Sometimes things in our entrepreneurship journey do not go as planned – COVID shuts down the economy, the launch we built up does not take off, the social media campaign does not get good engagement. Pivoting a business whether from in-person to online or in its core service/product offerings can be a daunting task – Where do you begin? Who do you turn to? Will it be successful? Pivoting is a natural part of growing a business even without the extenuating circumstances of the current times – for you to keep up with your target market that will evolve in its needs, you have to evolve as well.
If you have noticed that your overall sales are going down, competition is taking away from your sales and you are finding yourself playing catch up in your own niche, or that one product you offer is taking off while the rest trail behind – it might be time to think about pivoting and switching it up. This is an underlying theme throughout many of the podcasts I have done. Celeste from Careste had to pivot her business from a home-based in-person showroom to an online business or Brooke from Mylk had to increase her online presence instead of commercial selling to coffee shops. Analyzing the current situation and adapting is very important. So where do you begin?
GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
One of the first steps in pivoting is reassessing the basics: who is your target market, what are they interested in, what do they need, and how does your business fill that gap. While it might feel like a step back, going back to the drawing board and relearning your market will help create a smooth pivot with a higher chance of success. Many businesses that rush into a pivot without researching whether that is the direction their target consumers are moving in lose their consumers and have to pivot again and again.
INVEST IN SOCIAL MEDIA
If your business is not already active on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok then make the investment now. Social media is not only the new way of marketing and advertising your brand but it provides you a direct connection with consumers. You will be able to see their response to your products/services and now where the pivot might need to happen. This almost instantaneous feedback is crucial not only for pivots but for your business’s growth long term.
USE WHAT YOU HAVE
Pivoting does not mean scrapping everything you have done so far and starting at square one. When deciding on your new approach, you can look back at the content and strategies that have been working for you and rework them to better align with the pivot. Content created for social media can be edited and rewritten to better suit the current plan and products can be redesigned to be on-brand. The energy, teamwork, and money already invested in your business do not have to be thrown away rather it an used to your advantage when pivoting by giving you a base of already created things to work off of and be inspired by.
PIVOT TO GROW
When strategizing and creating a pivot for your company you have to think about growth and longevity. While multiple pivots are not strange and actually encouraged, you cannot think short-term when reworking what you offer and how you present to consumers – you want to be confident and strong in that, not “wishy-washy”. Think about how the pivot will create opportunities and open new doors down the road furthering your business.
