One of the most common reasons that small businesses fail is because there’s no market need for their services or products. This may seem like an obvious pitfall to overcome, and yet according to a CB Insights survey, this problem sinks 42% of small businesses that fail. Why? Because most small business owners don’t want to admit they need to tweak their business model.
A small business’s vision may be sound, the team they’ve built may be solid, and support in the form of financing may be available, but none of that matters if the company’s strategy isn’t delivering results. You’ll simply tread water until you go under.
There are ways, though, to shift your strategy so you can change what isn’t working while keeping yourself grounded in what you’ve already learned and accomplished. Here are ways you can tweak your business model to keep your business growing:
Pivot your business
The first three methods of tweaking your business model come via Eric Ries’ school of thought on “pivoting” your business, rather than leaping to something new entirely. To pivot is to adjust your strategy while maintaining your end-goal vision for your business, keeping one foot in what you’ve learned while moving the other foot into a new mindset or methodology to see if that works better for your bottom line.
Pivot your product to new customers: The first type of pivot is a “segment pivot,” or taking your existing product and applying it to a new set of customers. You may have originally imagined your product as a B2C product, but it ends up being more popular with the B2B crowd. In order to reach these new customers, you’ll need to change little about your actual product—but likely alter your marketing, positioning, and what you prioritize about the product or service.
Pivot to solve a different customer problem: Another major form of pivoting is known as a “customer problem pivot.” In coming up with your product and finding your target market, you likely had to perform tons of market research and conduct customer interviews to help you figure out what your preferred audience wants. But now that you’re in business, you’re finding out your product doesn’t solve your target market’s problems. In fact, you actually have a better idea of what your market needs, and you can build a solution that better addresses their issues.
This may be a major shift in your business model, but you’ll already have a team in place, plus an in-depth understanding of your customers and how to reach them. Now you can create something people will be willing to buy.
Pivot to zoom in (or out) on a specific feature: Sometimes businesses create great products, but they don’t recognize how valuable one specific feature can be. In fact, some companies accidentally “hide” their winning feature amid a suite of expensive-to-maintain-and-develop additional features, which distract team members and users alike. Other companies create a solid product, but fail to see how related products can help create a more comprehensive solution.