It’s December and that can only mean one thing…Omicron and the impact on my small business

The deadly Transformer variant of Covid-19 [that joke will likely only resonate with ‘80s kids] is upon us and chaos has descended.

As the UK public rush out to grab a booster vaccine [good luck with the queues] and the eternal debate about whether wearing a face mask is just good public health 😷 or an impingement on civil liberties 😡 [I certainly side with one of those arguments but best to leave that for now] , I instead focus on the decimation Omicron has had to my business.

Covid levels (and worries) have shot up and, as a result, I’m seeing my working month being written off in front of my very eyes 🤪.

Workshops and training sessions we had booked in at Shiageto have been cancelled last minute (sorry, I mean postponed, or at least I hope postponed) as people have gone off sick 🤒.

In-person business development meetings that are crucial for securing contracts for 2022 have been hastily swapped to virtual calls where they won’t be quite as impactful [everyone knows that buying the prospective client a lunch is the least you can do 🤫].

And the few Christmas socials I had been invited to have now had the rug pulled out from underneath them. The one awards dinner I went to I got pinged to say that multiple participants had come down with Covid (so be careful if you are attending mass gatherings) 😬.

Oh well, at least I get more free time this way to work on my tree decorating 🎄, present buying 🎁 and general planning for an awesome 2022 🗓 [watch this space for there will be some exciting things happening for Shiageto] . But really, I’d rather it wasn’t this way.

To be fair, I can’t blame it all on Omicron. The reality is that as a small business, people often look at the stuff we do as disposable.

What do I mean by that? Well, it’s very common for people to cancel meetings last minute or just not show up [I was shocked the first time this happened but it happens so much that I’m used to it now].

I get it; an urgent meeting comes up so you look at your calendar for what you can bump that day and the coffee chat with the guy from the small business with a weird name is the least important so that goes [at least please have the decency to inform me].

Or you wake up with a headache (likely a hangover) and decide that you don’t need to attend the planning session you have in the diary for that workshop run by Shiageto someone has invited you to.

Or you really need to go Christmas shopping and today’s the best day for it so you rearrange the workshop that you had scheduled (and we don’t get paid for) with us.

Yep, all these things have happened. To be honest, it’s in the same boat as the people who ghost you 👻 after asking for a detailed proposal because they don’t want to say no or they went with a bigger company and didn’t think to tell you or even worse they have taken your idea and will do it themselves.

These are some of the many additional challenges you put up with as a small business owner and these are massively amplified now thanks to Omicron 😡.

Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom; I’m just trying to share a little of my world. It’s actually been a great year for Shiageto so I look to all the positives from this (and to be honest, I find these sort of things work for the best in the long run as bad clients 👿 get screened out by their behaviours or nice clients 😇 come back with even more than they would have first time round).

So, I hope Omicron isn’t such a bad thing for all you and your worlds. Let’s all stay calm, enjoy the festive season and roll on an epic 2022. I definitely can’t wait… ☺

[Don’t worry, I’m not done blogging for the year and watch this space for the annual Shiageto Christmas card 🎅]

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here

Success = IQ x EQ x FQ