Ask the Vetrepreneur: The importance of pivoting

Q: What does it mean to pivot in business?
A: The difference between a successful small business and a passing fad depends on your willingness to evolve and explore innovative ways for your business to meet a market need. In the startup/small business community, we call this concept pivoting. Business success often relies on your vision and experience – but the plan you started with doesn’t always work out, or it may need to abruptly change course to achieve success. So you pivot. Pivoting is to test your hypothesis continually, iterate on your ideas and see what works or fails. This testing enables you to identify the problems and change direction accordingly. What it means for you as a business owner is the importance of open-mindedness and a willingness to learn. Pivoting can be applied to any element of your business model, whether it’s marketing practices, technology, product features, sales channels or revenue models.
Q: How do you know when to pivot?
A: As the owner, you are in the best position to determine how to pivot and when, but there are a few questions you can ask yourself to be sure:
Are your users or customers unsatisfied with your product or service? Take time to really listen to what they’re saying. It might be time to make a change to make your market work.
Does one part of your business work better than the whole? If a spinoff product is working better than the original, it might be a good time to look at the whole picture and refocus your efforts. A new approach may have greater potential than your original plan.
To better understand the concept of pivoting, I recommend Eric Ries’ “The Lean Startup.”

Mark Rockefeller is an entrepreneur, attorney and veteran. He is the co-founder and CEO of StreetShares, an online marketplace where investors compete to provide shares of commercial loans to small businesses.
Follow Rockefeller on Twitter @markrockefeller or StreetShares @StreetShares
Have a question? Send it to him at questions@streetshares.com.