The Cost of Being Small: Why Ireland's Tiny Businesses Need a Fairer Deal

There comes a point where you stop saying, "Ah sure, it'll be grand."

I'm not sure exactly where that point is. Somewhere between filling out another form nobody warned you about, paying another fee you hadn't budgeted for, and realising you've spent an afternoon sourcing beautiful vintage pendants in markets and charity shops only to discover the cost of getting everything else you need to customers has gone up again.

I wrote a letter to the Irish Times this week because I finally ran out of polite nods (The letters editor assures me it will be published between now and Monday).

It was about the new €2 charge on non-EU goods, but if I'm honest, that wasn't really the point.

The point is that it doesn't arrive on its own.

It lands on top of the €3 charge on purchases from outside the EU. It lands alongside the paperwork that came with the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. One change? You adapt. Two? You sigh dramatically and make tea. Three in quick succession? That's when you start wondering whether the people making these decisions have ever tried running a business from a spare room with cardboard gift boxes stacked higher than they'd like to admit.

RainbowRegalia isn't some giant warehouse with a compliance department.

It's me.

I'm the designer, photographer, customer service department, post office queue enthusiast, accountant, website updater and the person rummaging through charity shops and trawling Vinted because that's where the best vintage beads and pendants seem to find me.

I'm also the person buying endless cardboard mailing boxes, gift boxes and packaging because nearly every order has to make it safely through the post. I work hard to keep things as eco-friendly as I can, so every packaging decision is another balancing act between protecting someone's jewellery and trying not to create unnecessary waste.

And here's the awkward bit.

People will say, "Just put your prices up."

I'd love to live in that magical land where customers have unlimited budgets and nobody compares prices online. The reality is that people are watching every euro. I am too. Handmade businesses are already walking a tightrope between charging enough to survive and keeping things affordable enough that someone can still treat themselves.

The EPR problem nobody explained properly

The part that's really keeping small businesses awake is Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR if you enjoy acronyms that sound like minor medical conditions.

In principle, I actually agree with the idea. Companies should take responsibility for the packaging they put into the world. That isn't the problem.

The problem is how fragmented it's become for micro-businesses selling across Europe. Instead of one simple system, many sellers are facing separate national registrations, different reporting requirements and extra bureaucracy depending on where they ship. For businesses sending a handful of parcels rather than containers full of products, that's a huge burden.

What worries me most isn't one fee.

It's the accumulation.

Every new regulation probably makes sense in isolation. Every fee has a justification. But nobody seems to add them together and ask what they feel like when you're a sole trader trying to keep your head above water.

Make some noise

Being compliant doesn't mean staying quiet.

There's a growing movement of creators across Europe calling for a fairer system—things like a genuine one-stop shop for registrations and sensible exemptions for businesses sending tiny volumes of packaging.

If this affects your business, I'd really encourage you to do two things.

Sign the petition calling for an immediate moratorium on the current cross-border EPR fees for micro-businesses. Tens of thousands of people have already backed it, and every signature adds weight to the argument that the current system simply isn't workable for tiny businesses.

Sign the petition here: Stop Destroying EU Micro Businesses

Submit feedback directly to the European Commission.

They're actively asking for public feedback on the rules around national producer registers. That's rare. It means ordinary small business owners—and customers who want independent businesses to survive—can actually tell them what this looks like in real life, rather than leaving someone in Brussels to assume we've all got legal departments and compliance teams tucked behind the kettle beside the biscuits.

Fair warning: you'll have to create an EU account before you can submit your feedback. Is it a bit of a pain in the arse? Absolutely.

But it's worth the faff.

It only takes a few minutes once you're in, and if enough of us speak up, at least they can't say nobody told them.

Why I'm still hopeful

The strange thing is, despite all this, I'm proud of what I've built.

Three years ago, RainbowRegalia was an idea that kept me sane. Now it's finding its people. Someone buys Tayto earrings because they remind them of home. Someone wears a Lucky Punt necklace with their birth year. Someone messages me to say a pair of earrings made them feel like themselves again.

That's the bit worth protecting.

Small businesses don't just sell products. We rescue forgotten treasures, give them a second life and send them off to become someone else's favourite thing. We sponsor local raffles. We pay local taxes. We buy coffee from local cafés while we're dropping parcels to the post office.

We're tiny, but there are thousands of us.

So no, this isn't really about €2.

It's about whether Ireland—and Europe—want independent businesses to survive long enough to become the success stories everyone loves celebrating afterwards.

Because I'd much rather spend my evenings turning forgotten treasures into jewellery than writing letters to newspapers.

One last favour...

If you've got this far, first of all... fair play.

If this resonated with you, would you share it on your social media? Every share helps this conversation reach another maker, artist, small business owner or customer who believes independent businesses are worth fighting for.

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The more people talking about it, the harder it is to pretend it isn't happening.

Thanks for reading—and thanks for helping make a bit of noise.

Eleanor x