Holy smokes y’all what is going on? I’ve been MIA for a bit and most of that was writer’s block/trouble shooting. Last week I was in the throes of dealing with a completely new challenge. Much like every small business owner I’ve spent the last week figuring out how to deal with COVID-19. It’s a dang doozy. In a matter of 5 days we lost half of our business. I went from organizing growth and hiring and thinking about our 10 year anniversary party to wondering if we would even exist a year from now. I had a melt down about the idea of laying off dog walkers. Like full on, crying and hyperventilating meltdown. This thought had never even really occurred to me. It was scary and disorienting and took a lot out of me. Despite this, I couldn’t go into a deep dark place, as much as I wanted to. I had to move. I had to figure out a way to survive.
This post is less a how to and more a this is how I feel. We’ll go back to advice next week. I’ve often said, “Business is going great! And barring a catastrophe we should be doing great!” or “Everything will be fine as long as nothing goes crazy!” Well, shit went crazy. Like off the walls, stock markets plummet, hundreds of thousands of people laid off from their jobs, schools closed, bananas. There’s a run on toilet paper (toilet paper isn’t really essential but panic isn’t rational). Concerts-canceled. Conferences-canceled. Gyms-closed. Restaurants-closed. The whole working world is learning how to work remotely. Doctors and nurses and other hospital staff are quarantining themselves as best they can in their own homes so they don’t get their families sick. When people are home, dogs don’t need dog walkers. Even if our clients need us, they’re limiting those coming in and out of their homes. Especially knowing that we’re continuing to service our clients who work in hospitals.
This is uncharted territory for everyone. We don’t know what’s coming and how we’re going to handle it. Take care of yourselves, take care of your families and your communities. Take some time to process and then keep moving.