BEE Awesome Brief: Voids and Pivots in Business
sent by Julie Bee | May 25, 2023
When deciding on your next pivot in business, go to the void.
Big Idea
As business owners, we’re constantly making decisions. In a recent podcast interview, Chris Carosa brought up a concept he calls the MVPs of business – money, voids, and pivots. I’m doing a lot of pivoting right now, and Chris inspired this week’s big idea: lean into the void.
Easy Action
Review conversations you’ve had recently with your existing clients. In at least half of those conversations, they’re likely experiencing several similar challenges for which your company does not offer a solution. That’s a void. Is there a solution you could offer that fills that void? Could you offer that solution with your current infrastructure and team? If yes, it’s worth further exploring to test its feasibility. You could be sitting on your company’s next innovation! It’s also okay if this isn’t the outcome, but it’s worth asking those questions. If you have a well-defined target audience and one client has a challenge, other clients (or potential clients) likely have the same challenge.
Elevate Your Business
Awareness of potential voids elevates your business by setting the stage to innovate your company’s offerings and grow revenue. At the same time, not every opportunity to fill a gap should be explored past those initial questions. To avoid chasing shiny objects, limit yourself to a reasonable number of innovations to explore each quarter or year based on your industry. For example, software companies are constantly innovating their features, but a law firm may have one innovation to explore every year. I’d love to hear from you about an innovation story that came from being void-aware!
Awesome Around Us
- This project by Beth O’Neill Maloney and Cheryl Clegg to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Title IX is fantastic. Thanks to Angela Ruggiero for sharing it!
- Casey Crawford says, “Humility is making the right estimation of oneself.” His post reminds us that seeking feedback can help us make that assessment.
- Stanley Dankoski’s thoughts on progress toward excellence landed on my feed at the right time. It’s all about action and progress, not perfection.
Thanks for reading – I’ll catch you next week!