If you don’t take anything else from this episode, wrap this little nugget up and put it in your pocket:

A PIVOT IS NOT A FAILURE.

My professional background looks a little…scattered. The bare bones story is: I went from being a teacher to an entrepreneur.

But there have been a few iterations of what being an entrepreneur has looked like for me. My business focus went from:

Wedding photographer ➡️ Branding photographer ➡️ Aspiring wedding venue owner ➡️ Short-term rental manager ➡️ Brand developer

Phew, were ya ready for that roller coaster?

All this to say…pivots are not bad!!

After all this experience, I have come to the conclusion that pivots occur for two reasons:

1. Internal circumstances. This just means that we aren’t happy with what we are currently offering and instead want to pivot to do something new. It could be because our season of life has changed or we no longer enjoy what we currently do. I, for example, had no kids when I started my business, so I could hustle and be in person for any networking event or wedding weekends…now, that’s not always the case since we have three pairs of tiny feet running around!
2. External circumstances. These are things we don’t have control over. Like a worldwide pandemic or county restrictions keeping us from conducting business the way we would like to.

Regardless of whether the circumstances are internal or external, sometimes this calls for a pivot, a change, an evolution. When that happens, my main piece of advice is:

Do your best to break away from your pride and your ego and let the numbers dictate your decision.

I will be the first to tell you…this is really freaking hard to do when you’ve built your business from the ground up and it feels like your baby.

But if the business doesn’t make financial sense…it’s not doing you any good. So let the black and white numbers guide your decision to pivot your business/service offering.

As you do this, be sure to look into your online presence to make sure that you make the transition complete…meaning, we don’t want any confusing messaging lingering from the previous service offering!

Pivoting is not the easy way out…instead, it is actually like reinventing your business from the ground up, especially if your ideal client changes drastically. So be sure to take that into consideration as you’re making the decision to pivot!

If you are thinking about pivoting a service offering or if you have recently done so, I recommend you download the FREE Brand Audit Checklist because it will help you get consistent across all client touch points, both online and in person! You can find that checklist here.

Drop a comment below if you have done a pivot in the past or are thinking about doing one soon!