Pivot your Business

HOW TO PIVOT YOUR BUSINESS

With Colin Hutson from White Moose

You might be hearing a lot of talk about pivoting lately - it’s a buzz word that’s certainly doing the rounds. Stories of gin distilleries producing hand sanitiser; five star restaurants serving takeaway meals; staging companies building work-from-home desks… Put simply, it’s about savvy small businesses making the most of a tough situation - turning it to their advantage when things don’t go according to plan.

As someone who has reinvented his business model several times over, Colin Hutson is all about finding the silver linings when things cloud over, whether it’s the entire world or just changes happening within your customer base. “Consumers are wanting to change things and we’re having to rethink how we operate,” says the founder of White Moose, who began his business selling garden ornaments out of a suitcase. Now heading up a wholesale gifting and home decor business with an online store, Colin has seen twelve consecutive Life Instyle events and continues to evolve his business according to demand. “You just need to keep listening. The whole idea behind White Moose is to reinvent constantly,” he says.

According to Colin, finding out the way you did things three months ago no longer works is a ‘fight or flight moment’. It could also be the push you needed to put your wildest dreams into action, such as setting up an online shop. “Especially those who have been in business for a very long time and haven’t operated in any other way before. I think this has been an incredible opportunity for many retailers to reinvent their wheel,” he says.

In the face of store closures, Colin believes it was time to start giving back and is fostering a community of small businesses through his @tradingstories_aus Instagram feed. He has also developed a ‘drop shipping’ option to help his customers get their stores online.

“It’s enabled retailers who are already stressed about stock and finances to not have to worry about buying more stock,” says Colin. “I’ve thought about drop shipping before because people are asking for it all the time. As soon as I launched it my phone was ringing off the hook with retailers confirming questions about how to do it.”

Starting an e-commerce site is a wonderful example of a nice-to-have facet of business becoming a necessity. Getting an online store up and running as a result of coronavirus trading restrictions has the potential to turn into a second stream of income beyond the virus. “This is going to potentially change their entire business,” says Colin. “Ultimately, they may need to employ people to run the online part of the business… that’s what happened to us.”

Follow @whitemoosedesign and @tradingstories_aus >

TOPTIPS

01

Ask what your customer needs Ask your customers what would help them out and look for simple solutions you can implement that have the potential to grow your business.

02

Keep reassessing It doesn’t need to be perfect to start. Start basic, then change and grow as you go. “There are definitely lessons to be learned in everything,” says Colin. “I’ve already got feedback that says I could have done better.”

03

Lean on each other, share advice Building a community around your business is paramount to success. Sharing your knowledge and tapping into the experience of others is a powerful resource.

04

Seek feedback Listening to the experience of your customers with new initiatives can help you fine tune the way your service delivery works.

05

Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t do “In everything that I do, even in unfamiliar environments I think, “What can I get out of this?” says Colin.