Who started, or pivoted their business, during 2021?

[JuliaClementsRoche]

We're looking to speak to people who started a business during the last year, as well as people who have had to pivot their business due to challenges they faced.

• What did you decide to do, and why?
• How has it been since you made the decision to start/change your business?
• What advice would you give someone who was thinking about starting out on their own?
• What are your plans and goals for 2022?

Who has some experiences they're happy to share?

 

[japancool]

I started mine in 2020, I don't get to be one of the cool kids?

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I started mine in 2020, I don't get to be one of the cool kids?

No because you got in with the wrong crowd on here

 

[fisicx]

I didn’t pivot nuffin’. In fact I wasn’t even there.

(what does pivot mean? Is this newspeak?)

 

[DavidWH]

Don't know what you mean by pivot.

I took an axe to one half of our business, sacked off 1/2 the workshop and machinery, and built relationships with suppliers. Got rid of our largest van, and now use sub contractors on the occasions we need to. We now concentrate on a specific niche.

The result someone else is doing a lot of the hard work, and I concentrate of sales, and doing what I enjoy doing. We don't have half the pressure we did have covrring overheads.

My old man has reduced his days, I'm not working as hard, and there's more money in the bank for us both.

 

[fisicx]

The term pivot has a very clear definition that doesn’t apply to most of the changes a business goes through. Many of these changes happen as a business evolves. Not sure there are many members here who have pivoted (because of what it means to pivot).

 

[Mark T Jones]

I pivoted from having lots of hotel clients to absolutely none!

On a serious note, a big surprise to me was that I financed 3 start-up restaurants between lockdowns - all of which are doing well.

 

[DavidWH]

Yep we've not pivoted, just sacked off some of the crap

I'm "working from home" today, whilst someone else is doing the "work" and earning me some money

 

[Free Stuff For Startups]

• What did you decide to do, and why? - I decided to focus on Startups because they are least likely to have already made technology decisions
• How has it been since you made the decision to start/change your business? - Just under a year
• What advice would you give someone who was thinking about starting out on their own? - Know your market and know your competitors and never underestimate the cost of and lag time in marketing and selling even the most wonderful products.
• What are your plans and goals for 2022? - Keep building on the momentum achieved thus far and keep trying to add as much genuine value to my customers as possible.

 

[MattRumbelow]

Maybe not a hard pivot, but this year our business (which protects people working alone and in high-risk roles), started looking into the B2C market (protecting people going about their lives).

• What did you decide to do, and why?
  –2020 was a hard year for selling B2B. Businesses, understandably, weren't keen on opening their wallets with so much instability going on. At the same time, people were frequently asking if we sold solutions for private use. People wanted protection for their kids, their parents, for themselves when they went on nights out or walking in nature (to list just a few examples). It seemed the right time to diversify, so we started looking into making our first ever B2C product –something that would help keep people safe, wherever they are, and whatever they are doing.
  
  
• How has it been since you made the decision to start/change your business?
  –Enlightening! As part of the decision to make a B2C product, we had to look into areas that were completely new to us –such as designing and manufacturing hardware. Everything was different to our normal system of working. Even marketing to consumers is massively different to marketing towards businesses, and we certainly had to learn as we went along.
  
  
• What advice would you give someone who was thinking about starting out on their own?
  –Look into research and development grants. There's a lot of paperwork to fill in and hoops to jump through, but it's worth it.
  
  Other than that, my general advice is to work on something you genuinely believe in, because there will be many times, during the long road to launch, when you doubt yourself and caring about what you make can really help.
  
  
• What are your plans and goals for 2022?
  –Launching our B2C product! It's all a bit 'hush-hush' right now, but we're very excited about what we have to offer. We certainly didn't know how long it would take to release a completely new product, but we've made some amazing progress and we can't wait to unveil it! We're proud that companies have trusted us to keep their staff safe for the last few years, and we're looking forward to bringing that knowledge and experience to consumers.

 

[Ozzy]

The term pivot has a very clear definition that doesn’t apply to most of the changes a business goes through.

Taken from the Forbes definition;
A pivot means fundamentally changing the direction of a business when you realise the current products or services aren't meeting the needs of the market. The main goal of a pivot is to help a company improve revenue or survive in the market, but the way you pivot your business can make all the difference.

There has been a lot of talk in the media and business organisations (Chambers, FSB, IOD, etc) about supporting businesses to pivot their model through Covid to survive. There was also some free money available from local and central government available to help businesses pay to pivot their model.

 

[fisicx]

Totally agree. But adapting a business (which is what most have done) isn’t a pivot.

For example a restaurant that offered an online ordering and pickup service isn’t a pivot it’s just a new way of providing food. Especially as they are probably now a proper restaurant again. None of the examples above are pivots. I suspect very few businesses have pivoted.

 

[Ozzy]

Totally agree. But adapting a business (which is what most have done) isn’t a pivot.

It depends if someone's business will benefit from and want to get a mention in the newspaper, TV or radio. If you're not interested in being in the media then it doesn't matter, but if you want some media exposure then you don't worry too much about the terminology so much and you go with it.

For example a restaurant that offered an online ordering and pickup service isn’t a pivot it’s just a new way of providing food.

^^^ This type of story absolutely is ripe for some media exposure. This was the first I heard of this local company to me, now a year later they are all over the media and a nice booming family business. You could say they adapted, or the news would prefer the term pivoted. It just depends what you would want to get out of it.

 

[fisicx]

If the opening post had asked about adaption, pivoting, revised and other way a business changed during the pandemic then you may have had a lot more responses. It was the word ‘pivot’ that caused the problem.

It might have also helped if we had known this might lead to a media story.

I know loads of local business that adapted how they do things without changing what they do.

 

[Ozzy]

I don't think it's really viable to provide a list of terminology for every scenario that pops up on the radar for some publicity. There has to be a bit of hunger and desire from the business owner themselves to give it a go, all we can do is show the horse some water it's up to them if they want to drink.
For every 15 responses we make to media we are successful in perhaps 1, but those one's get me and my business in the FT, Independent, Times, BBC and others. I would recommend to anyone if there is even the slightest possibly you think you're business meets what the press are looking for then respond, don't let those opportunities pass you by. Especially don't get hooked up on terminology, go with the media trends if you want the coverage and it's the job of anyone who wants free coverage to keep up to date on media trends.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Interesting debate (no, really, it is!)

I'm mostly with @fisicx that buzz words are a big turn off - but also get that in media terms, and presumably to attract them young folk they are useful.

So where does one pitch, I find myself asking?

 

[fisicx]

The problem is if you ask for something very specific (ie pivot) then many will see the thread title and not even read the thread. Terminology is very precise and many of the discussions on UKBF revolved around clarifying what exactly has been asked.

Certainly don’t expect to see a list of terminology but using more generic terms may elicit a better return.

 

[Ozzy]

I'm mostly with @fisicx that buzz words are a big turn off - but also get that in media terms, and presumably to attract them young folk they are useful.

In this context it's solely aimed at the media. What you may have seen in the Focus Group channel you're in - I've recruited a member of staff who's sole job is to get UKBF members mentioned in the news. Her role is to find media opportunities and bring them to the community here.

Now if we went back to a journalist, who has 100 other people saying "Me, me, me!!", and pick them up on what terminology to use they'll just tell UKBF and the members here to P* off as they have plenty of other business owners interested. It's as simple as that, which is why I say my job is to get the Full Members here into the press and we publish the opportunities into a private channel on here only full members can see. If they want it.
If they don't then that is fine, but if they do then the terminology is whatever the media wants it to be

 

[Ozzy]

Just to add to this, so far this morning we've had 17x media requests and 2x parliamentary debates looking for contributions land in my email. We don't have time to translate them all into easy language alongside sift through them to work out what will and will not fit for UKBF members.
In my humble opinion, it's down to the business owner to interpret whether the request fits with them or not. As I mentioned above, the journalist has a 100 other people lined up answering them on Twitter and such likes. Member here would need to put a bit of effort in themselves, the membership costs don't remotely cover the investment I'm putting behind doing this.

6x more requests came in whilst I typed this . Ain't got time to translate and reword them.

 

[fisicx]

Fair enough. But this is in the timeout forum, we didn’t know it was a media opportunity.

 

[Ozzy]

Ok, I get this one went outside the norm. We are taking on the advice given to me by some of you in the Focus Group forum, which is showing what we're doing and demonstrating a value in the paid membership. This being one of the services, and Time Out seemed a good as place as any without restructuring the forum even more than I already have .

 

[japancool]

I am slightly disappointed that I started my business in the pandemic but don't get to join the cool kids.

 

[Ozzy]

I am slightly disappointed that I started my business in the pandemic but don't get to join the cool kids.

I think I answered this here;

I would recommend to anyone if there is even the slightest possibly you think you're business meets what the press are looking for then respond, don't let those opportunities pass you by.

JCR is on holiday this week, but ping her a DM and she'll pick it up when she's back.

 

[japancool]

Sorry @Ozzy, missed that.