Latest news with #businessowners
CNA
13 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
Small businesses group calls for retail lease reforms amid soaring rent
The Singapore Tenants United for Fairness, which represents more than 700 business owners, businesses, is calling for retail lease reforms, such as rental caps and limits on foreign-owned shops. It is already in talks with Enterprise Singapore and hopes to reach some agreement in the coming months. Retail rents jumped 1.9% islandwide in the first quarter of the year, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority. In that time, an average of 450 retail stores have shuttered monthly. Kate Low reports.
Fox News
19 hours ago
- Business
- Fox News
Business owners blast ‘weakened leadership' as blue city ranks among most dangerous in US
Business owners in Kansas City, Missouri, are fed up with the city's response to a string of crimes downtown, with one person saying they've had to "take matters into our own hands." Kansas City was named the eighth-most dangerous city in the country in 2024 based on murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people, according to U.S. News and World Report. The city ranks twentieth on the outlet's list for 2025. So far in 2025, there have been 61 homicides, versus 52 at this point in 2024, the Kansas City Police Department said. Between 2019 and 2023, property crimes in Kansas City spiked by 31%, according to KCUR. Homicides in Kansas City are lower than they were in 2023, when the city saw its deadliest year with 182. Andrew Cameron, founder of Donutology, told Fox News Digital in an interview that it feels like crime in Kansas City is "at an all-time high as far as we're concerned." "We do see some weakened leadership within the city, whether it be bureaucracy saying their hands are tied because the state controls the police or the prosecution declining to press charges just because there are so many instances and the police are understaffed," he said. Cameron said there have been two incidents over the past year when Donutology locations were either vandalized or robbed. "We've experienced multiple break-ins of our store. Sometimes they will take items inside the store. In our Trolley locations, they took our safe with cash in it. Just a few months later, we were broken into at our Westport location, where they just decided to kick the door in and not take anything," Cameron said. In video provided to Fox News Digital, two men are seen breaking into a Donutology store and leaving with a safe. In another incident at a separate Donutology location in Kansas City, a man is seen repeatedly throwing objects at the windows. Cameron told Fox News Digital he filed a police report on both incidents but didn't hear anything back. He said the city has offered money to help repair damage, but they don't cover anything taken from the store. "The city has also offered money to fix any vandalism, but their program doesn't cover the actual contents that were taken from the business. They're hoping insurance will cover it, but a lot of us small businesses have high deductibles, and it's almost – we're still out a lot of money. And when we're selling doughnuts at a couple dollars each, when you lose thousands of dollars, that's a lot of doughnuts to make up and a lot of customers. It really hurt us and set us back," Cameron said. Personal injury attorney Suzanne Hale-Robinson told Fox News Digital she has seen an exponential increase in vehicle break-ins in the past six to nine months. On one occasion, Hale-Robinson said someone squatted in an office located in her building. "One time, the floor above us had left their door unlocked over a weekend and somebody just had a nice, like, staycation in their office and then left with a couple laptops. So that's been like the break-ins in our building. Aside from that, we have a parking lot to the rear of our building and, yeah, luckily, my car, knock on wood, has not been broken into. I try not to leave anything in there, but you know probably 10 to 15 vehicles have been broken into," Hale-Robinson said. She said it's frustrating when police don't show up after a break-in, adding that her law firm has had to hire private security. "Initially, over the winter, we paid personally for private security to come because we couldn't get a response from the city. One thing that has been frustrating is the lack of them sending anybody out when there's an issue. So when we have a break-in, there's no police presence at all. We're being asked to go down to the station to make a report. And so that creates, I think, an inherent non-deterrent for criminals because there's no fear of immediate police reaction," Hale-Robinson said. Hale-Robinson said that while she recognizes there should be a better law enforcement response, the city needs to do more to address homelessness. "I do think there's blame that should be placed ... on the Kansas City government and how we're handling it and not just a focus on these individuals who, a lot of times, are houseless people that are [committing] crimes of desperation that is then fueled by the city's inability to help," she said. In an effort to fight property crime, Democrat Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas put forward a $1 million proposal in January to increase off-duty law enforcement presence in areas of the city with higher crime, according to KMBC. Fox News Digital reached out to Lucas for comment.
CNN
a day ago
- Business
- CNN
Business owners confront masked agents detaining gardener
Two business owners recorded and confronted masked federal law enforcement officers who were detaining a local gardener at his job site.
CNN
a day ago
- Business
- CNN
Business owners confront masked agents detaining gardener
Two business owners recorded and confronted masked federal law enforcement officers who were detaining a local gardener at his job site.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
U.S. small businesses struggle under Trump's tariff whiplash: ‘I'm so angry that my own government has done this to me'
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the rain after arriving on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, May 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) For some small businesses, the last week brought even more twists and turns to the past two months of President Donald Trump's chaotic tariffs. The situation was already confusing, with stops and starts of tariffs at different levels. Then on Wednesday, a US court said Trump overstepped his authority in imposing most of those import levies – only for an appeals court on Thursday to pause the previous court's ruling. The confusion has made it challenging for some small companies to plan, business owners told CNN. In certain cases, they have had to consider changing their product strategy, looking into shifting their supply chains, reducing staff hours or delaying products. 'My fear is, if this continues, there's going to be like the mass extinction of small businesses,' Julie Robbins, CEO of Ohio-based guitar pedal maker EarthQuaker Devices, told CNN. Trump announced blanket tariffs across the globe on April 2, and since then, his plans have changed on a regular basis. In early April, he issued a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs almost everywhere except China. Then, after ratcheting up total tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 per cent, he declared smartphones and certain other electronics would be exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. The US and China agreed in May to roll back reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. And in late May, he threatened smartphone makers like Apple with 25 per cent tariffs if they don't make their phones in the US. He also agreed to push back levies on imports from the European Union until July 9. Those are only some of his changes, which can come at any time of day via the White House, social media posts or other avenues. The whiplash has been hard for companies to keep up with. Even major brands like apparel giant Gap are feeling the impact of tariffs, but small companies with far fewer resources are in an even tougher spot. The National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Optimism Index fell by 1.6 points in April, dipping below the 51-year average for the second consecutive month. The organization's chief economist, Bill Dunkelberg, cited uncertainty as a 'major impediment' for small business owners in a press release. 'It's the sort of more smaller, kind of more niche… brands that are going to really, really get hit by this,' Jack Leathem, an analyst at market research firm Canalys, told CNN in April. Some small business owners have had to make difficult decisions as they've grappled with the impact of tariffs. EveAnna Manley, whose company Manley Labs makes high-end electronics for recording studios, has had to cut her employees' hours by 25 per cent. The reciprocal tariffs that China imposed on the US have been particularly challenging, she says, since China has become a major market for her business. Manley says it took 'decades' for her to 'get the best Chinese importers.' Overall, Manley Labs' sales are down more than 19 per cent compared to last year, she told CNN, which has frozen the company's product development efforts. 'It's just a freaking mess right now,' she said in late May, before this past week's court rulings on Trump's tariffs. 'And I'm so angry that my own government has done this to me.' The best thing small businesses can do right now is to be flexible and diversify their sourcing and procurement strategies, says Tala Akhavan, chief operating officer of Pietra, a platform that helps brands with sourcing, production and logistics among other services. That's what Intuition Robotics, which makes a home robot designed to be a companion for older adults, is doing, according to chief strategy officer Assaf Gad. The company also makes money off its digital subscription accounts, according to Gad, giving it the flexibility to look into a 'plan B' outside of China for producing the company's hardware. Sudden changes in tariff policies haven't really impacted the company's decisions because it's planning for the next nine to 12 months rather than the short term, he said in mid-May. Trump's tariffs have encouraged Gad to think about expanding Intuition Robotics into international markets. 'Maybe this is also a good time to say, 'Let's not put all the eggs in one basket,'' he said, 'and, you know, start looking on other kind of territories that will reduce the risk for us going forward.' But for some companies, finding a plan B isn't so easy. That's the case for Sarah O'Leary, CEO of Willow, which makes wearable breast pumps and accessories. As a medical device company, Willow can't simply just move its manufacturing, O'Leary told CNN. The company had to pause exporting one product it produces in China for postpartum recovery at one point because it became too expensive. The ruling on Wednesday aiming to block many tariffs brought some relief, O'Leary said in an emailed statement on Thursday evening. But she acknowledged that there's still 'so much uncertainty,' adding that 'the chaos will persist.' Any tariffs, even low ones, would be difficult for a small company like hers to absorb, she said in mid-May. 'We don't build our products with that much margin,' she said. 'And so, unfortunately, we are in a position where we have to evaluate what we can do to survive in those contexts.' Lisa Eadicicco, CNN
