Oronoco woman is the face of U.S. small businesses struggling with China tariffs

ORONOCO, Minn. — Beth (Fynbo) Benike planned to shoot Busy Baby social media marketing videos this week.

Then, escalating tariffs on China — which drove up the import costs for a three-month supply of manufactured products from $31,000 to near $200,000 — put her in front of some other cameras: the lenses of CNN, the BBC and New York Times.

It's not how Benike, who was recently named Minnesota's small business owner of the year, had hoped to become the face of U.S. small business owners.

Now she is the face of businesses hurt by President Donald Trump’s announced 125% tariffs on goods from China. She'd rather be filming segments on social media to promote sales for her 8-year-old baby products company.

“Speaking out is not financially benefiting me, because I'm not seeing thousands of people going to my website and ordering my products to support my small business," she said. “What I am seeing is people who are reaching out to me with either words of support or gratitude that I'm speaking on behalf of them and everyone else.”

Benike, who is a U.S. Army veteran, is the founder of Busy Baby, which she co-owns with her brother Eric Fynbo. The business makes and sells a variety of baby-related gear, including its patented signature product, the Busy Baby Mat. The silicone placemat features suction cups to stay in place with stretchy tethers to attach baby toys.

Despite Benike's best efforts to make her products in the U.S., all eight of Busy Baby's products are made in factories in China. And now, three months' worth of Busy Baby products — worth $158,000 — sit in storage in China rather than traveling by ship to the U.S. to be packaged and shipped to Zumbrota, where Busy Baby’s five employees stand ready to package them.

For now, the products can safely wait.

“The people in China are different from the people in America. In America, we really rely heavily on contracts and legal terms. In China, they really focus on relationships. We've created great relationships with the humans we work with in China,” Benike said. “The people of China feel for us. They care about us. They're invested in our success as well. My factory put my stuff in storage and is holding it for me at no cost until I can figure it out what to do next.”

Benike had originally budgeted $31,000 to cover the tariff fees on the shipment. Then the China tariff grew to 54%, driving the fees to $85,000. While that presented a challenge, she believes Busy Baby could probably have scraped up enough from friends and family to cover that additional amount.

Then the president announced the tariff would increase to 104%, which increased the import fees on the shipment to around $164,000. An insurmountable challenge.

Eventually, President Trump paused all of his tariffs for 90 days, except for a now-125% tariff on goods from China. That calculates to a $187,500 fee on $150,000 worth of product. (And later, Benike said, a 145% tariff increased her import fee to about $229,000.)

This has derailed a deal Benike had with Walmart that was supposed to be finalized this week. Walmart like Target carries Busy Baby products.

However, Walmart is being “incredibly supportive” and “a dream to work with,” said Benike, so the deal might survive if Busy Baby can stay afloat.

An emotional video posted on social media on Monday night about the situation suddenly made Benike the face of U.S. small businesses struggling with the new China tariffs. Her story first appeared in Minnesota news reports, then crossed oceans to the United Kingdom and beyond.

Benike has some experience on camera as a former contestant on the “Shark Tank” start-up pitch TV show. However, she would rather be focusing on growing Busy Baby than talk about tariffs that she sees killing many U.S. small businesses.

She's considering other options, such as shipping her products from China to partners in Australia, or working with a distributor in Korea among other possible angles. Benike is talking to lawmakers including U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, as well as state experts like the retiring head of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (and former Congressional representative), Tim Penny.

She is traveling with her 8-year-old son to Washington, D.C., in early May for a U.S. Small Business Administration ceremony where she will be presented with an award for being Minnesota’s Small Business Person of the Year for 2025. Benike hopes to meet with officials during her short trip to discuss the tariff situation in person.

The difficult part about finding a path to keep her company afloat with only three months' worth of product on hand is the uncertainty of how the rules might change again in the coming days.

“Everything is changing so rapidly that any pivot that I might come up with might seem like a good idea right now, but whatever changes in the next announcement might make it a bad decision,” she said.

Benike did address a question that is often put to her about her political ideology.

“You see in the comments of my videos people saying, ‘If you voted for Trump, you deserve this.’ It's not anybody's business who I voted for, but I did not vote for Trump. I am in a farm family and farmers typically are Republican,” she said. “However, as a 10-year Army veteran, I see the president of our country as our Commander-in-Chief. Whether I voted for him or not, it doesn't matter. He is the leader of our country. I may not agree, but I'm not out here saying that Trump is screwing up my business. I'm not going to do that.”

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