Comments on: What a rock band can teach you about your business

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:13:22 +0000

Matthew…wow, I had no idea that Michael Bolton was a hard rock act. Perhaps it was the mullet that he used to have? Ah, mullets. How glad I am that they are (mostly) gone.

Well, in most places.

Katherine – GREAT point. It’s easy to get too laser focused on existing services and say, “I don’t handle that…sorry.” When instead, whatever “that” is could be a great new profit center for your business. Or, if nothing else, you could set up a partnership with someone who does provide the services your clients are looking for. Referral fees are pretty nice too….

By: Katherine Andes

Katherine Andes — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:02:40 +0000

Another way to pivot is to simply see what your clients are asking you for. If they are asking, they are wanting. For example, I used to tell clients I couldn’t build them a website as well as write for one. Lost a lot of jobs that way. I started building sites for some of them and that’s turned into a large chunk of my business. Some of my clients asked me for PPC and I looked into that, but quickly determined it wasn’t a sandbox I wanted to play in …

By: Matthew Newnham

Matthew Newnham — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:16:39 +0000

Great post as always, Heather.

Of course, I couldn’t possibly remember that song [nope, even though I do seem to remember where it was playing and who I was dancing with - oops, busted!].

I’d also add that staying true to our vision works best, in my experience, when we base that explicitly on the outcomes we are seeking to help others experience – based of course on our innate talents and passions.

So Wild Cherry were hopefully really all about sharing the joy of music [doing it in a way that gave them a profitable business, so they could keep on doing what they loved]. We’ve probably all seen examples of companies that pivot successfully, only to find that it fizzles at some point, because it was more about the “stuff” they were selling than either the real outcomes for them and their customers.

P.S. Speaking of musical pivots, did you know that power-crooner-cum-opera singer Michael Bolton also started off as a hard rock act?

By: Amy C. Teeple

Amy C. Teeple — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:42:39 +0000

I am going to be singing that song all day!

I have to admit that I was so surprised by the YouTube dating site reference that I had to fact check it for myself. (Not that I doubted you, but I was curious about how long that lasted.)

Pivoting – or at least being open to pivoting – is crucial when you are in business. When I first started my own company, I had just left a job where I did more SEO analysis than writing, so I wanted my company to help with all things SEO and online marketing. I quickly realized that I couldn’t effectively do all of this alone, so I shifted my focus back to my specialty – SEO copywriting – and the business (and my sanity) kept moving forward.

Recently, I realized that although I had “sort of” offered blogging services in the past, I never focused on them. I was all about optimized web pages. By expanding my focus to a broader sense of online web marketing writing – including blogging and landing pages – I was able to pivot my business and land more clients (without losing the ability to do what I love).

Great reminder! Thanks!