Here's what I'm noticing in the small biz world right now
This started as a quick post on Threads the other day, but then I decided I could expand on it in an email, so here are are.
I've been having lots of conversations with friends lately about the state of the world, and the state of small businesses—both online and IRL ones, and there's a few things I'm noticing across the board, so I wanted to share them, and I'd love to hear your perspective if you've got anything to add!
I've seen so many fucking pivots and evolutions of what it means to run a small business over the last 15 years, and I really love taking a look at it with this kind of lens. 🙌
1. People are sick of AI content. 🤖
This was kinda suprising to me, a few weeks ago I sent out a survey and almost every single response to the question 'what are you sick of seeing online right now?' was 'anything AI related'. 🤖
And on top of that, it seems like the sharing of using AI in your business went from being the hot topic to being the forbidden topic, real quick, LOL. It's a really interesting pivot to watch when you can zoom out and take a step back.
But it makes sense... I once heard a friend talk about how things often happen in these big back and forth swings, like something new comes out and it'll take a big swing to everyone loving it, then it'll swing back in the opposite direction to major hate, and likely land somewhere in the middle of that pendulum... or it'll all blow up in our faces, haha. 🤷♀️
Your personal voice, your brand voice, your unique POV is what people want—and AI can't automate that shit. (I could write so much more about this, and personal branding, but I'll save that for another day).
2. The guru/thought leader era is over, bitch. 😎
Tbh this could be an entire post on it's own (all of these could, actually), but this seems to be a big shift happening from the top with people like Mel Robbins finally getting the grilling they should have got years ago for a multitude of reasons (including that she plagarised the 'Let Them' theory from Cassie Phillips), right down to the online 'six figure' squad, and the highlight-reel influencers who only share their perfectly curated life.
We're done keeping people on the pedestal they built for themselves. The grift is over and the veil of the gurus, thought leaders, and influencers is falling.
The 'files', the callouts, the amount of big names being exposed for all kinds of shit lately, I think it's got a lot of us reflecting on why we handed these people so much authority in the first place. And a lot of people have been straight up burned, bought something from someone on a pedestal and found out the hard way that the offer was empty and the claims were bullshit.
The era of blind trust is over, and it couldn't be more welcome. 🙌
3. No one cares if you call yourself an expert. Talk is cheap.
I 1000% understand the idea behind positioning yourself as an expert to establish 'authority' as a business owner, so people can learn to trust you and therefore buy your shit... but tbh even typing that out makes me wanna puke LOL. 🤢
To go deeper on this one, I think especially the online world is really saturated with a lot of people doing the same fucking things, and anyone can call themselves an 'expert', but it takes receipts and actual WORK to show it.
This kinda goes hand in hand with the point from above, the grift of presenting yourself or your work to be one way, when it's actually very different from that—is starting to fade.
You can't fool us anymore, so you better start walking your talk.
4. It's okay to quit if you just can't fucking do it anymore. 🤎
This goes for in-person businesses, and online ones.
Here in my local small town in B.C., we've had at least two brick and mortar businesses close in the last 6 months. One of them was super well-known & popular, and it came as a huge surprise to a lot of people tbh. I don't either of them personally and they didn't share their reasons publicly, but the vibe I'm getting is that they just couldn't keep making it work, and I have to assume that the struggles of running a brick-and-mortar shop were too much... which I SO RESPECT. 🙌
I also ended up on an Instagram cruise the other night looking up people I used to follow in the creative/design world, and noticed there was a few who had either gone totally MIA from Insta, or completely pivoted to a different kind of job, and were taking a break from their business.
I feel like this is such an important one to throw out there, it doesn't matter how long you've been running your business or what you do—you can change your mind at any time, and it's okay if it just gets too much.
5. People are still buying shit!! 💸
I know there's a lot of businesses that are struggling, and closing/taking a break, but I also notice people that are out there doing their thing, and DOING WELL!
A few of the patterns I'm seeing here are...
👉 People who have a specific niche of service based clients who are very explicitly against AI, that rely on 100% custom design or illustration work
💪 People who have been in business a long time, and have multiple recurring clients hiring them for services
🌊 People who are dialled the fuck in to the energy of creatives, aka pretty much everyone, lol
💸 People creating offers that are simple, with very clear outlines of what you get or what the potential ROI might be
🌲 Anyone with a solid brand voice, and the willingness to consistently promote their work and share why they give a fuck about it
This obvs is NOT an exhaustive list, there's tons of businesses and offers that are selling and doing really well right now, these are just a few I've noticed that I thought I would share!
So I'll leave you with a couple things...
😎 Share your work. And then keep sharing it. Even if it feels like you're over-doing it... who cares?? You're running a business, and to stay in the game you gotta sell your shit. There are always people who want to buy what you have to offer.
🙌 Spend time knowing yourself, how you work, and what your brand or business stands for. That is the absolute irreplaceable gold of what you do—leverage that and lean into it.
✨ Give yourself a break. Running a business and making an income is tough, lol. Sometimes I think we def don't give ourselves enough credit, no matter how long you've been in the game!
