Rising fuel prices are taking a toll on small businesses, prompting owners of everything from furniture retailers to swimming-pool service companies to trim services and revise contracts as they try to soften the financial hit.
Keon Enterprises, in Harrisburg, Pa., has paid as much as $3,180 for gas in recent weeks, up from about $1,500 in mid-December. “It’s keeping me awake,” said Omara Riechi, chief executive officer of the company, which operates under the name Keon Transport and operates 32 vehicles that provide door-to-door transportation to people with disabilities. “I keep checking gas prices.”
