Underdog to Outcast: A Tale of Survival in the Service Sector
Unmasking Realities: The Bleak Economic Forecast for Small Business Heroes
Here is my post from February 2023: A bit too gloomy back then.
The service PMI held strong throughout 2023, even as manufacturing took a nosedive. In contrast, my business and customers experienced a monstrous spring/early summer that year with record-breaking sales and unprecedented demand. The robustness of this success took me by surprise.
After a hard party, there is always a hangover.
Letโs rewind a little bit back to 2022:
Still, covid craziness was ongoing in early 2022, with zero sales first three monthsโฆ You could not go to the gym, but you could play padel! But Tennis was forbidden? Trust the science! All the events above ten people were forbiddenโฆ
Then economies opened, and covid was forgottenโฆ We got Ukraine - Russia war, which destroyed a lot of demand and forced consumers to be super bearish. Well, it was forgotten pretty fast, and summer was ok! People organize parties and go out like there is no tomorrow!
Then we got the fucking โenergy crisis.โ Here in Finland, we had news that we should prepare to shit in paper packs.
Thank god 2022 was over.
In 2023 everybody was optimistic; it simply couldnโt get any worse. We had lockdowns for over two years and zero sales. Winter was mild, and the energy crisis was not so bad.
โ Spring and early summer have been exceptionally good.
Still hard to find any staff - Who wants to work in the service sector? Everybody in Finland laughed and ridiculed service workers - Go drive wolt/uber fucking monkeys! No wonder nobody wants to work in the service industry. How can I promise a stable and long workplace for the youth? I forced 90% of my workers to study new professions or switch careers.
โ Fun anecdote is that some of these ex-workers are contacting me again. I have built a very relaxed and good working environment with salaries over 20-30% of what competitors pay. As a small business, my competitive advantage is the best people and high-quality service - the opposite of what big corporations do. Finns display a peculiar dichotomy: they laud the charm of small businesses, but their spending habits reflect a preference for the expansive coffers of big corporations.
This tells me that there are troubles already in other industries.
โ I have no financial buffers or any certainty of the future, so I will not invest anything in this business. Also, I am mentally exhausted, start the business again and work 50-100h weeks to build, build for what and why?
We have this massive misconception in Finland that small entrepreneurs are somehow super-rich. My hourly salary was well below the minimum wage if I counted how many hours I did. The money comes in from exit after decades of hard work. It is an incredibly lonely place.
Unmasked Realities: The Unseen Battle of Small Service Businesses.
These troubles are now starting to affect the service industry. Lots of big cancelations for late summer and early autumn. โWe have covid scares, so we have to cancelโ, lol why not be honest and say that after the summer holidays, you will begin to cut staff, or you are tight on cash? In Finland, the mindset is such that there's a communal feeling of sadness when a neighbor struggles. Yet, interestingly, a Finn might paradoxically choose to spend a hundred to prevent a neighbor from gaining fifty.
Service industries are still riddled with very low profitability, and even though the spring/early summer was exceptionally good, the margins remained poor, understaffed, and hassle everywhere, leading to even more costs and very little pricing power. The comment I get from my customers reflects this: it is simply โWTF is happening, and WTF will happen next?โ
All service businesses are extremely fragile after the covid and massive rises in costs, so if there is a slowdown, it will destroy many companies. There are no financial buffers left.
Small-service business owners are not the most adept at figuring out how to run the business profitably and what is happening in the economy. They are incredibly hard-working people and love what they do, crazy people. Their tenacity to face the daily challenges of their businesses is incredible. Dogged determination and commitment to their craft often overshadow any limitations. The economic limitations are currently piling up, and I fear they will get too heavy soon for smaller businesses.
If economic realities hit these fighters in the face very hard soon, I fear it will be the end for many. Many of us scrambled to round 14, and it is not about winning anymore but just surviving. They cannot pull any rabbits from the hat at this point (financial jujitsu or taking more debt since they had to go to limit during covid.) Also, they cannot work +60/h weeks forever without holidays and in constant stress, โWTF happens next.โ What is keeping him up? I donโt know.
As they lace up for the upcoming economic bout, these entrepreneurs find themselves in a ring with shadows of debt and uncertainty, their gloves empty of any last-minute magic tricks.

Will we eventually deplete our stock of these relentless fighters? How much longer can they endure? Everybody hoped we would return to โnormalโ like in 2019, but will we ever?
The real question is not about returning to 2019 but understanding, adapting, and innovating - shaping the future with creativity, resilience, and unyielding determination.
Despite the trials and tribulations, I believe in the tenacity of these entrepreneurs. Next time youโre considering where to make your next purchase, think of these fighters.