Know Your Real Exposure Before You React
Pull your cost of goods sold and separate what’s actually tariff-affected from what isn’t. Most owners overestimate their exposure because the headline is scary — the real line-item impact is usually smaller and more specific than it feels.
2. Reprice With Math, Not Emotion
A blanket across-the-board price increase punishes customers on products that were never affected. Model the actual cost increase per SKU or service line, then adjust accordingly. A precise 4% increase lands very differently than a panicked 10% increase across everything.
3. Have the Supplier Conversation Now, Not Later
Suppliers are having the same panic you are, which means there’s more room to negotiate than usual. Ask about fixed-rate contracts, volume discounts, or a temporary hold on increases in exchange for a longer commitment. The businesses that ask first usually get the better terms.
4. Build a 60-Day Cash Buffer Around the Uncertainty
You don’t need to predict where tariff policy lands next — you need enough of a buffer that the next shift doesn’t force a reactive decision. Even a modest reserve changes how clearly you can think when the next headline hits.
5. Diversify Only Where It’s Actually Worth It
Supplier diversification sounds great in theory and is expensive and slow in practice. Only pursue it for the specific inputs where exposure is high and alternatives are realistic — not as a blanket overhaul of a supply chain that’s otherwise working fine.
Quick Self-Check
- Have I calculated my real tariff exposure by line item, not just by gut feeling?
- Have I repriced only what’s actually affected?
- Have I had a direct conversation with my key suppliers this month?
- Do I have at least 60 days of buffer if policy shifts again?
The Business Doctor’s Prescription
The businesses that come out of a tariff cycle in the best shape aren’t the ones that reacted fastest — they’re the ones that reacted most precisely. That takes a clear read on your numbers, not a gut reaction to a headline.
If your pricing needs a second set of eyes right now, let’s look at it together.