Pivot or persevere

Before scaling your business model, it’s important to take an honest look at whether your current approach is truly moving you toward your vision — or whether a course correction (pivot) is needed. This is a critical decision: in the next phase, you’ll invest heavily in growth, so your model must be both solid and scalable.

Base Your Decision on Facts — Not Just Belief

By this stage, your product or service should already demonstrate that it solves a real customer problem and that customers are willing to pay for it. Your business model should also prove its profitability and ability to expand. Decisions must be driven by collected data and analysis — not just intuition or wishful thinking.

When to Pivot

If customer validation has not delivered the desired results — meaning customers aren’t interested, aren’t engaging, or aren’t willing to pay — it’s time to pause. Pivoting is not failure; it’s a smart part of the development process. Your business model can still be refined to better support growth in the next phase.

Past learning often reveals pain points that weren’t visible at the beginning. This could mean targeting a new customer segment, re-evaluating product features, or changing distribution channels. A new direction can open the door to entirely new opportunities for sustainable growth.