The Art of the Pivot: From 4-figures to 6-figures

Think about the typical entrepreneurship content you see online. It’s usually all hustle culture, quick wins, and promises of overnight success.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re getting that money, making your customers happy, and enjoying your life, more blessings to you!

But there's one crucial topic that often gets overlooked: the pivot.

No, I’m not talking about the popular scene in Friends. A pivot in this context is when the company takes a new direction than the one it started.

Slack started as a video game.

Netflix started with physical DVD rentals.

YouTube started as a video dating site.

Even my first company, Playground, had gone through a few pivots.

It ended up being the right move for us because we presented ourselves with more focus and that helped us land clients across North America, Europe, and China.

And it helped us quickly go from 4-figure revenues to 6-figure revenues.

Pivots are unsexy because they require you to admit to yourself, to your partners, to your clients, that your initial hypothesis was either wrong or is no longer part of the future of the company.

And it freaking sucks to be wrong. Even when a pivot feels like the right thing to do, it still feels like you’re wrong. I can’t stress how important it is to have trusted partners or mentors to talk through the scenarios so that you can find the right one for you and your vision.

Just because success isn’t happening at the rate you want, it doesn’t mean you must pivot. And just because a new shiny direction sounds attractive, it doesn’t mean you should drop your initial path for the new one.

The right answer is the one that is right for you. And that’s why it’s so important to have those honest conversations with yourself.

Here are some questions that I asked myself when I was debating pivoting Playground:

• Why did I start this company and how far off is the new direction I want to take?

  • I started Playground (which actually started as Peace of Mind Media) because in my last year of undergrad, for my International Marketing class, I presented a series of advertisements that had gone wrong because they didn’t take into account cultural context and how this was still a problem. Seeing no existing solution, I decided to create it by starting a marketing agency that offered creative advertising services which understood cultural sensitivities in different markets thanks to a multicultural team. I didn’t see it as a DEI play, it was an insurance play
    After a few months without getting any clients, for a variety of reasons, I decided to just accept any work we could get to generate some revenue

• How do I feel about letting go of the initial purpose of the company in favor of the new direction?

  • In my case, I felt ok with it. I trusted that if this was the right move for me, I’d come back to the original idea with a stronger position. My priority was generating revenue

• Why did I think the pivot would be successful, not just financially, but also from a morale and growth perspective?

  • I didn’t know enough about the marketing agency world, nor did I understand what it would take and how to position the company successfully. This was before COVID and the rise of the BLM movement, so cultural sensitivity wasn’t really talked about as much as it is today. We were receiving requests for things outside of what we were selling and pressure was rising to generate revenue.

• What are my target prospects and clients asking for?

  • We were getting requests to help companies with Google/Facebook ads, website design, and brand identity. We had prospective clients and the talent to deliver.

• Why would my ideal client want to work with my company?

  • We produced excellent work for a fraction of what other agencies were charging. Looking back, we thought charging less was a selling point, but I see now that we were just undercharging. We often heard from clients that we delivered way beyond expectations for what they were paying.

Pivoting is like recalibrating your GPS when the road ahead shifts. It’s tough, but it’s how you find the path to lasting success.

We pivoted from protecting cultural insensitivities in marketing to general marketing services to specifically focusing on brand and web design.

That focus and pivot helped us jump from 4-figures to 6-figures of revenue in the span of a few months.

So take a moment this week to answer one of those pivot questions above, maybe over a coffee or a walk. What’s one sign telling you it’s time to adjust your course?

Make sure the new direction feels right for you, then take a small step towards it.

Keep building, keep going 🚀

Startups, corporates, it doesn’t matter. I've seen great ideas crash from not thinking a few moves ahead. That’s why I built the Straightforward Strategy Blueprint, a FREE template so your idea doesn’t become another could-have-been. Get it here.