Rethinking the Blueprint: Small Business Pivots That Paid Off

These insights, gathered from interviews featured on the ICSC Small Business Center, explore how strategic pivots — including new product launches, diversified services and reimagined customer experiences — have fueled success.

Expanding the Business Model

“We were paying rent for this building, but people weren’t coming in to drink until 4 o’clock,” said Shakopee Brewhall co-founder Ryan Lindquist. “So [my business partner] Damon was like: ‘We’ve got all this space here. What if we look into adding a coffee shop?’ I was really against it. I didn’t want to do it. [but the pivot] has been absolutely fantastic.” Now the Minnesota venue opens its doors at 7 A.M., “and people come in with their friends and work from the Brewhall. From 7 to noon, people are drinking coffee, and then there’s this rut from noon to 3. We kind of catch our breath, and then from 3 to 9, we have trivia or music or bingo nights and all that kind of stuff that keep people in the seats in the evenings,” Lindquist added, noting that sales ticked up 12.8% the first year of the shift.

Changing the Approach

While rebranding the floral shop she acquired from its previous owner wasn’t initially part of Christine Guenther’s business plan, “one thing I felt as time went on and I was starting to become more comfortable in the business is that the store had a very feminine feeling. That’s also just the floral industry in general; people associate floral with femininity. But I saw some people not being super comfortable in the store,” explained the current owner of Wildflower, which now boasts three locations in Maryland. “The design room was in the basement, so customers couldn’t see the flower coolers with the flowers or the designers. It was just this mysterious thing,” she said. “What if we were to create a flower brand that was very approachable and comfortable for people? Instead of having to know the names of flowers, you could see all the flowers and just pick out the one that’s beautiful to you.” By moving the flowers available by the stem into prominent displays “people can just see them and choose what’s visually appealing that day,” she said. This strategy, coupled with Guenther’s product expansion into local and regional gifting options and supplies for novice floral designers, has helped Wildflower grow into a welcoming brand.

Identifying a Pain Point

While searching for a high-growth business idea, Presso co-founder Nishant Jain found that while doing laundry was a hassle, dry cleaning sparked even more frustration for people, a realization that led to the idea for a dry-cleaning vending machine. “We basically went on the hunt for the burning pain point. While doing laundry sucked, it was not as burning a need as I thought it needed to be” for a business, Jain recalled. “At the time, I was in a venture accelerator program called Matchbox Acceleration, a group of founders and small business owners. We were talking about business models and brainstorming. One of the people was like: ‘Does your product do dry cleaning?’ He had a wedding coming up and said: ‘I have this suit, and I absolutely hate going to the dry cleaner.’ The guy wouldn’t stop talking about how much he hated the entire experience. That was a signal for me. I had not yet heard that burning of a pain point for anyone.”

MORE FROM JAIN: There Are Dry Cleaning Vending Machines Now

Improving the Operational Model

The very uniqueness of Stephanie Shafer’s chocolate business was both a challenge and an opportunity. Faced with overwhelming demand, she had to find ways to scale production while maintaining the artistry that set the brand apart. “In the beginning, we often would sell out within the first hour of us opening. I needed to figure out: How can I produce more of what everybody wants faster?” said the co-owner of Bella Sophia Chocolates in Huntington Beach, California. “I learned how to paint faster. Instead of one mold at a time, which is what I like to do, I now lay all the chocolate molds [filled with melted chocolate] out on a six-foot table and I splatter art. I purchased an airbrush machine where I can spray the back instead of hand painting. It’s more efficient. It’s faster. It costs less.” While some suggested she hire additional staff, Shafer was committed to doing the work herself. “My store is a little like an artist’s studio,” she explained. “I feel like if it’s not your touch, then you’re selling somebody else’s artwork. So I just had to figure out: How do I paint 200 molds [in] under an hour? I still do intricate designs, but I work a lot faster.”

MORE FROM SHAFER: The Challenges of Scaling a Maker-Owned Business

Adding Amenities

Baltimore Pickleball Club co-owner Alex Guerriere shared how adding beer and wine service transformed the venue into more than just a place to play. “It has created much more of a social atmosphere,” he shared. “People aren’t just coming to play pickleball and leaving. They’re hanging out together. They’re exchanging phone numbers. They’re coming back to play together the next day.”

MORE FROM GUERRIERE: Landlords Craving Pickleball Can Learn From This Operator

Launching a New Service

Facing supply shortages during COVID, outdoor retailer River Rock Outfitter’s commitment to eco-conscious practices sparked a pivot in the products it sells. “We’ve always had a sustainability mission. We practiced that in all the little ways: not having plastic bags, making sure we have LED lighting in our shop, doing river cleanups and really pushing sustainability messaging with the brands we carry,” noted co-owner April Peterson. “But during COVID, we really struggled, like the entire outdoor industry, with getting gear. Here was this whole new customer base of people wanting to get outdoors, and the gear companies couldn’t keep up. They were having shipping delays because of the shutdowns in China, Taiwan and Vietnam.

“The other piece I recognized is that so much of the outdoor-industry gear is meant to last a lifetime. It’s not meant to be thrown in landfills, and when it’s thrown in landfills, it’s not being recycled. I realized we could start a consignment program. People who are not using their gear could bring me gear and I’ll sell it for him, and we’ll split the price. That keeps stuff out of the landfill. It takes away a barrier for people who want to get good gear but at a cheaper price. And at a time when I [as an inventory buyer] couldn’t get gear, this was one way that I could keep my business running.” The program launched in 2020 and became a surprising success. “I never thought it would become such an important part of my business,” Peterson said. “It not only allowed us to survive COVID, but man, we thrived during COVID. We’ve continued to grow by 20% every single year since 2020, including a really hard year [in 2023]. When a lot of the outdoor industry started to see a decline in numbers, we still increased by over 20%. A big part of that is because of this new program.”

Transitioning to Brick-and-Mortar

As demand for Glenn Tebbe’s children's surf training programs grew, he identified a need for a dedicated space beyond the beach. “We had all these kids and no official place to go and more people who wanted to sign up,” said the founder of Indian Harbour Beach, Florida’s Pure Water Outpost. “I just couldn’t keep training in driveways. I was tired, too, of losing kids once they knew how to surf. I wanted to create a program that could keep them progressing. [And with a brick-and-mortar location], we probably needed a wider audience, so that turned into the idea of a training center. I wanted us to be open to anyone, whether they’re a basketball or volleyball player or surfer.”

Creating a Destination Venue

Live music has always been central to the vision for From the Earth Brewing Co. When COVID restrictions limited indoor dining, Tim Stevens saw an opportunity. “I love music,” said the owner of From the Earth and of Bask Steakhouse, a second restaurant he opened next door in Roswell, Georgia’s Connexion shopping center. “As I was planning for From the Earth, I was like: What goes better than beer and music? Music really fit the concept and the theme, so we started doing concerts at From the Earth. The brewery fits about 100 inside, though we always took some tables away when we set up the stage. We’d lose a little bit of the seating, but it turned out great with other sales. During COVID, people just wanted to get out, maybe not even socialize, just get out of their house. So I started thinking about how we could maybe do a concert to help with that. I was like: Let’s do a drive-in. We already had connections in the music scene. We did a drive-in concert, and it was great — the first show was about 80 guests — only the sound was not awesome. So as the restrictions lessened, we had people sit outside in parking spaces where they could still social distance. The community loved it. It grew to about 400 guests.” The series continues to thrive, drawing even more visitors to the shopping center.

“There are spillover effects, too,” Stevens added. “On the days we’re having concerts, we see huge increases at both restaurants. We increase about 20% for our places on concert nights just in sales. So not only are we taking care of the guests that just come to the concert and want to eat a little snack, we and all the other restaurants in the center are benefiting from our concerts because they’re going over there to eat first.”

Building on Expertise To Grow

Leveraging her family’s expertise in chocolate and confections, Dana Edwards Manatos helped transform their longtime shop into Milkshake Factory, which she now leads as founder and CEO. “My mom ran our mom-and-pop shop on the south side of Pittsburgh, but it was very seasonal. We did most of our sales around Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter, and the rest of the year was pretty quiet,” Edwards Manatos said. “I was in college, and in one of my business courses, I created this business plan for the Milkshake Factory to help generate more year-round sales. The core of any good business is doing what you love, right? And I love milkshakes. It’s not a trendy item,” she explained. “We know how to make flavors and purees and centers to candy and chocolates, so I just took that expertise that we had in our family and what we grew up doing and we put that into the milkshake. We implemented it in the shop, not knowing how it would do. All of a sudden, the chocolate shop that’s been there for 30 years became known as the Milkshake Factory that sold chocolate.”