Today and Tomorrow — Are You Ready To Profit?

We are all adding some new words to our vocabulary during this pandemic. Phrases like “shelter in place,” “social distancing” and “herd immunity.”

Another word that all of us need to learn and remember is pivot. “Pivot” simply means to “turn.” Many people in our industry need to learn to pivot or turn. To pivot to new types of companies that may now be wide open for our products. To pivot to new types of products that consumers and other businesses need.

I’ve heard many people say that they are waiting for things to return to “normal.” Surely you must know by now that we aren’t returning to “normal” any time soon..  Even those states that are rushing to return to what they call normal — including mine (Arizona) — are seeing rising cases and deaths.  My prediction is that “normal” is a long time away.

But instead of accepting that and looking at ways to pivot, I see all too many company owners using another word “excuses.”  When sales are low, people blame it on the virus, on their customers being closed, on the fact that they can’t actually talk face-to-face with customers, and lots of other excuses.

In this big world of ours, there are no excuses. There are only reasons:

  • The No. 1 reason why some company’s sales are down is because they are NOT marketing and are not pivoting to new ways to market.
  • The number one reason why some people’s businesses are doing well is because they ARE marketing and are experimenting with new and different ways to market or even going back to some of the old ways from the past.
  • And the number one reason that some companies will remain profitable in the future is because they are looking at ways they can pivot.  Not only during this pandemic which may last for a long time but also in the future when it is behind us.

Don’t look at pivoting as if it is something bad. Perhaps pivoting may be the best thing you ever do for your business.

I recently read a great story about a famous company that pivoted to profits and made it big.

YouTube was originally conceived to be a video-based dating service where users could upload short videos describing their ideal partner and also browse for potential matches. Their slogan was, “Tune in, hook up.”

Eventually they saw the potential in the much larger and different business model that we know today. That pivot helped the founders of YouTube build a company that sold to Google for $65 billion dollars.

This is not time to accept the status quo or to wait for things to “return to normal.” This is your time to seriously evaluate your current situation and future.

Perhaps it’s time for you to use some of your down time to plan how you can Pivot to profit.  Let’s discuss some ways to do this in our Facebook group.  If you’re not in that group yet, join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/giftbasketnetwork/  and start the conversation.