From Hiatus to Open for Business: How to Reinvent Your Company

Reinvention, in every sense, is a process. You don’t simply wake up one morning a Katie wanting to go by Kate and expect the adoption rate of your new nickname to be 100% right out of the gate.

Similarly, from a small business perspective, you don’t go from brick and mortar to a well-oiled and optimized eCommerce machine overnight. These shifts can take time to implement and perfect.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t try to reinvent your company, especially when at an impasse. When change is hard, that is all the more reason to pursue it. Your ideas and efforts may fall flat—but they could also take off. That spark of potential, no matter how small, is worth chasing.

Motivational poster talks aside, here are some avenues to draw inspiration from when working to tweak your current business model.

Explore New Online Channels

It’s no secret that if your business doesn’t have an online presence at this point, it should. By 2024, revenue generated within the retail eCommerce market alone is projected to surpass 33 billion U.S. dollars. There’s money to be made when you get the right product in front of the right online audiences.

Take the fitness industry as an example. When the pandemic made studios and gyms obsolete, trainers turned to virtual streaming and at-home, on-demand workouts. More importantly, the success of these offerings has sparked the launch of new platform features to boot—like the ability to charge for access to live streams on Facebook.

No matter what you sell, there’s a place for you online. Even local farmers’ markets can transform into online bodegas with a little problem-solving.

Seek Out Partnerships

If you don’t have the knowledge or resources to reinvent your company solo, consider potential partnerships. Like the farmer’s market example above, success lies in the sum of many parts. Many farmers and artisans working together can create an extremely valuable resource for like-minded consumers.

Partnerships can even spark new product ideas. When a laid-off barista and restaurant worker joined forces, their skillsets led to the invention of Pandemic Donuts—an online bakery offering contact-free delivery and curbside pickup that sells out daily.

Keep Tabs on Rising Consumer Trends

Changes in consumer behavior can create a great deal of opportunity for businesses keeping tabs. If one way of doing something isn’t working for your company anymore, think out of the box.

That’s what an animal sanctuary out of California did when revenue from in-person tours dried up. To make up for it, they created Goat-2-Meeting. Now the droves of online workers can support a good cause and liven up uneventful Zoom meetings with a llama cameo.

Similarly, take note of bakeries meeting their customers where they are with home bread-making kits. Or outdoors distributors emphasizing gear repair services over new products alone for consumers looking to cut costs.

You don’t have to have all the answers to reinvent your business. Look to your customers for insights before throwing in the towel and starting from scratch.