Covid-19 and Owning a Small Business

With the very real threat of Covid-19, I find myself dancing on a fine line of anxiety and stress of the unknown.

If you don’t know what I am, what I do, I’ll do my best to explain.  I have built a small business as a fitness professional working with people at their location of choice. I do my best to support my family. I drive somewhere between 20k to 30 miles per year, from client to client busting my tail doing what I love. I’ve put four years of work, sweat and effort into helping individuals improve their environments. And when they struggle, I ensure they have a voice that helps them. Something positive, welcoming, judgement free and more than anything – a respectful perspective on whatever obstacles they want to zap from their solar system.

My business is a legitimate business (when the hell did that happen?). To me, that means that I am able to focus solely on my business without the security of a standard ‘job’. A couple of weeks ago, in the midst of my best year, I started receiving messages from people notifying me that self-quarantining (COVID-19) was their appropriate measure. And I can not do anything but respect them. It’s hard to continue moving when the world is telling you to stop.

I find myself on the other side today. Today I sit here thinking about how I can change. My brain wants normal. It wants everything to just snap back into place. It tells me to wait it out and that ‘my people’ are loyal.

Truth is, all that does is make me worry. And that’s the opposite of what I want.  I’ve busted my ass everyday to provide and it seems like overnight every hour and breath just sort of…stopped. But the truth is, who knows when all this craziness will end? Is my business viable in THIS world? 

With that said, the weight of the world has told me I need to pivot. Pivoting doesn’t mean more than diversifying streams of income to make sure I can keep supporting my family. It means starting something new to keep my world evolving.

Today, the world tells me to figure something else out for tomorrow. Where that takes me, I don’t know. But what I do know is that all this anxiety and stress of unknown outcomes is giving me a ton of motivation to shift from my ‘normal’. Which I KNOW will be good in the long run. But today, it’s stress.

And that’s my word therapy for the day.

I woke up this morning, stressing about the position of my business. So I decided to load up my mission statement and core values. I began today with my intentions. And today, they hit a little harder than it normally does.

• Core Values
  1. Bring your best every single day
  2. Improvement through empowerment
  3. Knowledge drives discipline
  4. Discipline drives progress
  5. None of us is as smart as all of us
  6. Have a good-ass time and bring a positive voice

I know I’m not the only one who needs to let it out. So please, let your voice be heard. Say it out loud and let it be heard if you’re worried, freaked out, scared. Whatever it is you are feeling, let it be known because that’s going to affect the change you need.