Today’s Insight: When do you change course, pivot, turn around, or start over?

God Bless the people who have found a business model and a market that suits them perfectly and allows them to focus on nothing but execution!

That’s such a cool place to be!

I’ve been there before, and so have some of my clients.

For a few weeks. 🙂

(OK, that’s worth a chuckle. At least, I laughed out loud when I wrote it!)

Seriously, no business and no person can keep doing exactly the same thing month after month and year after year and get the same results.

That’s because the world is constantly changing around us.

Technology changes, competition changes, markets change, people come and go, economies ebb and flow, governments pass new legislation, and so on.

And we have to change, too

So the question is: do you change course, pivot, turn around, or start over?

If things are going really well but could go a little better, then you make a change course. You make a minor course correction. You tweak the model. That’s fun.

If you have a firm foundation, then you may want to pivot, which to me means making more than just a minor adjustment. It implies switching directions. Like I was going north, but now I’m going east. That’s risky.

If you’ve had a profitable business but not anymore (typically because of some expansion plan / pivot gone awry), you may have to turn the ship completely around and return to what was successful before. That’s painful.

And if business is really in the dumper, and there is nothing to pivot from or return to, you may have to start over. That’s the toughest thing to do of them all.

It really depends if the people, the products, the brand, the customer base… and a lot of other things.

Every company and every situation is unique, and you get to decide what’s right for you.

What will you do?

While you’re thinking it over, Keep being Awesome!

– Paul

P.S. I’ve helped hundreds of companies decide what to do next, and I can help you too. Call me at 415.997.8001 and let’s chat.

P.P.S. And once we figure out what to do, I can help you stay focused and do it. You probably need that, too. Call me.