Knowing when and how to pivot your business can be crucial for success. We asked industry experts to share a time they had to pivot their business strategy. Here is their advice for entrepreneurs facing a similar crossroads. These insights can help you adapt and thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace.
- Scale Through Systems Not Personal Sacrifice
- Redefine Your Target Market for Sustainable Growth
- Pivot to Serve the Right Customers
- Adapt to Digital-First Strategies in Crisis
- Transform Internal Blocks for Business Breakthroughs
- Redesign Your Business Model for Life Balance
- Niche Down Before You Scale Up
- Build Trust Through Human Connections
- Seize Opportunities Despite Uncertainty
- Tie SEO Directly to Business Growth
- Focus on Organic Growth and Owned Traffic
- Localize Suppliers During Global Disruptions
- Pivot Based on Market Feedback
- Diversify Services to Mitigate Seasonality
- Adapt Offerings to Meet Changing Customer Needs
- Stay Flexible While Adhering to Strategy
- Shift Quickly When User Expectations Change
- Embrace AI to Meet Evolving User Demands
How to Pivot Your Business: Expert Advice
Scale Through Systems Not Personal Sacrifice
One of the biggest pivots I’ve made came early in our growth when I realized the service model we had built—custom consulting for early-stage startups—was not scalable as I had envisioned. We were doing great work, clients were seeing results, and referrals were steady. But I was personally involved in every deliverable: every strategy deck, automation system, and investor memo ran through me. While that hands-on approach built a strong reputation, it also created a ceiling. We were helping founders scale, but ironically, I hadn’t built a scalable business myself.
The turning point came when we onboarded three new clients in one week. Each needed similar deliverables like CRM workflows, marketing systems, and investor decks, but with different brands and team dynamics. I realized that if we didn’t evolve, we would either have to turn away business or risk lowering quality. Neither option aligned with the business I wanted to build.
That was when we pivoted.
We transitioned from a purely service-based model to a systems-first model. Instead of starting from scratch every time, we created modular frameworks: plug-and-play automation templates, proprietary GPT agents trained on our process logic, flexible onboarding flows, and project dashboards that allowed visibility without constant involvement.
We also expanded our tech stack. With ClickUp, GoHighLevel, Slack integrations, and Read.ai summaries, we built custom automations so I could review metrics, give approvals, and make strategic calls without getting stuck in the day-to-day. This shift didn’t just increase our capacity—it redefined what we could offer. I was able to refocus on high-leverage work: strategy, founder relationships, and business growth.
To other entrepreneurs at a similar inflection point, I’d say this: if growth starts to stretch your capacity, that’s not just a workload issue. It’s a sign your system needs to grow with you. Ask yourself where your time is most valuable. Protect that time. Automate the rest.
Scaling isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less, better—and building the infrastructure that allows your business to run even when you’re not in the room. That’s what we do for founders now. And it’s what finally made us scalable by design.
Steven Mitts
CEO/Founder, Steven Mitts Services
Redefine Your Target Market for Sustainable Growth
One major pivot point came when I realized we were trying to serve everyone—and in doing so, we were serving no one well. The business was growing, sure, but not in a way that felt aligned or sustainable. We were taking on clients who weren’t the right fit just to keep things moving, and it created friction internally, diluted our messaging, and stretched our team thin.
The real shift happened when we redefined who we were for and got laser-specific. We tightened our offers, adjusted our messaging, and built systems around ideal clients instead of reactive chaos. It wasn’t an easy decision—it meant letting go of some revenue in the short term. But the long-term payoff was undeniable: more ease, more alignment, and ultimately, more growth.
My advice?
If you’re standing at that same crossroads, don’t be afraid to zoom out. Ask yourself:
1. What’s actually working, not just financially, but operationally and emotionally?
2. Who are you doing your best work for?
3. What feels heavy or chaotic—and why?
A pivot doesn’t have to mean starting over. Sometimes it just means getting honest, trimming the noise, and making bold decisions that support where you actually want to go.
Nicole Gallicchio-Elz
Chief Operations Officer
Pivot to Serve the Right Customers
When we started, we were focused on acquiring customers as quickly as possible. Building an ERP takes time, and we weren’t certain if anyone would actually want what we were creating. That uncertainty led us to accept almost any customer—small teams, low contract values, whatever it took to demonstrate progress. It felt like we were gaining traction, but it wasn’t the kind that propels a business forward. These customers had minimal needs, and supporting them cost us more than they were paying.
Eventually, we realized we were heading in the wrong direction. We weren’t just moving slowly—we were building something unsustainable. So we shifted our focus to the mid-market. These companies had genuine accounting needs: revenue recognition, fixed assets, audit trails, access controls. NetSuite wasn’t serving them well, and if we built what they needed, we could offer something that truly made a difference. That shift increased our contract values, and for the first time, we were profiting from every deal.
Once we made that pivot, things started to fall into place. Customers began referring others, and sales accelerated quickly. Without that shift, we probably wouldn’t exist today.
If you’re at a similar juncture, my advice is this: traction only matters if it’s coming from the right people. Listen to what your best-fit users are struggling with. If you’re not solving a significant problem—or if your customers aren’t driving your product forward—it’s worth pausing to re-evaluate.
Santiago Nestares
Cofounder, DualEntry
Adapt to Digital-First Strategies in Crisis
One major pivot came when touring shut down in 2020. Suddenly, live performance—the heartbeat of so many artists’ careers—was gone. We had to shift fast, building digital-first campaigns, leaning into livestreams, and rethinking release strategies to keep artists visible and connected. It taught me that adaptability isn’t just a strength—it’s survival. My advice to any entrepreneur at a crossroads: don’t cling to how things used to work. Instead, listen to your audience, identify what still drives value, and be willing to rebuild around that. The most resilient businesses are the ones that treat change as a catalyst, not a setback.
Trevor Perkins
Founder, PERK PR & Creative Agency
Transform Internal Blocks for Business Breakthroughs
One of the most pivotal moments in my business came when I realized I had to completely rethink how I was growing my company.
I was working extremely hard, putting in 60 to 80 hours a week and still not seeing the results I knew I was capable of. I had published a book, was doing all the “right” things, but I was barely scraping by, living in a 300-square-foot basement apartment.
That moment forced me to take a step back and ask myself not just what I was doing, but how I was thinking. That’s when I discovered what I now call “head trash,” the negative self-talk and limiting beliefs that were silently sabotaging my success.
I realized I needed to address the internal blocks before any of the external strategies could work. That led to the creation of my Power Habits System, which helped me finally break through my income ceiling and start helping others do the same.
My advice to entrepreneurs facing a major pivot is this: it’s not just about changing tactics, it’s about changing your identity. Who do you need to become to reach your next level? Most entrepreneurs try to work harder, but real breakthroughs happen when you remove the internal resistance and align your habits, mindset, and actions. That’s what leads to lasting success, not hustle alone.
Dr. Noah St. John
CEO, Success Clinic International, LLC
Redesign Your Business Model for Life Balance
One pivotal moment occurred in 2024, shortly after my son’s arrival, during a major home renovation. I had spent years scaling FemFounder and my agency with an intense, high-output model—but motherhood and burnout forced me to reevaluate everything. I realized I could no longer run my businesses the way I had before. So, I pivoted: I stripped everything down to what truly worked, restructured my offers into scalable tiers, and began building a new ecosystem centered on micro-moves, proprietary frameworks, and digital products with high impact but lower bandwidth demands.
My advice? Don’t romanticize the old version of success. Let go of what no longer fits your life or your values. A pivot doesn’t mean failure—it’s often a smarter evolution. Listen to what your energy, time, and intuition are telling you, and design a business that supports the life you actually want, not the one you used to chase.
Kristin Marquet
Founder & Creative Director, Marquet Media
Niche Down Before You Scale Up
One of our hardest but smartest pivots came when we abandoned our generic digital packages in favor of niche legal marketing. The turning point was after analyzing Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing over 850,000 active lawyers in the US, yet most agencies were still selling “one-size-fits-all” tactics. We realized lawyers don’t need marketing fluff; they need qualified leads, fast. That pivot alone helped us increase client retention by 42% and triple the average ROI for law firms within a year.
My advice to entrepreneurs at a crossroads: niche down before you scale up. If your current strategy isn’t driving predictable, repeatable results, it’s time to kill your darlings. The market doesn’t care how long you’ve loved your model; it cares if it works. When we got brutally honest about our results and built everything around performance over popularity, everything changed.
Shamil Shamilov
CEO, dNOVO Group
Build Trust Through Human Connections
I started a global branding and digital marketing firm 23 years ago. Since the pandemic, the new normal has changed more than just the way we do business; it has accelerated and shifted customer expectations around convenience, safety, and adaptability. COVID-19 also forced businesses to pivot communication to be more timely and transparent around supply chain, inventory, pricing/recession, and corporate values/inclusion more quickly than ever before to be and stay relevant.
Pivoting to online meetings/webinars is a smart and productive way companies continued to have conversations that educated, informed, and built relationships to move forward during the pandemic. It’s also been a great time to build your brand through online marketing, social media, content marketing, and thought leadership, which are great ways to increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile, and attract more clients/customers in a hybrid world. Activities like hosting a podcast, speaking at a conference online/offline, writing articles, and building your following on social media all contribute to increasing your awareness with potential customers and building your credibility with a larger community.
We have learned that CRM tools are only as effective as the relationships you have built, so focusing on cultivating human, face-to-face relationships is more important now than ever. Meeting for coffee or lunch, even virtually, can accomplish so much more than email exchanges, social media posts, etc., and it is a great way to get to know people better, their interests, hobbies, and dreams. I have found that building trusted relationships is what drives my business, and technology supports them once they are solidified. Technology helps advance the conversation, but it will never replace the human interaction that builds trust over time.
Paige Arnof-Fenn
Founder & CEO, Mavens & Moguls
Seize Opportunities Despite Uncertainty
A good entrepreneur must be adaptable and seize opportunities before they are ready.
After 5 years of running my tutoring and college admissions consultancy, I was presented with the opportunity to acquire another business which was doing roughly 10 times the top line revenue that my business was doing. It was a monumental challenge. Not only was the administration of a business that size going to be daunting, it would require learning an entirely new industry in a matter of weeks.
But I recognized the opportunity and I acted.
And there were growing pains. My business slowed. The new business slowed. I made mistakes. I looked stupid. Team members quit. There were times where I thought we might not make it. But each day, we put one foot in front of the other, righted the ship and used the resources from the acquisition to help get the original business going again. We were able to hire staff, build robust systems and ultimately strengthen our organization.
Entrepreneurship is not a straight line of progress. It has lots of bumps and bruises, but the people who have the courage to act without assurance of success and the drive to keep going when things look bleak, are the people who build a lasting enterprise.
Matt McGee
Founder, MRM Education
Tie SEO Directly to Business Growth
At some point, our team realized that link building alone wasn’t moving the needle for some of our SaaS clients. Traffic was growing, but leads weren’t. That’s when we shifted from being “just a link-building agency” to becoming more growth-focused—tying SEO directly to product signups and qualified pipeline.
We started offering strategic input on content direction, on-page CRO, and even how our clients positioned their offers. It wasn’t a huge rebrand—it was just leaning into the conversations we were already having behind the scenes. That pivot helped us attract better-fit clients and build longer-term partnerships instead of one-off projects.
My advice? Don’t wait for things to break before you adjust. Pay attention to what your best clients are really asking for, even if it’s outside your original scope. That’s usually where the next version of your business lives.
Kristiyan Yankov
Growth Marketer, Co-Founder, AboveApex
Focus on Organic Growth and Owned Traffic
In 2024, I abruptly halted paid advertising and pivoted our agency to focus solely on SEO, content, and organic growth.
It felt risky at the time, but doubling down on long-form search content and building authority in our niche led to twice as many qualified leads and a steadier pipeline.
If you’re at a crossroads, shift from short-term tactics to long-term assets. Own your traffic, don’t rent it. One great blog post can outperform a hundred boosted posts.
We backed this strategy with client-first content, technical SEO, and relentless testing. We approached it one page at a time, and it worked.
Callum Gracie
Founder, Otto Media
Localize Suppliers During Global Disruptions
Our platform’s value proposition was seriously threatened during recent supply chain interruptions when global shipping delays approached hitherto unheard-of levels. As international shipping times moved from weeks to months, many of our users found it impossible to effectively apply their reselling plans. Our reseller network depends on accurate knowledge of product availability.
We had to decide whether to keep our focus on overseas product prospects or change with the new reality. We decided to veer off course and create a sizable network of American suppliers and manufacturers, not as negatively impacted by foreign shipping restrictions. This process included building relationships with regional distributors, reorganizing our product research team to focus on domestic production, and creating a new verification system to ensure these suppliers could regularly satisfy orders.
The results transformed our businesses. We reduced the average delivery times in our community by more than 60% by concentrating on domestic possibilities. Apart from fixing the immediate problem, this allowed our members to turn inventory more rapidly, thus providing a fresh advantage over competitors still awaiting foreign shipments. After three months of adjusting, resellers discovered the clear advantages of our localized approach, which increased revenue from our premium membership tier by forty-three percent.
Strong supply chains have to be created before they are required. Before a crisis strikes, start developing backup plans and substitute sources. I recommend creating a disciplined supplier diversification strategy, considering geography and capacity.
Even if your primary supply chain is running perfectly, build relationships with several vendors spread out around different sites. Create a tiered response strategy outlining exactly what you will do in reaction to different degrees of threat. Above all, be ready to momentarily forgo profits in order to maintain business continuity; the short-term cost of using more expensive local suppliers is usually far less than the long-term damage of not meeting customer needs.
Ryan McDonald
COO, Resell Calendar
Pivot Based on Market Feedback
One time I had to adjust my business strategy was during the early stages of building 2ULaundry. The on-demand laundry delivery model ran into challenges, including slower than expected market adoption and operational inefficiencies that couldn’t be ignored. In response, we turned our attention to building LaundroLab, a tech-enabled laundromat concept that offered a more stable foundation and was designed to grow through franchising.
For entrepreneurs hitting a similar wall, don’t hold onto a business model that’s not working just because it was your first idea. Rethinking your approach isn’t failure; it’s smart execution based on what the market is telling you. Stay close to your customers, track what’s actually producing results, and be ready to act with intention. The best strategic decisions build on what you do best while solving real problems for your customers. Do that well, and what looks like a setback turns into your biggest growth moment.
Alex Smereczniak
Co-Founder & CEO, Franzy
Diversify Services to Mitigate Seasonality
Early on, I wanted to focus specifically on Airbnb cleanings. It seemed like the perfect model: higher margins, remote-friendly, and easy to systematize.
Then winter arrived.
Airbnb bookings plummeted, and revenue followed suit. That was the wake-up call. I quickly added residential and commercial cleaning to mitigate the seasonality. It wasn’t as “exciting,” but it made the business much more stable and scalable.
Advice:
- Niching is great, but don’t be blind to risk.
- Test your model across all seasons before fully committing.
- Boring, consistent revenue is preferable to volatile, exciting revenue.
Neel Parekh
Founder & CEO, MaidThis Cleaning
Adapt Offerings to Meet Changing Customer Needs
When the pandemic struck, it significantly altered how businesses communicated almost overnight. We shifted our focus from selling products to providing solutions that would help keep businesses running, support remote teamwork, and ensure operations remained strong. This meant we had to get everyone on the same page and quickly rethink what we were offering, adjust our sales support, and speed up our online processes to meet the new needs of our customers.
For other entrepreneurs facing a similar moment, here’s my advice: base your strategy on what your customers truly need, not just on your assumptions. The best changes come from understanding your customers, backed by data, and ensuring that your entire team is clear on the new direction. Being able to adapt isn’t just about shifting gears; it’s about being able to adjust to new situations. It’s about getting everyone focused on a vision that matters.
Yaniv Masjedi
Chief Marketing Officer, Nextiva
Stay Flexible While Adhering to Strategy
We consistently adhere to the “two steps forward, one step back” approach. This means we are constantly moving, testing hypotheses, and validating business ideas, but we never make sharp turns without real data or signals. We haven’t had any radical course changes. Instead, we adjust, improve, and continue searching.
My advice to entrepreneurs: don’t be afraid to change tactics if something isn’t working, but stay true to your strategy. Regularly analyze what brings results and what doesn’t. Flexibility isn’t a weakness; it is a sign of a strong and thoughtful team.
Alexandr Korshykov
Founder & CEO, DreamX
Shift Quickly When User Expectations Change
We saw an opportunity and seized it by pivoting into AI agent building.
How did this happen?
ChatGPT’s launch rendered many startups obsolete and reset the standard in the AI world. However, our startup wasn’t eliminated because the technology was outdated; rather, it was because user expectations changed overnight.
We observed that people no longer desired a collaborative content experience. Instead, they wanted tasks completed at the push of a button. OpenAI met that expectation perfectly well. Consequently, we decided to shift our entire business into AI Agent development.
We had already built a “recipe builder” for INK (our previous business) and launched a test AI agent. The demand for agents was astounding, so we doubled down and pivoted into agent-building technology. Two years later, the appetite for AI agents is off the charts.
Here’s my advice in a few words: Don’t cling to what used to work. Observe what users want and move swiftly when the shift occurs.
Alexander De Ridder
Co-Founder & CTO, SmythOS.com
Embrace AI to Meet Evolving User Demands
I believe that the most important pivot we made was shifting our positioning from a generic test automation tool to a no-code AI-driven platform focused on CI integration and real-time debugging.
In the early days, we tried to appeal to everyone—from QA teams to solo developers—but adoption was scattered. After talking to our most engaged users, we realized our real value was in helping teams ship faster without writing test scripts. So we narrowed our messaging, rebuilt parts of the product to serve that core use case, and repositioned everything around speed and simplicity for CI pipelines.
The advice I would give is this: pay close attention to what your best users are actually doing, not just what you want them to do. The right direction is usually already in front of you. You just have to stop chasing noise long enough to hear it. That is when clarity hits.
Vivek Nair
Co-Founder, BotGauge
