I'm John Batsworth, my colleague Jean Marks, a small business columnist for the Philadelphia

Inquirer, our hometown newspaper, as well as the Guardian, UK and US edition.

And Jean keeps a medium.com site, Jean Marks, his name.

And Gathers Together, the Articles He writes for a number of distinguished publications.

This one's in the Guardian.

The biggest challenge is facing US small business, rising interest rates.

What can they do, Jean?

How can they protect themselves?

Well, it is, it's a big issue among businesses this year is the rise in interest rates and

what to do about this.

First of all, the most draconian answer to your question, Jean, is not to borrow.

The thing about interest rates that I think people have to always remember is that interest

rates can go up, they can go down.

If you're going to borrow money and pay interest on it, even if it's 30% interest, not that

that's some online bankers charge that.

If it still makes sense for your business, if you still get return on investment from

doing that, then okay, then go ahead and do that.

But for a lot of businesses, when the primary now is at 8%, it turns out that it doesn't

make sense for them, investment sense for them to borrow money for inventory or an asset.

I don't know if they have to add 8% costs on top of their already thin margins.

They're not making enough money to make it worthwhile.

So they're pulling back on their financing.

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