How to Pivot Your Business: 5 Steps to Plan for the Future (Part One)

Guest Post by Alistair Williams - Marketing and Innovation Director and the Founder of Creation.

Everything has changed. A global recession is coming. Consumer behaviour has radically shifted and with it, businesses are having to adapt to survive.

For smaller business owners, the challenges can seem even greater with often lower cash assets and financial security.

Yet, there are approaches that can help shape your strategy and provide a clear focus for what happens next. And remember, small is beautiful - you’re lithe, agile, with a loyal following and glow with an authenticity that big brands can only dream of. You got to where you are now with passion, drive and creativity. And you’re now pulling on all of these considerable talents once again.

In this two part series, we’re sharing a post-Covid business model canvas with you to help you understand the essential components needed to emerge from this with a clear focus and strategy for success. And some top tips to guide your approach before using the canvas.

1. Be honest

With your customers, with your staff and with yourself. None of us saw this coming and we haven’t got all of the answers (or often even some of the answers).

But you’re not alone in this. Far from it.

At this stage you’re having to make calculated bets on future outcomes, honestly appraise what you have going for you and what opportunities exist.

Remember that it’s OK to say that you don’t have the answer at this stage.

2. Evaluate your Situation

Understand exactly where has Covid impacted your business the most. Not only in terms of your revenue, but the logistics, resources and shifting market. Is this likely to change?

When launching products, we evaluate the Feasibility (can we do it easily), the Viability (can we do it successfully) and the Desirability (will people engage and pay) of our offering. This is a good starting point. What short, medium and long term changes are possible to meet the FVD test?

3. Audit your assets

Where has the strength of the business existed? What are you known for? What can you do better than any of your competitors? What do your customers love about you?

It may be that your customers buy into your whole brand experience as much as your product. It could be that they depend on your networks or supply chain. It may be that they trust you to bring solutions to their problems. It’s just that their problems have now shifted.

The simple approach here is to ask whether your current product or service still does one or both of these things:

Does it create an advantage for your customer?

Does it relieve their pain?

If it still does then fantastic. If not, then what changes can you make to reiterate and refine? Or could it be that you need to explore a new market or a new offering?

If your focus is simple survival then you need to be in ‘Minimum Viable Future’ mode: What can you offer that creates value at the lowest cost/investment and that at least buys you time while you pivot your model.

4. Understand and segment your customer

As a consumer, you will know only too well how much your behaviour has shifted both by choice and circumstance.

By segmenting your audience into clear distinct groups, and building customer personas you’ll be able to again evaluate how much change has taken place and whether your offering is still feasible, viable and desirable to each of these groups.

Remember there’s more than one way to bring advantage or relieve that pain!

By employing the business model canvas approach below, you’ll ensure that each segment has the correct focus to bring the greatest benefit.

5. Refine or even redefine your proposition: Using the business model canvas

What is it? It’s a simple one page summary of how you reach your value proposition, looking at your audience, your assets and what investment is needed and what revenues follow.

Many organisations that we work with have integrated this one page document into a quarterly review. A business model canvas could and should be an ongoing, organic summary document that gives clarity to the focus of your business and the elements that ensure success.

The canvas here should reflect your traditional (pre-Covid) business, in order to clearly capture your competitive advantage.

We then recommend that you ask the question ‘so what’s changed?’ And plot this on the canvas.

It may be that you can spot some quick wins or pivots that allow you to refine and move forward. It may however highlight where the key challenges are, but also the key assets that you have in your favour.

In completing it, make sure to involve the wider team and ensure that you are feeding in all the conversations that you are having with clients.

By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of the most important aspects of your business, the impact of Covid upon these and the start of the process to progress.

You’ve more than likely already pivoted. In this case, use the canvas to capture and refine. Take everything that you may have in your head or in notes and make the canvas a clear focus of your activity.

In the next post I’ll outline approaches that build on this insight to create the new future and show how you can use tests/trials and develop scenarios to propel your business forward and develop your ideas into future proof revenue streams.

About Alistair Williams:

Alistair sits on the Goho advisory board and has a long working relationship with Stacey our MD.

Ex-Guardian and Condé Nast, he's a marketing and innovation director and the founder of Creation, a consultancy that combines marketing, innovation and branding to help create progress for businesses, teams and individuals.

https://www.creationconsultancy.co.uk/post/essential-creation-tools-the-business-model-canvas