Hello. My name is Connie Whitesell and I am a People Pleaser, a 9 on the Enneagram – a Peacemaker (aka “yes-woman”).
That did not serve me well when I started out with my first business as an HR consultant.
“Connie, would you:
- Create an Employee Handbook? Yes, of course.
- Help with an employee disciplinary issue? No problem.
- Conduct a sexual harassment investigation? You got it.
- Do a pay scale analysis for a large non-profit? Absolutely.
- Learn and apply hundreds of pages of technical information related to drug and alcohol testing for agencies governed through the Department of Transportation? Ummm – Ok???”
I did them all and did them all well. I learned what I needed to and excelled at helping my clients at absolutely everything they asked me to do. I always had work to do and clients to serve.
But at what cost? Over time:
- Very little time to enjoy my family and friends.
- Horrible stress levels that showed themselves in sleep and back issues.
- Not nearly enough money to show in the bank for this intensive and time-consuming effort.
The stealthy shift
At some point, many solopreneurs notice a shift. The business is running. Clients are coming in. Work is getting done. From the outside, things may look fine.
And yet, the effort it takes to keep everything moving no longer feels proportional to the results. Income feels harder to grow. Time feels more scarce. Energy takes longer to recover. Health suffers.
Nothing is obviously broken, so it’s hard to know what to address.
Most people assume this means they need to work harder, tighten their habits, or push through another season. That’s where you start feeling the need for a hustle mentality. In many cases, though, the underlying factor is the business’s structure.
How this shift usually happens
Most solo business owners do not sit down and design a comprehensive services model from scratch.
You build your business one client at a time. One opportunity at a time. One yes at a time.
That approach works, especially in the early years. It allows you to learn, adapt, and respond to real needs. Over time, it builds experience and confidence.
But as the business matures, that same approach can gradually create misalignment.
- Services get added to accommodate requests.
- Delivery becomes more customized.
- Boundaries soften.
- Pricing stays the same while scope expands.
At the same time, the clients you serve may change. Your expertise deepens. Your interests evolve. Your capacity shifts.
The challenge is that services often continue on autopilot, even as everything else changes.
When alignment starts to slip
When services, delivery, pricing, and client fit are no longer aligned, the business begins to ask for more, and this is usually where people start to feel stretched without being able to point to a single cause. Effort increases while results plateau, or improve only slightly, despite the added strain.
Certain services may take more out of you than they used to. Sales conversations can feel more complex or less clear. You may find yourself spending more time deciding how to respond to client requests, even familiar ones. Days are overly busy, yet progress feels slower than expected.
Taken together, these experiences offer important information about your business.
What deserves attention
When effort and results stop matching, the most useful response starts with awareness and perspective.
Stepping back to look at your services model as it exists today can reveal patterns that are difficult to see from inside the work.
Questions like:
- What am I offering now and why?
- Which services are best aligned with my current clients and expertise?
- Where does delivery require more from me than feels necessary?
- How much decision-making does this model require day to day?
Often, small structural adjustments are enough to restore balance. But those adjustments only become clear once the underlying patterns are visible.
Strengthen what already exists
We often assume that meaningful improvement requires reinvention. In reality, most progress comes from strengthening what is already there.
When services align with your best work, are delivered intentionally, are priced appropriately, and are designed around the right clients, the business steadies itself. Decisions become easier. Effort feels more grounded. Results improve more naturally.
Start with one service model improvement at a time. Test it. Assess it. Adjust as needed.
Drug and alcohol testing wins out
In my case, somewhat surprisingly, the DOT regulatory work won out over everything else. I was good at understanding and applying the laws at a time when very few people nationwide understood them. I shifted my services model so the primary work I performed involved just this work.
The result: I gained my biggest contract ever – one that lasted 14 years with the Chicago Transit Authority, helping their contractors understand their obligations under these hundreds of pages of 8 pt font regulations. I worked with good people – small business owners around the country. I coordinated efforts with wonderful employees in CTA’s drug and alcohol testing compliance department.
It was one shift in my services model that I couldn’t have even known to make when I was just starting out.
The end result – I was knowledgeable, helpful, happy, rested, and well-compensated.
What is the shift you will make in your services model that will make the positive difference in your work?
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