First signs of Omicron hitting shopping habits
In this impassioned monologue, Rob Moore warns that the emergence of the Omicron COVID‑19 variant is already crippling the travel, hospitality and retail sectors. He cites mass cancellations at major firms such as TUI and Best Western and explains how the resulting loss of Christmas‑season revenue threatens small‑business cash flow, jobs and the broader economy. While refusing to judge the government’s mask mandates or lockdown rules, he criticises the simultaneous rise in taxes and business rates, arguing that these measures further squeeze already vulnerable enterprises. Moore calls for a coordinated community response: sharing the video, pitching individual businesses, and generating concrete policy ideas such as targeted subsidies, tax relief, and business‑education programmes. He urges the government, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to engage with entrepreneurs and provide practical support, warning that without action the economic fallout could be severe, leading to higher unemployment, increased public spending, and social distress. The video ends with a rallying cry for viewers to share, comment, and collaborate on solutions to protect small businesses and the economy.
Chapters
So this Omicron variant and the reactions from our governments is really starting to hit business hard. Now there's a specific reason I'm, I'm doing this video. I think we absolutely must stand together to support business and support our economy. Now I can't comment on whether the actions in the government are right or wrong or over or undercooked. But what I can comment on is many hotels, much of the leisure industry has had mass cancellations on the news of the Omicron variant, on the news of having to wear masks in travel, transport, travel, um, and retail. So a few examples here: TUI, the travel giant, um, have just announced that their bookings are way down. Best Western have had a massive number of cancellations. But imagine the small businesses— the pubs, the bars, the clubs, the restaurants, the hairdressers— all of the small businesses that we all still want on our high street. Like, if you believe that massive retail parks and corporations and Walmarts and Amazons, you believe this is not the way the high street should be and that we should support business owners, then you need to share this content and you need to stand up and get the message out. Not— I'm not saying to just go and slap and criticize what the government are doing, but to stand together to support the small business. Well, really, we should support all business because business drives the economy. Anything that you eat, any place that you go, anything that you buy, anything that you need to survive— a business, an entrepreneur has created that product or that service for you to consume. So if you stand in silence and don't get on the back of supporting and championing and standing up for business, that's going to hurt you. Now, if the travel industry is getting massive cancellations and their lowest bookings, then we don't have tourism and travel into the UK. We don't have all the economy that that brings. Big companies go bust. Thousands of staff lose, lose their jobs. The cost to the economy goes up because all of those people who are jobless have to be subsidized, and we all get hurt. So please share this message. I don't know what we can do, but we can't be silent and allow businesses to be ruined. Now let me have some of your ideas, by the way, because I'm not one for just saying this is wrong. Without creating solution. But, you know, I did think that the furloughing all in was a good move in many ways, and I would love the government to come and stand up and start talking about how they're going to support small businesses, whether it's advice and guidance, whether it's subsidy and, you know, help with finances, or enabling them to run their business Because to be honest, with one case of the Omicron variant found in the UK, to then make all 60 or 70 million people wear a mask outdoors, in retail and transport— wow, shit. I mean, that's a fucking big move. That is a big move. And right, let me just read a few things to you. So, um, the Omicron variant is hitting travel and businesses really hard. So imagine you're a restaurant and you've got your Christmas bookings. What happens when this news comes out? Bang! All your Christmas bookings are cancelled. Christmas is the biggest time of the year in retail. Like my friend Gerald Ratner, he said nearly all of his profits were in December. Many companies, many small businesses, many entrepreneurs, many people who keep the economy going Much of their business is done in December, and yet now they've got massive cancellations. Travel's got massive cancellations. Restaurant, retail, pubs, bars, clubs, shops. And you know, if people were already moaning about the death of the high street, people are already moaning about big tech and massive companies like Amazon and these big e-commerce stores ruining small business and ruining the high street and ruining the small business, you know, the bespoke, personal, friendly, social nature of small business. It's already been kind of globalized and commoditized and disrupted, broken. And now, now it's even worse. So Jenny's just said it stops when we stand up. So here's a couple of things. Number 1, I would love for you to share your thoughts in this content. What do you think the solutions are to this Omicron variant? And, you know, what's going to happen when there's another variant and another variant and lockdown 4.0, 5.0, 6.0? How many businesses are going to have to go bust? How fucked is the economy going to have to get before we put as much focus in small business and employment and enterprise as we do managing the virus? Because that cost is going to be huge. People's livelihoods, people's jobs, people's companies, people's mental health. Suicide will go up, and the cost of the government— it will cost the government even more money because they'll have to support all this. Now let me just make this clear. This video is not about whether it's right or wrong to make us wear a mask or anything like that. That's— other people can talk about that. This is about what are we going to do to support small businesses? What are we going to do to support economy and enterprise? And when all these Christmas bookings from TUI and Best Western and all the small businesses, the pubs, the bars, the local clubs and restaurants and hairdressers who lost all their Christmas bookings and lost most of their profit for the year, how the fuck are we going to help them? Because they need help. Because they don't have billions of budgets. They can't spend their way out of this. They can't They don't even have a month's worth of cash flow in the bank. So the furloughing has stopped, yet they've announced essentially a partial lockdown. So last time there was a lockdown— all right, it's not a partial lockdown, let me reword that. A partial restriction of our— you have to wear a mask in public places, on transport, and in retail. That's what it is. I'm not going to call it anything else. So they've done that, so they've restricted business, fine. So how are they going to support business? And they're fucking increasing the taxes as well. So why aren't they lowering the taxes? Why aren't they increasing the subsidy for small business and the support for small business education as well as, um, you know, finances? What are we going to do? Now, I'm fortunate enough that I had decent amounts of money in the bank, and we burned 7 figures to survive through the lockdown. Um, I'm also fortunate enough that I'm pretty enterprising, and I'll find solutions. But, you know, I've spent 16 years being an entrepreneur. Many small business owners, they only know their business. They're not marketers, they're not salespeople. They're on the high street, which is already dying. So the next thing you need to do, please share your comments, share your thoughts. Let's come up with some solutions. What do we think the government should be doing to help small business owners and help the economy? And by the way, a lot of people say, oh well, the big businesses, they don't fucking need any help. They do! Because if you have an airline, if you're a global hotel chain, if you're Best Western, if you're TUI, you've never seen anything like this before and you create thousands of jobs. Thousands of jobs, and then all of a sudden you can't perform your business. So if something happens in the world and the economy which means we cannot perform our business, then the government need to help us. But we also need to give them feedback and come up with ideas. Now you could say, yeah, Rob, I'll put my ideas in your thread. Yeah, Rob, I'll share your video, but no one's gonna fucking listen to me. But no one's gonna listen to us if we don't say anything. I'm not talking about getting 100,000 signatures on a petition. I'm just talking about all of us together in my community, me using my community for good. Always try and use my community for good. Always try and teach you about starting and scaling your business, taking personal responsibility, getting better financial knowledge and education. But together, if we can come up with some ideas and some solutions, whether it is reducing certain taxes— like, we should not be paying fucking business rates if we can't run our business. Yet we're still paying business rates, and yet most businesses can't run. Where's the help there? Why are the taxes going up when we are able to take less money, when it's been forced and imposed upon us by law? Again, I'm not saying if the masks and the lockdowns are right or wrong. That's not my point. But the government will have a bigger problem for the next freaking millennia. I'm telling you they will if they don't support business and enterprise and economy. And we've got Rishi in there, who is an entrepreneur from an entrepreneurial family, so he's got some experience in this. So get your fucking entrepreneur cap on and come up with some solutions. By the way, I've been in touch with Rishi and he's shown an interest in coming on my podcast, but we haven't nailed it yet. Come on my podcast, Rishi, let's talk solutions. I've got a freaking amazing community here who've got some really good ideas. Let's do it. So anyway, hit the share button because we need to stand up and support the economy and small businesses. Too many people, they don't see the benefit of the economy. Oh, it's just big business. Oh, it's just big tech. Tax the billionaires. Get rid of the big corporations. Bring down globalization. All of this stuff, but it's not the solution. The solution is education of small business owners, support of small business owners, and reduction in costs and increase in revenue opportunities. But our revenue opportunities have been diminished and our taxes and costs have gone up. Inflation really fucking high, cost of living really fucking high. You all know that, you don't need me to tell you that. So our costs have gone up and up and up, our suppliers are ramping up our costs because their suppliers are ramping up their costs. Massive lack of production, inflation really high, no fucking interest, as in interest rates, zero interest. Cost of living through the roof. Oh, I even squeaked about it. Yeah, our taxes are going up. Corp tax went up from 19% to 25%, a one-third increase. National Insurance went up for the employer and the employee, double-digit percentage increase. It's not the fucking solution. So hit the share button, get the message out to everyone. Omicron variant is hitting travel and hitting business and hitting small business and hitting retail. Holiday bookings have slowed right down according to TUI. Best Western have had a massive amount of cancellations across their bookings for hotels. Restaurants are having massive cancellations for Christmas. Christmas is the main time when they make all of their money. New UK travel rules are trying to prevent the spread of Omicron, but these are really affecting travel into the UK and travel out of the UK and bookings in travel and retail. So the travel industry warned that the new rules would be a hammer blow and that livelihoods would be devastated. I agree with that. So let's start supporting the businesses. Let's start coming up with solutions which means that we can still trade, we can still serve, we can still produce. We as the small business owner, the entrepreneur, and all the businesses in our country. By the way, the small business is a massive part of the economy. Um, it was Damon John, I saw a post of his which said small businesses are up to 90% of the economy. All right, so hit the share button, let me know what you think. Rant over, but it's fucking important and we've got to stand up. You should be doing content on this, you should be sharing this content across all your social media. Someone's just said, "Take a spliff." Right, I've said my piece. Hit the share button. I'll see you in the comments for the discussion. I'm up for solutions, by the way. This is not a critical video about what the government are doing. This is a call to arms for the government to do more and to help more businesses and entrepreneurs. So let's work together. Create some frickin' solutions. Your solution is give your ideas in the comments and hit the share button. I love you all. Thanks for tuning into my content. As ever, let's have each other's back through challenging times. Let's support each other. If you see someone post a picture of their business, instead of people going, oh, you're selling, go and support small business. If I see anyone sell anything, anyone sell anything on social media, I'm gonna go support them. In fact, you know what, in this thread, pitch your business. What's your business? What do you— what products and services do you have? How do you help people? Pitch it in the comments. Let me help you. Let's stand together and help each other. Woo! I'll see you on the other side. I'll see you in the comments. Hit the share button and remember this: if you don't risk anything, you risk everything.
