BUSINESS SURVIVAL

How Small Adjustments In Your Business Strategy Will Keep You In The Game

You don’t need major pivots to see results

Our disheartening news cycle has turned me into an escapist who thrives on NCAA Men’s Basketball’s March Madness. There are so many good stories to follow, so many coaches that lead in different ways, and so many young athletes that are fully invested.

But I had an interesting take-away in a recent game that had nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with business. The tenth-seeded Miami Hurricanes were taking on one-seeded Kansas Jayhawks, and as one would expect, Miami was a huge underdog. At half-time, though, Miami was leading by 6 points, which made me, a fan of all underdogs, quite happy.

Not so fast, though, because the second half told another story. Kansas, a solid and perennial contender, used its experience to make some small adjustments. After half-time, the Jayhawks came out raging, going on a 14-to-5 run, and they never looked back. Final score: 76–50.

Their small adjustments related to doing the basics better: defense, rebounding, picking up the game tempo, and deploying their biggest players — nothing fancy or even highly strategic, but solid game-changers.

And so I thought, “Small adjustments are key to everything,” but as is usually the case, my mind drifted to business — my business.

Small adjustments versus pivots

Small adjustments are different than pivots. Pivots are typically dramatic and set you off in a different direction. Adjustments are small, incremental, not seeming particularly impactful, and yet they are.

Here are some examples of pivots that were large and critical during the time of Covid:

• French perfume companies transitioned to hand sanitizers.
• IBM transitioned to a permanent model where 20% of its workforce permanently works from home. This makes some employees happier and has resulted in $50 million in savings in real estate and office costs. Compare this to Goldman Sachs, which has issued an edict to return to the office five days per week. That’s a pivot of a different kind. IBM and Goldman Sachs’ businesses tell different stories, which will result in different outcomes. The verdict? TBD
• Spotify pivoted from being a music intermediary to providing new content like Netflix. During Covid, I became a Spotify subscriber and love the fresh content.

The above are significant and strategic pivots — large in scope, defining a culture, and enhancing the probability of long-term survival.

Now let’s hear it for small adjustments.

Returning to the smaller and more incremental moves that matter, this is a more natural response for solopreneurs like myself. “Small” to me means affordable and matching our scale.

I had three small adjustments that have helped me at a time when consultants are hanging out their shingle everywhere, and customers appear more cash-strapped than ever.

• Fixed-pricing for all engagements: I used to give clients a choice between an hourly rate or a fixed price. Now I realize that what matters most is that people are able to manage through very tight budgets. I can guarantee a job well done for a fixed price. There is one small caveat. Clients have asked, “What if I want more interviews done than we’ve negotiated for?” For that, I offer a small variable cost component that gives them flexibility for “some adds” while still restricting the overall cost.
• Tapas-style market studies: Traditionally, I’ve done wide, deep studies about market preferences. I might interview 50 people serving in a variety of roles and geographies. Now I’ve added a “tapas” style which has garnered interest. I have offered to do a sampling or a pilot to identify some preferences, though without the thorough testing of a full-blown market study. Tapas style is budget-sensitive and offers meaningful information to get people started down a path. If more is wanted, the dataset can be built upon in a subsequent engagement.
• Promoting content development: After I do a market study, I often help with content development — web copy, case studies, and overall messaging. It’s not as lucrative as a market study, but it’s fun and a natural next step. It turns out that in the time of Covid, many more clients are interested in adjusting their words than fixing their product road map. Sure they intend to do the latter, but it will take time. In the meantime, words can help explain why a company is doing what it’s doing and their intent for the future. We are giving customers a reason to believe while we buy some time to make progress.

None of my adjustments were particularly large, but when taken together, I was telling my clients that I understood times had changed and that I needed to come up with some alternatives that worked for them and kept me going too.

It’s all about staying in business

It’s not hard to bolt out of the gate fast and strong, but it is hard to sustain the pace and conviction. In the beginning, you are the new shiny toy, and colleagues want to help. Friends want to help, too. We’re human and fundamentally kind. You are fresh and undaunted.

You haven’t yet experienced:

• The “definite” project you were counting on that suddenly evaporates.
• A competitor coming in at half the price to scoop up the work.
• A client who thought they had the budget to pay you, and then didn’t, and then because you persisted and they felt bad, paid you over six months in dribbles.
• A project getting repositioned mid-course because of client preferences, and now you needed to adjust the scope to reflect their new sensibilities — for pennies.

There are more challenges than I’ve listed, but there is a reason that 20% of new businesses fail within the first year, and 50% fail within five.

Every day, new books are published that explain the brilliance of some courageous moves that allowed a company to prosper.

The stories are interesting, and at least for me, often feel larger than life.

So I’ve come up with my own plan. I don’t need the order of magnitude that these businesses boast about. I need to make small adjustments that make sense. Teams like the Miami Hurricanes or the St. Peter’s Peacocks, the Cinderella team, went far and should be proud. They beat the odds for quite a while. But the ones we read about year after year — Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA — are great not just because of the talent but because of the tweaks. They are in the business of making adjustments.

So my advice? Think small, think incremental. Don’t be overwhelmed by needing to do magic. The one-third of businesses that survive 10 years out have a set of core qualities that enable this. Persistence, attitude, relationships, and perpetual small changes within the business to match the market all count — big time.

My bottom line: Long-term viability is quite possible with the right outlook. So get those rulers out, and think small.

And guess what? You’ll create your own March Madness.