Pivoting is a key strategy in business, but unfortunately, many small business owners tend to wait too long to implement it. Pivoting your business allows you to explore new markets, products, or services that will enable you to expand your revenue or to even help your business survive. In today’s podcast, Dennis Kelly from Postalytics and Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions discuss how and when to pivot a business for optimal performance.
Summary
How and When to Pivot Your Business
Many business owners start with a firm conviction that their original ideas are a perfect match for their target niche. Still, down the line, they realize the need to pivot their business in response to the current market realities.
Savvy entrepreneurs know that they have to pivot their company when necessary to thrive. However, failure becomes inevitable when you become stuck with your initial business plan that’s no longer viable and profitable.
Pivoting doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to start a business from scratch. But to successfully pivot your company, you must do it with due diligence, considerable planning, and a well-thought strategy.
What Is Pivoting?
Pivoting means changing the direction of your business, usually in response to the changes in the market. In other words, when you pivot your business, you change some aspect of your business, including operational or marketing strategy, products, or services, to meet your customers’ demands, shift your target audience or boost sales.
As an entrepreneur, when it appears your initial plans are no longer feasible, it’s essential you pivot to remain viable and profitable.
When Should You Consider Pivoting Your Business?
Although not a magic bullet, pivoting can help you reposition your company to become more viable and sustainable. However, you can consider pivoting when it becomes absolutely necessary.
Below are what could make you consider pivoting:
- When there’s limited progress: if you can’t see much improvement after investing sizeable resources and money
- Fierce competition: when there’s too much competition in your market niche, and you’re not among the top competitors
- Poor response from customers: pivoting becomes necessary when customers are not responding well to your products or services
- When you want something different: as your business grows, you might want to offer new value to your customers
How Can You Pivot Your Business Successfully
Pivoting a business can be challenging and trickier than expected. However, once you consider pivoting your small business, the tips below can help reduce associated risk and increase the chances of a profitable outcome.
Change your product and service offering
As we said earlier, it’s time to pivot when your services and products don’t resonate with the target customers. First, however, you must undertake proper research to determine why your products are not attracting people’s interest.
Once you have done that, you should plan to change your business model to give better value to your target audience.
Next, focus on developing certain product features or changing your target market. All in all, make customers see your business in a new light.
Choose goals that align with your business.
For your small business pivoting to be successful, you must define new goals that align with your new company. In other words, you should decide on a new revenue goal and customer traction number. Your goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
Understand your target audience’s problem
The reason your product isn’t selling well might be that you’re targeting the wrong audience. If this is the case, you might need to change your focus to another demographic.
Focus on who most likely needs your offering and gravitate your marketing campaign towards them. Pivoting your business to sell your product to a specific audience would help you improve sales and traction while not changing your product.
Find out what your competitors are doing
Analyze what your competitors do and brainstorm how you’ll do it better. You cannot beat your competitors if you’re offering the same products or services at a similar price point, especially if you’re a very small business or just starting.
Hence, to stand out in your niche, you must look for innovative means of delivering more value than your customers expect. Going the extra mile will help you build loyal customers who will stick with your company, notwithstanding your prices.
Adapt your product to solve the customers’ problem
We are in a world of constant change, and smart entrepreneurs are always on the lookout to spot changes as they occur. When your business offerings are no longer solving consumers’ needs effectively, they will look elsewhere for a better alternative.
With this in mind, you should strive to identify your target customer’s pain points and proffer solutions accordingly. Plus, you should pitch your business to them by providing the ideal solution to their perceived problems.
Plan and execute
Adequate planning is essential to pull off a successful pivot. You should put in place systems, processes, and procedures to help keep you on track when you’re pivoting your business. For example, create a timeline to introduce your new product. In addition, ensure you have your marketing and sales operational strategy.
After you have done all the groundwork, execute your plan and have a metric for measuring success.
Learn About Our Guest
Dennis Kelly is CEO of Postalytics, a fast-growing direct mail automation software company. Postalytics helps marketers do more in less time with streamlined production, integration into the marketing tech stack, and real-time direct mail campaign analytics. Postalytics is Dennis’ 6th startup. He has been involved in starting and growing early-stage technology ventures for over 30 years.
Learn More About Financing Solutions
Financing Solutions provides an easy-to-setup unsecured small business line of credit to small businesses. The small business financing product is a great cash backup plan that costs nothing to set up, nothing until used, and is inexpensive when needed. Financing Solutions is rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and 5 stars by the BBB/Google Reviews.
Unlike a traditional business bank loan, our business credit line requires no collateral or personal guarantee (except in fraud cases), making it an excellent alternative business financing option. Small businesses often use their line of credit for short-term expenses, working capital, to make payroll, or for business investment, especially when business cash flow is temporarily down.
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