Why Your Service Business Feels Harder To Run Than It Did A Year Ago

There’s no denying it… running a service based business feels harder to run right now than it did a year ago. But why? Shouldn’t things get easier with all this fancy pants tech?? I mean, you’d think.

But it’s actually had a reverse effect on service providers. Well here’s why.

So what did “a year ago” look & feel like?

It looked like you knowing what content to post because your pillars were simple.

It looked like you having an amazing marketing plan that consistently worked for you.

It felt easier because you knew what to do that would get you leads.

But now it feels like no matter how hard you try, nothing works. It feels like wasted time.

It feels like every time you open your phone, 12 people are giving you 28 different solutions to one problem. So now you feel like because there’s so many options to ONE solution… you’re at greater risk for choosing the wrong one…

Your confidence is lower. Your discernment is completely gone. And we’ve accidentally trained our brains to no longer use our own critical thinking & real world data because… well, AI can do it, right?

WRONG. A big phat wrong, in fact. And that’s exactly where we went wrong.

The information overload epidemic

You’d think that if you’re feeling stagnant then maybe you’re missing a specific piece of information that holds the key to your problems, right? No.

My friend, you’ve unfortunately consumed too MUCH information so you have what we call “analysis paralysis.”

Analysis paralysis (in my very profesh words) is an unfortunate mental state that someone is in when they’ve consumed so much dang information that it’s caused them to not make a decision at all.

Here are some signs you’re dealing with this in your service based business:

• you’re always thinking of “what if” scenarios for what could happen
• you procrastinate out the wazoo because you get so deep in the researching phase
• you actually get anxious or stressed when you think about having to make a decision
• it’s been weeks, or even months, of you not coming to a conclusion on something

Ringin’ any bells or two…? Or three…? If so, I want you to know that there’s absolutely zero judgement on my end. Because I used the word “epidemic” for a reason… there’s THOUSANDS of business owners dealing with this as I type this out. Thousands.

I don’t tell you that you’re not the only one to try to make you feel better about yourself. I genuinely mean it.

Which leads me to my second point.

More information doesn’t automatically create a better business

Years ago we were in the era of collecting courses. And if I am being completely honest? It was one of my favorite business hobbies (…is that a term? idk but I’m rollin with it) & if it was a sport, I would have taken home the gold. No questions asked.

But guess what happens when we continuously learn a bunch of different strategies that all say something different? We overload our beautiful brains.

So what starts out as a harmless search, turns into the slam of our credit cards, the next few nights of our time spent binging new trainings, and yet again… another Instagram strategy, email funnel, pricing framework, and launch method forced into our brains.

Seems harmless right? Because as business owners, we should want to be better and search for solutions to our problems? Correct! This IS in fact a good habit/skill to have! BUT the problem is when it doesn’t stop. That is when it becomes a harmful spot to be in.

Individually, they’re great, and even helpful! But when done over and over and over and over again… it becomes exhausting. Real freaking exhausting.

Your brain has become the operating system of your business

So now we’re at the true meat and potatoes of this pickle we’ve created. That was a lot of food in one sentence… but then again, I do love food, so once again… I’m keeping it. Moving on.

Every day you might be thinking to yourself:

What should I post now?

Aren’t I supposed to have an email list or something?

Oh crap, did I follow up with that lead?

Okay now it’s time to sell… wait, how do I do that?

Trial reels!!! Yes, let’s focus on those. I keep seeing people get lots of reach with those.

Ah wait… maybe a rebrand or a niche change would work.

I mean that’s a lot for just one brain, do you see what I’m saying?

And when your business (& every strategy you’ve collected) relies entirely on YOUR brain and memory… everything else gets really heavy. The brain fog is at an all time high. Your tolerance level decreases. Your dependency on AI increases becuase you swear it makes your life easier.

Now you’ve got a soul crushing vicious cycle that repeats itself and repeats itself. Aka a real no bueno, especially if you’re primarily rockin’ your shindig as a one woman (or man) show.

Decision fatigue is making simple tasks weight a frick ton more

Every decision you make as a business owner drains mental energy. So when every business task requires you to make another decision… of course everything is going to feel a lot more difficult.

For example, it’s no longer just a task of “what should I post?”

Because it’s become: What hook should I use? And a CTA? Or a trigger word? Is ManyChat needed for this reel? Okay now how do I get people interested in what I offer with this post? Should it be a carousel, B roll video or talking head? Ah crap, maybe I’ll just wait another week to post…

See what I mean? And a lot of service based business owners (especially solopreneurs) assume that the more experience you have, the easier things will be. But the reality is that with more clients, more services, more marketing channels, more software, more responsibilities, and more decisions… yeah that all gets pretty complicated when you don’t have systems in place.

Your goal should be to build structure vs. learning more

Instead of asking yourself, “what strategy should I learn next?” I want you to ask yourself, “what system do I need to build next to make this all work TOGETHER?”

Oh babyyyy, now THAT is the real gold medal question!!! And you should be asking it in your business as well.

I don’t care if you’re a photographer, website designer, holistic nutritionist, coach of any kind, esthetician, or any other service provider… THIS is your new focus. No if’s, and’s, or buts about it, kapeesh?

What to focus on this week to systemize your business:

Step 1: Write down every recurring decision you make each week.

Step 2: Highlight the ones you make repeatedly.

Step 3: Choose ONE to turn into a repeatable, sustainable system.

Examples: content planning, client onboarding, lead follow up process, weekly CEO day, email marketing, etc.

Dang I just realized I yapped your head off & didn’t even introduce myself… so hello, my name is Kaylie! My job is to structure the crap out of service based businesses & make business simple again! I started my first business in 2018 (a photography business) & have been working full time for myself since 2022.

If you loved what you read here and want to learn more about how you can get further help, scroll to the bottom to find the pretty sweet ways we can work together. I think you’ll like what you see!

Or if you wanna be IG friends (I don’t bite, I promise) click here to head to the gram 🙂