Email copywriters and other freelancers with small business clients better start worrying.
While 43% of SMBs claimed to have fully recovered in December, that number has fallen by 12% to 31% this month. Moreover, 67% say they feared Omicron would hurt their recovery, up 23% from December, when 44% said the same thing, according to a study released Wednesday by Alignable.
Indeed, Omicron has hurt January revenues for 53% of small business owners in the U.S. and 57% in Canada.
Worse, the crisis has forced 1% of U.S. small businesses and 4% in Canada to shut down. Only 27% say they aren’t worried at all.
In addition, Omicron fears are up by 23% month-over-month.
The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the only problem — inflation, ongoing labor shortages and related issues are also to blame for January shortfalls, in addition to the normal flattening after a holiday period.
Entertainment venues have been particularly hard hit — 90% say so, along with 80% of restaurants. In fact, 1% of restaurants have closed for now.
Also hurt are 68% of gyms, 67% of travel agencies, and 63% of salons, and 52% of retailers are in a similar situation.
New Jersey, New York and Michigan have been most heavily affected. In New Jersey, 64% of SMB owners said their business has declined due to the Omicron variant.
The study also found that Omicron had hurt:
Alignable surveyed 6,218 small business owners from January 15, 2022 to January 20, 2022.