When trade works, entrepreneurs win: Making global growth possible for small businesses
September 9, 2025
by Shopify
Small businesses everywhere are poised to take over global markets, but only with the right trade policies to support them.
When Yana Smaglo woke to the sound of bombs falling on Kyiv, she had 15 minutes to pack a bag and flee. In those 15 minutes, she lost her fashion brands, her beauty salon, her network of 35 shops across Ukraine. She arrived in the United Kingdom with nothing except the determination to start over.
Three years later, she's done exactly that. Nenya, her women's fashion brand, supports Ukrainian manufacturers and employs other refugees, with 150 wholesale partners across three continents.
Her story exemplifies a fundamental truth: scaling businesses are inherently global. Yet when market dynamics shift, entrepreneurs must rapidly adapt their strategies to maintain the ecosystems they've built. War isn’t the only thing that has affected her business. Recent trade policy changes impacted 80% of her wholesale business, pushing her to rethink her global strategy.
"I have a strong attachment to my country," says Yana, who maintains Ukrainian suppliers while building partnerships from London to Los Angeles. "This is how I fight, by keeping people employed, keeping them hopeful."
The global imperative for growing businesses
Two-thirds of global employment depend on small and medium-sized businesses, and upwards of 97% of businesses across major markets rely on international trade to thrive.* For modern entrepreneurs, cross-border commerce isn't ambitious—it's essential for growth.
Companies that export, compared to those that don't, are more resilient, productive, and innovative—findings supported by the U.K. government’s research on commerce and trade. Scaling retailers discover unique products through global suppliers, and international partnerships fuel expansion on both sides of borders.
This is why Shopify champions open trade and policies that protect entrepreneurial interests worldwide. When businesses can seamlessly serve customers across borders, innovation accelerates, communities prosper, and entrepreneurship becomes a viable path for millions. Global reach isn't and shouldn't be a luxury reserved for large corporations.
Yet uncertainty has roiled today’s economic environment. According to new data,* taxes on imports have become a top-three operational concern for the majority of businesses across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, and Australia.
"It's the uncertainty that is the greatest hamstring because you don't want to make any hard and fast decisions given these shifting sands," says Ariana Hendry, co-founder of Beysis, an Australian personalized products company with customers worldwide.
Her team of 13 is trying to see current global complexity as a puzzle to solve rather than a barrier to growth. “We're just trying to diversify our risk so that we don't put all our eggs in one basket."
The current landscape requires businesses to be more agile than ever. Entrepreneurs find themselves recalculating pricing strategies, exploring new partnership models, and navigating customs requirements that seem to reset minute by minute. This is now the reality of operating in global markets.
Building resilience through adaptation
When things shift in one market—and they always do—entrepreneurs don't panic. They pivot to new opportunities or they double down on what's working elsewhere.
For Yana, when her wholesale partnerships faced new challenges, she began exploring alternative markets. "With my retail partners everything has slowed down as we figure out the situation," she explains. "My margins are not big, so I'm trying to change strategies."
She's now hoping to find an audience in the Middle East while strengthening her European presence. "I need to explore new markets, possibly the Emirates," she says.
Ariana's team at Beysis is also fostering an adaptive mindset. As the international market became more volatile, with new duties levied in key markets, they conducted a comprehensive review of their operations.
"At the start of this year it became obvious there were going to be some significant changes," Ariana explains, "We started to re-engage with everyone from FedEx to DHL to Australia Post, and basically cherry-picked which carrier is the best for each market as opposed to just blanket using one provider.”
It took a couple of months, but this process positioned Beysis to be more competitive globally. They focused more on markets showing strong growth like New Zealand, Singapore, and the E.U., while investing in 12 new products for their home market.
"As a business owner, you have to have the mentality that these challenges are opportunities and not be deflated by them," Ariana says. "It's like human nature. Survive, adapt, and thrive."
Technology as the great equalizer
Big companies have teams for every problem. But most entrepreneurs do it all themselves, often late at night.
"When you are a small business, the thing that restricts growth the most is just finite resources," Ariana says.
She says tools like Shopify Markets and Shopify Translate & Adapt make it easier to sell in new countries and react to market shifts. Each month the team reviews performance in different countries. When they notice changes—maybe exchange rates shifted, or costs went up—they can instantly update pricing for all products in that market in a single bulk edit.
But technology can only go so far. While these tools make a difference, they work best when the broader environment supports entrepreneurial growth.
Creating sustainable pathways forward
Some countries get it right. The E.U.’s €150 de minimis threshold, mirrored by the U.K.’s £135 threshold, cuts down on paperwork. Singapore offers fast financing for businesses that need to pivot, and Japan’s NACCS system shows large economies can digitize customs processes.
But even these gains aren’t guaranteed—the E.U.’s proposed handling fee on small shipments could undo progress overnight. When trade policies help small businesses operate across borders, everyone can benefit.
"Small to medium businesses' whole premise is just problem-solving and putting out fires," Ariana says. "This is just the fire of 2025 that we're needing to keep under control. It’s a challenge, but this isn't going to be the thing that breaks us.”
Entrepreneurs don’t wait for perfect conditions. They move fast, solve problems, and find new markets. But they need clear, fair trade policies to keep building. For people like Nenya and Ariana, trade policy isn’t an abstract debate. It’s the difference between success and failure.
If we want small businesses to thrive globally, we must make trade simple, predictable, and open. That’s how we build a future where anyone, anywhere, can grow.