Riding Out the Storm: A Letter to My Fellow Makers and Supporters
2025 has been one of the most challenging years in my 13+ years of running FoldIT Creations. Between the flip-flopping of tariff threats, Canada Post strikes, inflation, and a constantly shifting shipping landscape, it has left many small businesses in a near-constant state of stress. From one day to the next, the rules seem to change before we can even put new systems in place. Customers wait weeks for their orders, while sellers like us scramble behind the scenes, pulling our hair out as we try to navigate yet another unexpected hurdle.
I see so many of my fellow Canadian small business owners losing steam, and it breaks my heart. We all started this journey out of passion—because we believed in an idea and wanted to share it with the world. We wanted the freedom to work for ourselves, to wake up on our own terms, to paddleboard at noon on a Wednesday, and to create something more flexible than the 9 to 5 grind.
But watching creatives surrender under the weight of 2025 has been disheartening. Many of us are, for the first time in over a decade, looking for part-time work just to fill the income gaps that new tariffs have created. U.S. customers, deterred by extra taxes, are turning elsewhere and overlooking Canadian-made products. It’s a strange and difficult moment to be a maker.
I won’t lie—on the hardest days, it feels like I’m just trying to keep my head above water. But when I feel unmotivated or low, I remind myself where I come from: rural Newfoundland. My family carved out a life on a rock in the North Atlantic Ocean, a place as beautiful as it is unforgiving. A single storm could take away your livelihood overnight, yet Newfoundlanders always found ways to survive, even thrive. We learned to embrace difficulties, roll with the punches, and do it all with a wink and a belly laugh.
That fortitude lives on in me, and it’s what I try to lean on now. It reminds me of a favourite Newfoundland song, Saltwater Joys by Buddy Wasisname & the Other Fellers:
“This island that we cling to has been handed down with pride
By folks that fought to live here, taking hardships all in stride
So I'll compliment her beauty, hold on to my goodbyes
And I'll stay and take my chances with those saltwater joys.”
To my fellow makers: you are not alone. To our customers and supporters: every purchase, every kind word, every share of our work keeps the creative spirit alive in a time when it’s needed most.
Because while the system may feel broken right now, my creative spirit—and the spirit of so many Canadian makers—is not.