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When President Trump first announced his \u201creciprocal tariffs,\u201d the National Retail Federation specifically called out the outsized burden they would have on smaller businesses. \u201cThe immediate implementation of these tariffs is a massive undertaking and requires both advance notice and substantial preparation by the\u00a0millions<\/strong>\u00a0of U.S. businesses that will be directly impacted,\u201d said NRF\u2019s EVP of Government Relations David French.<\/p>\n Of course, Trump swiftly changed tack and announced a 90<\/strong>-day pause on the tariffs, but rather than a reprieve, this brief interlude feels more like the eye of the storm, with no one able to predict what\u2019s waiting on the other side.<\/strong> That uncertainty has left many businesses, both large and small, feeling a bit at a loss for how<\/strong> to prepare even though they now have the time to do so.<\/p>\n Entrepreneur and small business owner Ryan Matt Reynolds has some ideas on that front. Reynolds (who goes by Matt because \u201cRyan Reynolds\u201d is a difficult name to build a brand around, for obvious reasons) is a master of the strategic pivot. Over the course of his career he has been an elite power lifter, a primary education teacher, a gym owner, and he is now the owner of online wellness company Barbell Logic<\/strong> as well as a business coach, podcast host and author. His book, Undoing Urgency: Reclaiming Your Time for the Things That Matter Most<\/em>, outlines the lessons he\u2019s learned over 20<\/strong> years of business ownership \u2014 with one of the most important being prioritizing the right <\/em>things.<\/strong><\/p>\n One could argue that that is the central challenge facing almost any business owner today \u2014 separating the signal from the noise and taking action to fortify their business for whatever comes next, amid historic uncertainty about what that might be. In an interview with Retail TouchPoints<\/em>, Reynolds laid out how companies can do exactly that.<\/p>\n Retail TouchPoints: How would you describe the sentiment on the ground right now in the small business community?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ryan Matt Reynolds:<\/strong> It\u2019s just not stable. There have been times when things were incredibly stable and you could look forward three<\/strong> years and see where things were going, but nobody knows that right now. If you\u2019re a retail purchaser, yeah, you\u2019ve got a little pause on the tariffs, but you\u2019ve got some work to do. And even if you\u2019re not \u2014 like us, we\u2019re primarily a service and a SaaS business, so we\u2019re not buying product from China \u2014 this is a great time to get lean, trim fat and figure out where you\u2019re spending, where you don\u2019t have to spend and where can you redirect.<\/strong><\/p>\n We literally just did this. We had five<\/strong> employees of about 30<\/strong> where we had to decide, should we lay them off or redirect them to a place that is more profitable for the business based on what is an unknown future? For us,<\/strong> the negative cultural impact of laying off employees was not worth it.<\/strong> We\u2019re building multiple brands, and we looked at the most important and redirected those content marketing and sales people toward the brands that we felt would give the best ROI on our investment.<\/p>\n We also cut most of our third-party [contracts]<\/strong>. I would rather pay someone who is an expert $1,000<\/strong> for a one-hour phone call [to learn what I need to know] rather than pay them $5,000<\/strong> a month for the next 12<\/strong> months to do the work, and that\u2019s what we did. I don\u2019t want somebody else managing my social media, I want my social media manager managing my social media, but I am totally willing to spend $1,000<\/strong> for an hour phone call to make sure that they can. [By doing that] we reduced the development cost of our software by about 50%<\/strong> until we win another military contract.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter whether the tariffs tremendously affect you, this is a great time to really work through your financials, get as lean as you can, cut your costs and try to drive up revenue as much as you can, <\/strong>because we don\u2019t know what the next couple of years holds. Now is the time to say, \u201cWe\u2019re not in crisis mode, we\u2019re in problem-solving mode,<\/strong> and the problem that we\u2019re solving is we\u2019re trying to get cash-flow positive as quickly as we can so that if things go bad, we\u2019re still in a good place. If things end up going great, that\u2019s just icing on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n RTP: With regard to the tariffs, do you think there is a difference in how all this uncertainty is impacting small businesses versus large national or multinational corporations?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Reynolds:<\/strong> On some level, yes, but ultimately, if you\u2019re buying product from a country that is highly tariffed, there actually isn\u2019t that much difference.<\/strong> This is why the 90<\/strong>-day pause is such an important moment to cut costs and get yourself in a really good financial situation, because you don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to look like three<\/strong> months from now. If you have to buy lithium batteries from China, you don\u2019t know if there\u2019s going to be an extended pause or another reciprocal tariff that\u2019s [going to take it to] 200%<\/strong>, so you\u2019ve got to put yourself in the best position you possibly can.<\/p>\n Your financial statements should reflect your worst-case scenario.<\/strong> I\u2019ll give you an example for us \u2014 while the tariffs don\u2019t affect us tremendously, we have a lot of military contracts, and with DOGE [the Department of Government Efficiency, which has instituted sweeping layoffs and cutbacks over the past three<\/strong> months], the military contracts could dry up. We have to budget so that if we never get another military contract again, we\u2019ll still be okay.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what companies have to do right now, protect yourself with a plan. That doesn\u2019t mean you have to lay off 50%<\/strong> of your employees; that\u2019s not what I\u2019m saying. But you\u2019ve got to put yourself in a position so that you\u2019re cash-flow positive and you extend your runway.<\/strong><\/p>\n Founders have two primary goals, and they\u2019re connected: Number one, we\u2019re problem solvers; and number two, we have to be sure there\u2019s cash in the bank to pay the payroll. So if the crap hits the fan, if the worst-case scenario happens, will there still be cash in the bank to pay your people? If not, you have to figure it out. That\u2019s the most important thing the founder can do \u2014 solve problems and make sure there\u2019s cash in the bank.<\/p>\n RTP: It does seem that this all might be harder for small businesses without the cashflow and manpower of larger companies. How can small businesses with more limited resources prioritize right now?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Reynolds:<\/strong> You identify the weakest link in your business financials and figure out a way to improve that. So, for example, if [these tariffs do] hit and your cost of goods goes up 200%<\/strong> and therefore your gross margin drops by 50%<\/strong>, you [start looking at which] country has lower tariffs that you can get alternative production from. Obviously a small company can\u2019t just start up a factory like Elon [Musk] did and make the thing, but that is actually a symptom of the ultimate root problem, which is, if my business is entirely dependent on military contracts or cheap product from China or some other country, that is a vulnerability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You need to, as a founder, expose your vulnerabilities quickly with your C-suite and figure out the alternative plan.<\/strong> Is it another country? Is it purchasing things from the United States? Ultimately, it\u2019s about figuring out where the weak link in the chain is.<\/p>\n RTP: Beyond the business details, this is all just really stressful for business owners across the spectrum. How can leaders in this environment keep a cool head and minimize stress or panic?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Reynolds: I\u2019m also preaching to myself here, but even the biggest founders in the world, [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg and [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang and all these guys, have figured out that they cannot run their business well without being physically healthy.<\/strong> What we end up doing is going into crisis mode, but it is our job to stay mentally sharp, physically sharp, maintain relationships in our family, in our marriage, with our kids, with the people around us. And when we sacrifice those things, which sometimes has to be done for a short period of time, it\u2019s unsustainable. There is a time that will come when those relationships will disintegrate.<\/p>\n Your whole life can\u2019t be the business, unless you\u2019re a 22-year-old with no wife, no kids, no other responsibility, then you can just work 18<\/strong> hours a day. I\u2019m a 46-year-old founder who has owned a business for 25<\/strong> years, so at some point I have to go, look, no matter how important or urgent this problem seems to be, I have to take care of myself.<\/strong> Sure, I could not work out today, save an hour-and-a-half and work, but long term the importance of [staying healthy] is far more important than that extra hour of work.<\/p>\n You perform better when your brain is sharp, and as a problem solver, your brain has to be sharp.<\/strong> If you\u2019re sleeping four<\/strong> hours a night, you\u2019re stressed all the time, you\u2019re not working out, you\u2019re eating crap, you\u2019re drinking too much alcohol, that will catch up with you. The bottom line is, purge your life of the things that are not urgent or important; delegate the things that are urgent but not important; and work efficiently on the things that are urgent and important so that you can free up as much time as possible to work on the really important things, which are almost never urgent. For example, taking my daughter on a daddy-daughter date is never urgent, but it\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Business](\"https:\/\/www.retailtouchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/undoing-urgency-author-ryan-matt-reynolds.jpg\")