Pivot or Go Deeper? When Your Business Should Stay the Course

Send us Fan MailGrowth has slowed, so should you enter a new market, launch another service or completely change direction?Not necessarily.In this solo episode, Peter challenges the assumption that every struggling business needs to pivot. Sometimes the smarter decision is to strengthen the existing offer, improve the marketing and address the constraint preventing the core business from performing.Peter shares the example of a company being encouraged to diversify despite holding less than 5% of its existing market.In this episode, you’ll discover:The difference between a necessary pivot and a panic reactionWhy changing direction without evidence creates riskHow a pivot can damage the existing core businessWhy low market penetration may indicate an untapped opportunityHow weak marketing can be mistaken for a strategic problemWhy founders are attracted to new and shiny opportunitiesThe importance of identifying the real business constraintWhen exploring another market may genuinely make senseThere is no universal market-share percentage that determines whether a company should pivot.Before changing direction, examine the addressable opportunity, customer demand, competitive position, profitability, internal capabilities and cost of creating additional complexity.A new revenue stream can look attractive, but every additional market, offer and delivery model creates more decisions, systems and responsibilities.If the new direction depends even more heavily on the founder, it may expand the Hamster Wheel Trap® rather than solve it.Before you pivot, ask:Is the core strategy broken, or have we simply failed to execute it properly?CONNECT WITH PETER BOOLKAHWebsite: https://www.boolkah.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boolkahInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/pboolkah/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BoolkahX: https://twitter.com/boolkahABOUT PETER BOOLKAHPeter Boolkah is a business coach, author and speaker who has spent more than 20 years helping business owners build stronger, more valuable businesses that do not depend on them for everything.He is the creator of The Hamster Wheel Trap® and author of Your Business Sucks: Build a Business That Works Without Destroying Your Life.Peter works with founders and leadership teams on the issues that ultimately determine whether a business creates freedom or becomes another job: leadership, founder dependency, people, profit, execution, scaling, exit readiness and enterprise value.His approach is direct, practical and built around one simple question:Do you own the business, or does the business own you?Learn more at https://www.boolkah.com