Next Week You Can Apply to Get Your Own Money Back
The tariff-refund process sounds simple, but as usual, there are potential complications.
Good morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
A platform called Penji offers businesses a different way to buy marketing services.
Even in Texas, business owners oppose the immigration crackdown.
There’s scientific evidence that you really should be nice to your chatbot.
A new report on President Trump’s tariffs found that the average small importer paid $353,000 in tariffs last year — $248,000 more than the year before.
TARIFF REFUNDS
The refund process, which is set to begin next week, sounds simple: “Businesses just need to upload a Microsoft Excel document with a list of tariffs they want repaid into a new online tool. ‘It’s a lot easier than what could have been required in terms of hiring lawyers or filing individual cases,’ said Dan Anthony, executive director of the small business coalition We Pay The Tariffs. Still, there are hurdles — as shown with the experience of Beth Benike, founder of Busy Baby.”
“Busy Baby makes its products in China. Its orders are too small for U.S. manufacturers. Benike’s been trying to get set up online to get $50,000 in tariffs back. ‘I’ve been calling and submitting tickets to which they tell me, here’s the instructions on how to create the account,’ she said. ‘I tell them I am creating the account. I’m getting an error message.’”
“Kacie Wright, the business manager of musical instrument retailer Houghton Horns, hadn’t even heard that the refund process was about to begin. ‘Last I heard that they were working on it,’ she said. Houghton Horns is owed about $100,000. But there’s a complication — most of those tariffs were paid through intermediaries. ‘So UPS, FedEx, they’re going to have to get the refunds, and then find some process to pass that on to us, and we have heard nothing from them so far.’”
“Pete Mento, director of global trade advisory services at Baker Tilly, said all companies should file for refunds, even if it’s just to get the hang of doing so. ‘Our current tariff burden of 10 percent on practically everything we’re importing from anywhere — probably in eight to 10 months from now, we’re going to go through all of this all over again,’ he said. That’s because Mento said he expects those tariffs to be overturned as well.” READ MORE
THE 21 HATS PODCAST: DASHBOARD
A Different Way to Buy Marketing: Hiring a full-time marketing team isn’t realistic for a lot of small businesses—but doing nothing may not be an option either. This week, Johnathan Grzybowski explains how Penji, the platform he co-founded, offers a different path: subscription-based access to vetted creatives matched to your specific needs. We talk about how that model actually works in practice, where it fits (and doesn’t) for small businesses, and how Penji manages the tension between competing with—and supporting—traditional agencies. Plus: we talk about what happens to a business like Penji as AI reshapes creative work and why Johnathan believes there’s ultimately only one marketing metric that matters: revenue.
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast—brought to you by Grasshopper Bank—wherever you get podcasts.
