Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, and changes in the work environment (like virtual versus in-person offerings), many business models have had to change tactics. Employees might desire to see changes in their workplace, and you feel the pressure. It's difficult to suddenly change how you've managed your employees, and you might not know how to proceed. You might also see failures in the ways your customers are now interacting with your product.
As you feel overwhelmed by the current crisis in a quickly changing business landscape, you might not know where to start in adjusting to see more success and productivity amongst your employees and the business you do with others. There are many tactics to take, from improving your relationship with technology to focusing on what's already working for you. Perhaps one of the best changes you could make for your company is finding new talent that can help you attack these new concerns head-on.
This article will show you how to switch up your hiring process by using Talentcrowd and its contract workers and recruiters. These tips can instigate a successful business pivot.
Revitalize through pivoting your business model
Many companies in the past few decades have learned from their mistakes and changed their business to perform better and improve how they're put together. The market often allows for wiggle room as it's constantly shifting itself. Even if you're aware of the way others change, how can you implement change for your own company?
While there are countless startups or small businesses that do this regularly, let's look at some large-scale examples. Take advantage of these examples to learn vicariously as these larger-scale examples act like a magnifying glass. There's a bigger chance that something they went through can be applied to your individual experience and thus prove useful.
Getting into four examples--Hasbro, Slack, Netflix, and Nespresso--we'll see some specifics from their course of business as they realized what didn't work and then evolved. Let's briefly look at these companies and see what instigated their business pivot and how they came out on top.
Hasbro
This toy company knows the value of partnering with others for branded opportunities. Their collaborations have occurred for decades, from acquiring the network that produced "Romper Room" in the late 1960s, to working with Peanuts in the 1970s, and then Pokémon in the 1990s. These collaborations gave them an advantage in the toy world and media.
Aside from partnering with media companies, they have pivoted from creating their toys in-house to allowing their customers the opportunity to make toys in their own homes with 3D printers. This move requires partnering with companies that produce these printers and making them accessible to the general public. Kids can stretch their creativity as they create and see their ideas become tangible.
Both of these avenues required Hasbro to pivot to work with others to reach a larger target audience. More products created with those who were seen as competitors made a successful pivot for all involved.
Slack
What began as an internal feature in the game Glitch, from online gaming company Tiny Speck, later became a ubiquitous messaging system. Their game had badly failed and went back to the drawing board. As the creators analyzed what worked about their startup, they noticed the ease of the messaging within their game, originally called "linefeed" and created Slack, which stands for "Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge".
Instead of becoming discouraged and scrapping everything, they focused on what worked. The program allows workers to chat privately or in a group channel. Workers can share images, documents, or URLs, making the day-to-day processes simpler. A failure in an online game revitalized another industry for the better.
Netflix
If you remember, Netflix started by mailing films to your home. They originated in the dawn of e-commerce and business through the mail. As VHS tapes were replaced with DVDs, the founders saw an opportunity and jumped on it. They gained subscribers and were mailing DVDs by the millions.
As streaming media came onto the playing field, with sites like YouTube, they saw another opening and threw their hat into the ring. At first, they didn't leave mailing DVDs to solely focus on streaming. That came later.
They've pivoted again to focus not only on specifically online streaming services but have created series and movies of their own. They began to open their filming studio with their first original shows: Lilyhammer and House of Cards. They've become one of the top studios in the world.
Nespresso
Their business model connects their customers with a high-end coffee experience. They wanted to make an exclusive coffee shop feel available to more people. Because of this, they started looking into making their espresso makers and refining what coffee beans their customers used.
While initially this was only available to a few who could find them in boutiques, malls, and specific locations, they noticed that if they sold coffee pods more widely, then more people could experience their product. They created new goals and broadened their horizons to help their company reach more people passionate about coffee beans and espresso makers. Their business pivot helped their services to get into more doors worldwide.
Where to start in a successful pivot
After seeing real-world examples of successful pivots, let's look at your business model. For example, in the last few years our society has changed, and your company must follow along with it. These alterations could be from the impacts of COVID-19 or an increase in new technology. Whatever the case, adapting to these changes is vital. Let's look at how the examples above can help you to adapt your business model to this changing landscape.
Be collaborative
Sometimes a successful pivot requires a new business model because you need to find others with which to work. Instead of relying on your know-how, how about you develop relationships with another company to fix your issue. This could solve supply chain issues or even advertising problems. Together, you're stronger than you are apart.
Look back to Hasbro. They saw the growth from partnering with other companies like media platforms. How can you be like Hasbro and collaborate with other platforms?
Looking at other businesses AROUND you
Many small businesses occupy a similar market to offer solutions for a plethora of customers. Look at what might be working for another company in your avenue. Can you ask if you could collaborate with them to improve your processes? Does your business model allow for joining forces with others, or should you review and rethink it?
While you might not want to join forces with another business in your industry, you could look at others who offer solutions for the pain points you might be feeling. Do you need help managing your payroll? Perhaps you need help getting into the social media world? How can another business near you help you learn or even take some of your issues off your plate?
Working with a recruiter
Most importantly, consider being collaborative in your hiring process. Instead of putting your own time and effort into hiring new employees, learn to delegate. Using contract workers or a recruiter found using Talentcrowd, takes the pressure of finding new people off you.
Talentcrowd gathers all the info for you and helps to break down the process. They work directly with contract workers. As you might feel stressed considering your employees or solutions to growing your business, delegating to Talentcrowd to bring in contract workers simplifies the way you think about the hiring process. The time you had previously used in this endeavor can now go elsewhere, changing the setup of your day and eventually helping your business pivot further into a new age.
Embrace new technologies
If your product has received poor reviews, take it as a growth opportunity and see if you can salvage what works and head in a new direction. Instead of getting discouraged, view the feedback as constructive and change tack.
Like Slack, you can focus on that feature or two that works and use that to reevaluate your business model. What non-essential processes have attached themselves to your company that you could take away to better focus on what works?
There are several ways new technologies might help your business pivot.
Examining social enterprise
If you see sales fall or a change in interest in your product, take the opportunity to stretch and experience some growing pains. Is there a way you can switch up the technology you currently use? Is there a way to keep your core business values but change the way your company operates?
Consider social media as a solution. Taking your product and advertising to Instagram, Facebook, or the like can increase the number of eyes on your company. Perhaps this is a cheaper and more efficient form of advertising.
Using automation
Along with these new technologies, embrace the idea of using automated processes. Delegate tasks to be automated to help free up more time for you and your employees. As mentioned above, hiring could become an automated process when working with a recruiter like Talentcrowd.
Examine your deliverables
How are your products getting into the hands of your customers? Do you need to change your suppliers? Have your supply chains been affected by the pandemic?
Remember Netflix? Perhaps mailing DVDs to homes is no longer the most efficient way to help customers watch the newest shows. How can you streamline your product and supply chain to get into homes? Do you need to look to other businesses and see how they do it? Do you need to find new local suppliers?
How can you apply this business strategy? Can you keep a similar business model, or do you need to revamp it completely? How can automated services streamline this process for you?
What resources are at your disposal
What do you have that your customers want? What products are doing well and which are doing poorly? Are there elements of your products that need strengthening to improve sales? As you look at your products, consider the resources and supply chains you have to implement better processes in production.
Getting to your target customers
What are your customers' concerns with how they're receiving their product? Can you cut out unnecessary steps or pages on your website? What you're offering is important and deserves to have the best chances of getting into homes. Reviewing how your customers get your product is worthwhile because it can reveal elements that could be added or taken away.
Offer new solutions
You notice a new pain point for your industry. With the time you've saved from automating services and delegating your hiring process, you know that you could create services and pivot your business model to fix that.
Perhaps you're like Nespresso and notice that more people deserve to experience coffee like yours. No, not everyone has the time or money to go to the coffee shop. You can help them, though, by bringing it to their own home.
Finding businesses that contract workers
Unemployment is low, so applicants on the market have more offers than ever. It's frustrating to feel like you're missing out on talented workers as they go to your competitors. As mentioned, Talentcrowd contracts workers. Using contract workers ensures that you're getting talented people from a positive source. Instead of spending time on interviewing, rest easy knowing that your growing company is handled.
Conclusion
In this brave new world of business, how are you adapting to stay competitive? Using the techniques above, perhaps you can recognize how to delegate to take some matters off your plate. Not every pivot needs to mean a complete rehaul of your original ideas. However, using this changing time and expanse of technology, you can better reach your target market as you have more time and room in your schedule to examine your business pivot.
Find out more
Look into Talentcrowd to help your business model pivot to be more useful and appropriate for a post-COVID solution. To find more information and contact them about their workers, go to their website.
