Recognizing When to Pivot

A really interesting observation I’ve made from our Lioness Accelerator programme is this: just how many early-stage women entrepreneurs who come into our programme almost immediately recognize the need to rebrand, or pivot their businesses. This is a good thing! It’s one of the great benefits of being on the Accelerator, you get to deeply assess and question your business model, and more importantly, have your business analyzed by your fellow cohort members. However, it does raise one of the biggest challenges for any entrepreneur - what to do when your plans aren’t working out as you expected? It’s surely one of the most common reasons for startup failures - failing to recognize when your business isn’t working, and not pivoting to something that does. This is why ‘Pivoting’ has become such a hot buzzword in the startup world. The idea the experts say is to fail fast and pivot even faster. For many women entrepreneurs this can be a daunting experience and often feels like failure to them. But, when your first business model is simply not working (and this happens more often than not), your chances of survival rests on pivoting to a plan B as quickly as possible. Smart startups that change direction quickly, but stay grounded in what they've learned, are inevitably the ones that have a better chance of going the distance. If you can embrace the need to pivot, keep one foot in the past and place one foot in a new future you are ultimately improving your chances for success. Anyway, you can take comfort from this: some of the best known companies in the world had less then auspicious beginnings before they made their pivot to success. Twitter was a less than successful podcasting network named Odeo. Instagram was a confusing mobile app called Burbn that nobody used before it pivoted. Flickr was an online role-playing game, and Nintendo was a manufacturer of playing cards! So, if you’re pondering your pivot today, don’t worry you’re in good company.