Small Businesses Better Off Hurting Now Than Later

We all know prices are rising all over. The question is, how is your small business going to handle it? Will you raise prices, or do nothing? It's a real dilemma with significant fallout.

I went to my local FedEx / Kinko's (FDX Quote) a few days ago to overnight a copy of my book The Small Business Bible (available at bookstores everywhere!) to a prospect across the country. I have done the same thing many times and the cost usually has been somewhere around $28, give or take.

So imagine my surprise -- no, shock -- when the guy behind the counter quoted me a price of ... $55!

"I'll show them," I thought. I jumped back in my car and headed to my trusty post office. On my way over to Express Mail my package, I had to stop for gas at my local Mobil (XOM Quote) station.

As MasterCard (MA Quote) might say:

• Overnighting a package to get new business: $16.50

• Filling up the tank: $82! (Seems I didn't get the last laugh after all.)

• Inspiration for a new column: Priceless

All of which begs the question: What is the smart way to respond to rising global prices and inflation?

The sharp rise in oil prices has not only caused an increase in trucking and shipping costs, but it has led to an increase in fertilizer prices, making food costs soar, too. And that, of course, is before we calculate what the floods in the Midwest will do to food prices.