Pivoting Your Business? 15 Ways To Balance A New Venture With The Original

Businesses tend to make adjustments over time the longer a company operates, but every change doesn’t have to mean shifting every facet of the business. Even an organization contemplating pivoting in a new direction is not likely to forget where they started and what customers have come to love and expect from the business.

Maintaining the same quality while also investing in a new venture will require that leaders have a plan to do both tasks effectively. To help, 15 members of Forbes Business Council each share one piece of advice for effectively maintaining balance between a new business venture and the original business.

1. Define ‘Pivot’

Pivoting could mean a complete shift of direction, but it may also mean changing strategies, adjusting methods or even refocusing on the original business. For example, a small business with a successful product line may decide to pivot its product line to the needs of a different market. This strategy can keep the business afloat while the founders wait to see if their new ideas will work out. – Sai Karra, BuiltGen

2. Strive For Clarity

A true pivot comes out of necessity or desire to change. Consider whether the change is internal to how your business operates or for your target market. At any rate, the key to a successful pivot is clarity. In an internal pivot, you need to be clear with your team regarding the end goal, but the customer shouldn’t see change on their end. In a market pivot, make it clean and quick to prevent any confusion across your customer base. – Blake Schoh, S&S Rentals Inc.

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3. Leverage Customer Feedback

Leveraging customer feedback is powerful. Are you considering a new venture because you have discovered an untapped market, service or product? Is it also at the intersection of your customer’s pain points and what you do best? Bring a small customer advisory board along for the journey. In doing so, you will find you already have a pipeline in place for the new business venture. – Kelley Powell, MacLaurin Group

4. Collaborate With Team Members

To keep growing and improving, every business needs to successfully maneuver pivoting to stay relevant. Communicating with key team members and collaborating on how to implement new ideas is paramount. Everyone needs to be moving in the same direction. – Nancy Meek, The Women 360

5. Keep What’s Working Well

One effective strategy for maintaining balance between a new business venture and the original business is to keep what works and move on from what stunts the growth of the company. For example, when I expanded my company with sales reps, I continued to direct funds, with the simultaneous process creating a stronger dynamic between the old and the new. It was similar to the concept of a “missing link.” – Abraham Grazi, iFundCo

6. Avoid Making Too Many Changes At Once

Pivots are normal in today’s market, but that doesn’t make them any easier. To maintain balance with the original business, avoid making multiple pivots at a time. Also, don’t stray too far from your core capabilities. Rapid iteration and making data-driven decisions to test viability is key to success. – Eze Vidra, Eze Vidra / Remagine Ventures

7. Find Your Anchor

The basic definition of “pivot” is roughly speaking the central point around which a mechanism turns, with the mechanism in this case being a business. In this way, effective pivots respond to external feedback or market shifts but are also anchored to a core and sustaining mission, capability or insight. – Caitlin Brumme, MassChallenge

8. Stay True To Your Core Values

Pivoting is crucial to make sure your company continues to meet the needs of an evolving marketplace and changing client expectations. However, your core values helped you reach where you are today. Evaluate any change against your core values to make sure you are staying true to your founding principles before making a significant shift. – Deron Brown, PCL Construction

9. Stick To The Basics

It’s all about maintaining the true colors and principles of the company and then expanding its scope. A new business venture does not mean revamping a company’s structure and ideology. It’s about sticking to the basics and growing a new branch that would simply target a new, previously untapped customer base. – Abhishek Rungta, Indus Net Technologies (INT.)

10. Continue Support For The Original Venture

One way of maintaining balance would be to ensure you continue spending time and funds on your original business’s marketing initiatives, employees, strategies and clients until the new business develops its own cash flow and becomes profitable. Often, the original business’s cash flow and profits is what will initially keep your new business venture afloat. You can also adopt similar marketing strategies that are proven to work. – Saravana Kumar, Kovai.co

11. Ground Every Change In Sound Reasoning

It is often the case that organizations attempt to do too much at once. The threat of this is that they do not successfully execute plans. The most adaptable businesses are those that invest in being change-ready or in organizational resilience. A pivot or a tweak to a strategic direction, based on good, sound reasoning and transparent communication inspires people to follow. – Marian Evans, Elevate BC Ltd

12. Set Metrics

Set metrics for performance by considering what success looks like. How long should it take to get there? How much focus is this new business venture entitled to when compared to the existing value proposition? Depending on the level of involvement, new ventures can require a lot of attention and time investment—so chart a course for success or you may lose balance between the new and the existing. – Udi Dorner, SetSchedule

13. Make Sure There Is Alignment Between All Key Factors

Drawing on Hemingway, one might say that business pivots happen gradually, then suddenly. Market circumstances, sound business fundamentals, adequate resources and execution all need to align for a successful pivot. The best strategy to maintain balance is to delineate resources clearly, be agile in operations, test and iterate recursively in short cycles. – Cybele Negris, Webnames.ca Inc.

14. Give The New Venture Its Own Team

To successfully pivot and launch a new, different venture, a company needs to give the new team the ability to focus undisturbed by the original team. Launching innovations within existing structures often fails because the initial team needs to preserve resources for them to succeed; therefore, the new venture needs to be “protected” by having its own “skunkworks” team and space to work. – Jerry Cahn, Age Brilliantly

15. Grow In Phases

Phased growth can be helpful because it allows you to test and measure how well each venture is performing before making any more significant commitments. This also gives you time to determine if there is potential for long-term success with the new business. If things are going well, you can gradually shift more resources over, but if not, you can pull back without impacting either enterprise. – Chris Gerlach, Synergy Life Science