How to Know When to Pivot

Many aspiring entrepreneurs think that pivoting is a trivial part of business. In truth, independent pharmacies should only pivot when it’s necessary, and it also requires considerable planning before executing it thoughtfully.

Before starting a pivot, there are many factors a good entrepreneur should consider, the most important one being determining the right time to successfully pivot.

For people that don’t know what Pivoting really entails, here’s a quick description.

In the business world, pivoting is the startup technique of shifting to a different or a new strategy, usually involves changing your whole company drastically. However, this is not true in all cases. Most times, a company may need to address only one important problem, which requires the change of only one of the company’s operation.

Knowing the Right Time to Pivot

A lot of companies have experienced huge success due to pivoting and as a result, many aspiring entrepreneurs may tend to think it is the perfect cure for all startups problems. It is important for you as an independent pharmacist to know that pivoting should be considered only when you’ve exhausted other options and it is absolutely necessary.

To ensure you don’t jump into making rash, hasty decisions with your business, explained below are a few sign that’ll help you know when it is right to pivot.

• The competition is too much

As an independent pharmacist, your idea at first may seem original and unique, but there’s a good chance that a well-established, bigger company that has more funding and resources as well as a built-in audience will create a similar offering to yours but only better.

In this kind of situation, you may not have much option than to pivot and try to use a completely different strategy for your business.

• Your business is playing catch-up every time

If the progress of your independent pharmacy is too slow regardless of how much work you put into it, maybe it’s time to consider pivoting. This doesn’t mean you have to pivot the whole operations of the pharmacy, you should consider pivoting your product, revenue or business model, or market.

• Your business has hit a huge plateau

It is possible your independent pharmacy business has hit a Plateau if you notice little or no progress in the development of your company. This may be caused by unmotivated employees, boredom, inefficient strategy and a number of other things, whatever the cause, you should consider pivoting. It doesn’t have to be a huge pivot, just look at your business objectively and identify things you think needs revamping.

Know when it’s time to be stubborn about your goals and the right time to pull back

On the rough road to success, every business experiences a considerable amount of difficulties. However, you should know when to consider a certain problem as an obstacle or impossibility. When things are going sideways, ask yourself: “can I solve this problem with more funding, customer development, research, etc.?” if your answer is “no”, despite how improbable it may seem, you need to consider pivoting.