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4 Warning Signs Your Business Model Needs To Pivot ASAP

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To thrive in the dynamic world of commerce, it's essential for entrepreneurs and business leaders to recognize the warning signs that their current business model may no longer be sustainable. What are the crucial indicators that should not be ignored, signaling the urgent need for a strategic pivot?

In this article, Work It Daily experts from Vistage discuss actionable insights and practical advice for navigating uncertainty and thriving through change. Read on to learn about real-world examples of businesses that successfully pivoted.

Kirsten Yurich

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Pivot! A word that brings to mind the image of some young men shifting a couch to fit up a tight staircase.

How does this image relate to business?

Often in business, we have a target—a customer need, a society problem to solve, a future state to achieve—and determining the best way to reach our target necessitates that we design our businesses to pivot.

We pivot in areas such as what we do and how we do it. But never in the why we do what we do—our purpose. The purpose of our company stays the same.

I believe companies that embrace an "attitude of innovation" win the pivot war. When employees are rewarded for new ideas, trying things, even failing, as a normal course of action—when it comes time for a BIG PIVOT, say…Netflix style, it will be easy for the company!

There will be lots of reasons to PIVOT across the life of your business but if your workforce is not ready, willing, and feeling safe to ride the edge with you as a leader, it won t matter if you have the next big idea for your company. Your inability to execute will render you irrelevant.

Kirsten Yurich is a former CEO and current Vistage Chair. As a clinician, professor, author, and executive, she leverages this unique blend and creates learning environments for executives to become better leaders, spouses, and parents.

Mike Thorne

Business owners realize they need to pivot their business model

Image from Bigstock

Most business owners/CEOs know their key metrics (in their head vs. a dashboard usually) but, nonetheless, they intuitively know what the warning signs are and when it is time to pivot.

Below are four common structural ones.

  • Declining revenue/consumer behavior change
  • Reduced profit margin (product/service mix change, customer shifts)
  • Slowing AR (potential customer financial issues)
  • Overall order flow (competition, market shifts)

My experience is despite knowing which one is causing the issue, SMB owners play firefighter and react vs. getting in front of them. Why? Admitting that there is an issue to be dealt with is the most important step. Fear of being judged/emotional —you as the leader, in your gut, know that something is missing. Your heart/gut (emotion) to your brain (logic) is a very short distance, but for a leader, it is the longest and hardest journey to make. Get over yourself, and ask for help. Seriously, the organization is built to help you navigate this and it is times like these they will rise up. Empower them!

Here are some thought starters on what might be happening:

  • Consumer Behavior - Online vs. brick and mortar or remote workers vs. office (local printing/restaurant/coffee shop, etc.). Have consumers' preferences changed? Experiences vs. things most recently.
    • Market research (actual or just speak to your consumers/customers).
    • Is something happening geographically?
  • Profitability Challenges - Declining or stagnant profit margins, increasing operating costs (no pricing power), or reduced cash flow, increased days sales outstanding. OR are your suppliers shortening your terms? Has the customer mix changed? Product mix?
  • Competitive Threats - Is your value proposition still relevant?
    • Spend time with your customers and suppliers to explain problems or challenges and you will likely get their support to help you. See it as a connection discussion vs. a confrontation. They NEED you as much as you NEED them. Build a road map with all the input costs and see where there is an opportunity to improve.

Bottom line: Make sure you KNOW YOUR 5 C S at all times—what is happening to our costs, circumstances (consumer/customer/competitor), and capital, capacity, conversion (cash DSO, inventory turn, etc.).

Mike Thorne is a former CEO and current Vistage Chair. He leads and facilitates a group of trusted advisor entrepreneurs and a CEO peer group in New Hampshire and Maine.

Mark Fackler

Creative employees talk in a meeting to figure out how to pivot their business modelImage from Bigstock

Simply put, it is time to pivot when your product/service is becoming misaligned with your chosen market. Since there are two sides to this equation, the product/service and the market, you can choose to pivot either side of the equation. Pivot your product/service to match the market or pivot to a different market to match your product/service.

The Blockbuster debacle is a classic example of not pivoting your product/service. The market was stable, home-based viewing of movies. Blockbuster was a brick-and-mortar company. Customers came to them. Netflix innovated DVDs by mail, just a new delivery method. Customers did not have to leave their home. Same market, different product/service. Blockbuster sales dropped as DVD delivery took market share. They had plenty of time to see this and begin to pivot. Then Netflix innovated again with online/instant delivery. It should have been child s play, not rocket science for Blockbuster. They should have not only matched the DVD delivery method but innovated the online delivery. Blockbuster watched, with flat feet. Netflix just crushed them. The loss in sales was an obvious warning sign. What killed Blockbuster was losing their creativity and courage to innovate.

Another example, a more approachable example, and certainly a subtler example, was my company. I started out selling software engineering services to defense contractors, a single service matching a single market. But I wanted to grow, so I added selling to commercial companies. I pivoted to a new market. Same service, new market. Some years later, I added hardware engineering services. I pivoted with a new service. Same market, new service. Notice the ping pong approach. You can pivot on either side, the product/service or the market. I continued to pivot, or innovate as I like to call it, forever. For me, the warning sign was stagnation. If I felt stagnant, it was time to pivot, time to innovate.

The difference between the Blockbuster story and mine is stagnation versus innovation. My advice is 1) scan the horizon and 2) never stop pivoting. Never stop innovating.

Mark Fackler is a retired CEO and currently leads the Vistage CEO group that he was a member of from 1991 to 2002. He is passionate about creating great ROI for his member CEOs.

What are some additional warning signs your business needs to pivot? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily's Executive Program.

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Lawyer Lingo – Common Law Jargon Deciphered
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Lawyer Lingo – Common Law Jargon Deciphered

Over hundreds of years, lawyers and judges seem to have developed a language of their own, rife with Latin terms you can’t decipher without those ninth-grade notes you lost after the final. This secret language gives legal professionals a certain dramatic mystique that can be intimidating, sexy, and, as every law student knows, annoying to learn.

What Is Legal Talk Called?

“Legal talk” is called lawyer lingo or jargon. It’s also commonly referred to as legalese.

Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Law and Order knows that the words “objection” and “sustained” have to be yelled out before anything really dramatic happens in a courtroom. But what do those words actually mean? Here are a few lawyerly terms translated…

What Words Do Lawyers Use?

  1. Objection
  2. Sustained
  3. Overruled
  4. Withdrawn
  5. Rebuttal
  6. Prima Facie
  7. Plea Bargain
  8. Adjournment
  9. Habeas Corpus
  10. Recess

What Do These Words Mean? 

1. Objection

“Objection” is used to protest when an opposing lawyer asks an inappropriate question of a witness. A lawyer can also object when a witness makes a statement that has nothing to do with the question at hand.

2. Sustained

If a judge “sustains” an objection, he or she is agreeing with it, telling the lawyer who asked the question to drop it and move on.

3. Overruled

When a judge overrules an objection, he is telling the witness to go ahead and answer the question.

4. Withdrawn

A less-embarrassing word for “I take it back!”

5. Rebuttal

A comeback supported by evidence. For instance, if the prosecutor states that a bloody candlestick was found in Professor Plum’s study, the defense might offer the rebuttal that the professor had sold the candlestick in question to an antique dealer the previous week.

6. Prima Facie

Prima facie is Latin for “at first look” or “on its face,” and in legalese it refers to a situation where someone looks guilty. One of the nice things about our legal system is that even when you look guilty, the system is supposed to look more closely and give you a chance to defend yourself.

For example, in a “prima facie” case, a jury might be presented with the evidence of your handgun found at the scene of your husband’s murder, and everyone would expect you to be indicted based on that evidence—at least until the fatal bullet was shown to have been fired from the gun of the policeman who “discovered” the crime!

7. Plea Bargain

This is when the prosecution and the defense work out a deal, with the judge’s approval, in which the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for something. For example, if you rob a liquor store and get caught, you might plead guilty in exchange for a short sentence, saving everyone the trouble of going through a trial. The defendant may also give up information about other crimes or criminals in exchange for a lenient sentence.

8. Adjournment

An adjournment is a suspension or delay of the entire trial until a later date. This sometimes happens when new and surprising evidence is introduced that changes the course of the trial.

9. Habeas Corpus

Habeas corpus is Latin for “you have the body,” which sounds ominous, but it is actually one of the most fundamental rights of a citizen. When a writ of habeas corpus is presented to a judge, it means that someone who has imprisoned another person has to show the legal basis for that imprisonment.

In other words, the law of habeas corpus is what prevents police and prison officials from locking people up without trying to show they’ve done anything wrong.

10. Recess

A recess is a short break from a trial (not to be confused with an adjournment, which is a long break from a trial). Unfortunately, most courthouses do not have adjoining playgrounds, so lawyers tend to spend recesses doing whatever they have to do to continue the trial.

This article was written by Melissa Woodson, the community manager for @WashULaw on behalf of CAREEREALISM-Approved Partner, 2tor – an education-technology company that partners with Washington University in St. Louis to offer a premier LLM degree. In her spare time, she enjoys running, cooking, and making half-baked attempts at training her dog.

What To Do If You’ve Lied On Your Resume
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What To Do If You’ve Lied On Your Resume

When you land an interview with a company, the deciding factor was probably your resume—specifically, the types of skills and experiences you included on it. But, what if you lied on your resume?

Lying on your resume can come back to bite you in the hiring process. It can hinder your job search and cause more problems down the line if you do get hired. If you’re considering lying on your resume, here’s why you should think twice.

Why Do People Lie On Resumes?

Woman thinking about lying on her resume

Most job seekers lie on their job applications and resumes because they are worried that they can’t get hired based on the facts.

You can get hired with your current qualifications. Have faith! There is a job somewhere out there for you. However, it may not be as grand a role as you’d like if you haven’t earned your stripes in the trenches yet.

It’s important to know your genuine strengths and to leverage them accordingly. It’s your job to sell yourself to potential employers in your resume and in your job interview. You’re a business-of-one, after all. Lying about qualifications to get ahead faster, though, will only put you in harm’s way.

Employers won’t always know if you’ve lied on your resume or are faking your way through a new job. But if they figure it out, you are back to square one. And you’ve been fired.

One TV broadcaster in Toronto, Canada, for example, was fired over 10 years after he was hired purely for lying about completing his education. Marilee Jones was an ambitious academic administrator who attained the position of Dean of Admissions at MIT on the false claim of an undergraduate degree that had never been completed. She was promptly fired after the information was discovered. Some companies will go ahead with verifying your employment, find out you’ve lied, and never tell you. They just won’t hire you—and they’ll flag you as “Do Not Hire”…ever. Let’s avoid that.

What To Do If You’ve Lied On Your Resume

Man stressed about lying on his resume

So, what can you do if you’ve lied on your job application or your resume?

Do you try to bluff your way through for 10 years or more? On the job application form, did you tell them about your misdemeanor felony conviction—if not, then when? How can you handle this without losing out on the job?

1. Withdraw Your Application

Woman on phone withdraws her dishonest job application

This is your safest option. Simply call and say you are “withdrawing your application at this time.” If asked for a reason, tell them you’ve “reconsidered your application.”

That’s the truth.

They may assume the timing, title, or money isn’t right or that you have another job offer or you heard something that makes you think it’s not the right company for you. That’s all okay.

2. Revise Your Resume & Ask The Hiring Manager To Refer The New Copy

Man thinking about when he lied on his resume

In this case, you can tell them you “noticed some errors” and “want to correct them.” Note that this won’t work if you’ve created jobs or performance claims that were exaggerated. However, you can truthfully state that you want to be “more exact,” if you wish. They may assume you had someone else write your resume and the errors were theirs.

That said, this isn’t always going to work.

3. Come Clean

Woman on laptop stressed about lying on her resume

This may mean you lose out on the job opportunity, but sometimes people have big hearts. There’s a good chance they are going to find out about the lie(s) anyway through reference checks or your own social media presence (like LinkedIn).

Provide a corrected resume or job application and tell them the truth. In life, we need to own up to our mistakes and learn from them. Tell them that, too—that you made a mistake and you want to make it right. It’s a sign of good character to do that. People make mistakes, especially under pressure (and needing a job is a lot of pressure).

It’s best not to end up in this position, but if the deed is done, these are the top three ways of fixing the problem…

How To Avoid The Problem

You can explain job gaps and sudden departures from school or a former job in the interview. If you have a criminal record, and that would include any DUIs, be upfront about it or call immediately to tell them you neglected to mention it and would like to “set the record straight.”

Some things are not automatic barriers to employment—but lying about them may be.

Now is the time to change your resume and social media profiles, such as LinkedIn, so you never have to worry about this again. Do it today so if your dream job opens up tomorrow, you are polished and ready to stand out to employers on your own merit.

Need more help with your job search?

Become a member to learn how to land a job and UNLEASH your true potential to get what you want from work!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.