The volatile global gas market presents a myriad of challenges to both small and large businesses that have to be strategic and flexible in adapting to the constant changes, communicating these changes to their customers while trying to grow their business and its profit margin.

According to Robert McNally, President of the Rapidan Group LLC in Bethesda, MD, “historically, small businesses are considered the source of job creation, but with the instability in oil prices they have found it difficult to run their businesses, hire more employees and plan for the future. Rising oil prices hurt them directly by increasing input costs, such as fuel, and reducing the purchasing power of their customers. Higher fuel prices feed into higher prices of many goods and services, including food and transportation. These wholesale cost increases get passed along to small businesses, who must then contend with difficult choices as to whether to absorb or pass them along.”

As stated by Wikipedia “adapting to change is crucial in business and particularly small business; not being tied to any bureaucratic inertia, it is typically easier to respond to the marketplace quickly.” While multinational companies have the benefits of economies of scale, sufficient integration and cash flow smaller companies tend to be more agile in reacting and adapting more readily to change.

Multinationals are able to absorb costs for longer periods or may have the market share and pricing power to raise the price of the product to offset the increased cost of fuel. However, small businesses have to adapt faster than multinationals because their margins get eroded much faster, which can run them out of business quickly. Additionally, small businesses run the risk of losing their customers much faster than a multinational and so have to share in the absorption of the cost of rising fuel or find