The Power of the Pivot: Strategies for Small Business Success
In this live vodcast, host Marc Haine interviews Barbara McKenzie, CEO of Business Link, to discuss how small‑business owners can survive and thrive during the COVID‑19 crisis by pivoting. The conversation defines what a pivot is, why it’s essential now, and how entrepreneurs can shift their mindset from focusing on a single product to leveraging their existing capabilities, team, and equipment. They outline practical steps—research, cash‑flow planning, quick market testing—and share numerous real‑world examples of successful pivots (oil‑field manufacturer making roller‑coaster wheels, a fire‑pit maker expanding into construction steel, a charcuterie business moving to boxed deliveries, distilleries producing hand sanitizer, gyms offering online training, etc.). The hosts also detail the support ecosystem: Business Link’s one‑on‑one advice, webinars, market‑research services, and government programs such as the Canadian Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program and Alberta’s $5,000 working‑capital grants. They conclude with actionable dos and don’ts, emphasizing the need for continuous customer listening, humility, and reaching out for help before a crisis forces closure.
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We've never done it this way. That's not our business. These are statements you don't want to make right now. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in their May 2020 survey, 17% of the respondents have said that they have fully closed their businesses. 12% say that they are preparing to wind down their business and even claim bankruptcy. Before you close your business, can you pivot your business? If so, how? That's coming up on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to Marc Haine Live where small business owners and entrepreneurs can pick up some core skill sets to help them work on their business, not just in their business. I'm your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc We're coming to you live every Tuesday at noon Eastern Time. That's 10 o'clock Mountain Time. Of course, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. And even if you're watching the replay here on YouTube, you can hit the subscribe button and ring the bell. That'll give you first dibs when I bring you your fresh content. Feel free if you're on to drop a question or a comment in the comment box below. And also, share your own fabulous insights. in the comment box so that people can benefit from your experience as well. Today, I'm going to be talking with Business Link CEO Barbara McKenzie. And we are here to discuss the importance and the need for businesses to pivot during this very, very trying time. But first, but first— Live video and the phone rings. Go ahead. Before we jump right in, I want to welcome our live audience here on YouTube. We're just going to take a quick look At our audience here. And I see that there's 2 people on. Anna, good morning! Thank you so much for joining us today. It's so nice to have you here. I know that you're probably one of my biggest fans. But I'm also one of your biggest fans as well. So, welcome! We have 2 people on. No comments as of yet. But feel free to put comments in the comment box or questions as well. We're going to get right to it. So, as we get started, here is our Question of the Day. So, our Question of the Day is, are you in a position now where you feel you need to pivot? How bad has the situation become for you? How much are you stuck in your status quo thinking? And as I mentioned, our guest today is Barbara McKenzie, Chief Executive Officer with The Business Link. Barbara is a transformational leader who works with companies that are in the key turning point of their evolution. Businesses don't stay static. The good ones keep on evolving and Barbara is there to help them. She is a trained marketing and communications expert who is an amazing strategic thinker who has earned many awards and accolades throughout her illustrious career. And honestly, there are way too many awards and commendations to list here and mention here. I will tell you though that I've known Barbara for a few years now. And personally, I think she is probably one of the smartest, most just strategic thinkers I've ever met. Hey Barbara, thank you so much for joining us today.
Glad to be here, Marc.
Yeah. So before we begin, can you maybe give us a little bit of a highlight of what is BusinessLink? What's your role with them? But what is the purpose of BusinessLink and what do they do?
Yeah, so BusinessLink is an amazing organization. We've been around about 25 years in Alberta, helping support entrepreneurs in any business, in any part of this province, trying to make a success of their business.
That's really incredible. And so, do you work mainly with startups or are you working with established businesses? How has that been working?
We work with any business. We are a provincially wide organization. We're funded by the provincial and federal governments. We're a not-for-profit. So, we go out and support any business. In any stage of their growth, whether you're a startup, a scale-up, an established business, you're looking to grow, you're looking to export, even if you're thinking about winding down and closing your business and you need some support and advice on how to do that, we're here to help you. We do that a few different ways. So we have a frontline team that can answer your phone calls, your emails, even chat with you online, which is one of our favorite ways to do it, as well as getting one-on-one support So normally, we do face-to-face meetings and in the time of COVID we can take your Zoom calls. We can work through your business issues and problems with you and you still get that face-to-face person to talk to.
Nice, nice. So what kind of services would an entrepreneur come to you for?
Yeah, so A, there's that one-on-one support. So just calling and asking questions about various different business issues. Anything from how to register their business to currently how to access some of the government that are out there, how to build a webpage, how to market your business, how to write a business plan. It really does vary. We offer market research, so we do secondary market research for businesses. So that's a really helpful support. And we also host a ton of webinars, webcasts, workshops, events where entrepreneurs can learn different skill sets.
Yeah, so speaking of which, you, I believe there's a webinar coming up shortly, very specifically to helping entrepreneurs get online. Is that—
Yeah, absolutely. We have a webinar coming up and it's at noon today. It's called Build Your Business Over Lunch. And we're co-hosting it with Futurepreneur and Spotify. And we're going to be talking about building a website platform, an online shopping platform, managing your cash flow, and lots of other great tips for business.
Excellent! So, as soon as we're done this, I will put the link in the show notes so that people can click right on it. But in the meantime, I believe they can go to businesslink.ca and the link will be there?
Yeah, businesslink.ca. Go to the events page and you can sign up right there.
Nice! You know, I've known about Business Link for quite a while and it's an incredible resource for entrepreneurs. And I really encourage people who are watching this video to check them out. In fact, I like it so much I even mentioned it in my in my book. And I know that BusinessLink is an Alberta-based organization. And I even said in my book that if you're not in Alberta, so sad for you. But I wanted to make sure that we call out and recognize the fact that this is a great resource for entrepreneurs. And it goes to show that when you go into business, you don't have to do it by yourself, which is great. But our topic today is the power of the pivot. COVID-19 has been the great leveler for businesses. And small businesses are being decimated by the financial crunch that this pandemic has caused. Today's topic is so important because as business owners, we have to stay on top of options for running our business. Change is nothing new. We're entrepreneurs. We're used to change all the time. So Barbara, I've been tossing around this word pivot. What exactly is pivoting and why is it important for businesses? And especially now, why is it so important?
Yeah, well, so you know what, I'm an entrepreneur as well. So not only am I CEO of Business Link, but I've been running my own companies for the last 30-plus years as well. And my motto has always really been disrupt or die. If you're not constantly looking at your business and what's out there in the environment and how you need to change, you'll never find those opportunities to pivot your business. And then you get into these situations. So whether it's a devastating financial recession, global oil prices tanking, or a pandemic, as we've now discovered. If you don't have those options to pivot your business and you haven't been looking, this is when you get into those challenges about that status quo. So really, as entrepreneurs and business owners, we should always be looking at the environment and seeing what we can do that's different, how we can shift, and how we can adapt.
Yeah, in my experience as a small business consultant as well, I find that I go into an awful lot of businesses where entrepreneurs are really masters of what they built their business for. But they are so busy with their head down crunching out the day that they almost like walk around with blinders on. And so, they have this complacency or the status quo thinking that this is what they do. This is how they do it. And we need to be able to shake that out. But What is the first step do you think in trying to shake out your mindset? Let's say, if you've been in business for 18 years and you've done things always the same way, you don't know any other options. How can you overcome that? What is the step they need to take?
Well, stop thinking about what you make or what you do. Start thinking of it as, how do I do that, right? What are the tools, the equipment, the knowledge, the resources, the skill sets that we have that we could adapt to a different environment? I think that's the big thing. Sometimes, we get caught up in, we are the makers of the widget, or the doers of the law, or whatever it is that we're tied to being, and that we're not looking at what other skill sets have we developed, right?
Mm-hmm.
So, I mean, you look at, I'll take a, for instance, I know of an organization, they're a manufacturer, they were tied to the oil industry, they made a lot of parts and components for the oil industry. Of course, we all know what happened in 2016, and we've seen this recession in Alberta. Well, they didn't just look and say, oh well, that's our business, too bad we have to shut our doors. The owner looked around him and said, hey, I have all this equipment, I have all these really skilled machinists, I have all of this, what else could we do? What is he doing? Making roller coaster wheels.
Okay.
Who knew that we could make roller coaster wheels globally in Alberta? using the same technology, the same know-how that we have that we use for the oil and gas industry. So, that's really what you need to do. Look around you. See what your business is comprised of, the skill sets you have, the skill sets your team has, the equipment you have, and start looking out there for those new opportunities.
Right. But I think you hit the nail on the head is you have to look internally as well at your capacities. And I'm actually really surprised how many times The owner is the master of their domain. And yet, if they were to sit down and talk with their employees, their employees would have an awful lot to say about what they do every day and what opportunities maybe the business is missing as well.
Oh yeah, your team is your greatest resource. They're out there on the floor. They're dealing with the issues. They're talking to your customers. They're the people with the ideas. And bringing that know-how and that skill and that brainpower together, it's amazing what you could discover. It really is. And I think we're seeing a lot of that through this pandemic. People are just looking out there going, okay, what's that next thing? I mean, we've had a ton of conversations at BusinessLink with individual entrepreneurs. And just even talking through it with one of our team has led them down a path that they never thought they were going to go down.
Right. Yeah, and it's all because the owners had the humility to turn to their team and say, Guys, what do you think?
Yeah.
Yeah, and it's interesting because through all this with COVID-19, I mean, there are a lot of programs out there now to help businesses. I mean, I think last week both the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments made a commitment to protect commercial tenants from evictions in the cases where the landlords are eligible to apply for the Canadian Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program, which I think is amazing that they've now taken the steps on because the government put out this program But then basically landlords weren't interested in applying for them, or they didn't know how to apply, or they don't know if they qualified. So now it's nice that there's this protection in place. And then it's also nice to see that Alberta is now providing small and medium-sized operators with working capital grants of up to $5,000 to help with their reopening costs, to help them retrofit to become more safe for their customers. So getting barriers and that sort of thing. So, these are really great initiatives to help small businesses rebound and maybe even take the chance to— this is the time that you turn around and go, now I can take the chance. But what are the dos and don'ts to making a pivot? What strategies are required to make sure you are successful? And we'll get right to that. But first, Barbara, do you have aside from the roller coaster story, do you have any other stories about what good news there is in pivots? Like what other examples you have of organizations who stepped out of their comfort zone and did something different to success?
Absolutely. You know what? We've seen a lot. I mean, we've all heard about the distilleries that are making hand sanitizers, right? The manufacturers who maybe were doing different type of clothing manufacturing that have now pivoted to make face masks, or gowns, or that sort of thing. We're seeing manufacturers that are looking at how to rebuild ventilators to make them smaller, more portable, more easily transportable. But then, there's some really cool, interesting interesting stories that have come out. So we deal with lots of different businesses and obviously some of them are really challenged. So we have one lady, she runs an amazing charcuterie business and I'm going to give her a plug because if you ever want a charcuterie for a party or an event, Art of Charcuterie, she is amazing. Look at her on Facebook. So her business is all about events. It's all about family parties and corporate and all of that. Her work is outstanding. And what did she do? She pivoted to charcuterie in a box. And, you know, she'll put together a charcuterie small to large for whatever family occasion or whatever you have, and you can pick it up, delivery, you know, completely, you know, flipped her model. And that's proved to be able to get her through this pandemic. Of course, it's not her corporate business, but it's still got her name out there. She's still putting herself out there and people are accessing that. And I think right now we're all looking at something different to eat than our own home cooking and takeout and delivery. So it's an interesting flip. We've talked to some people who are personal trainers or gym owners, right? And they've had to kind of close that. Well, what do they do? Offering personal training online. Their clients still want to work out. They still want to do that. Now they have to understand how to do that in their house without weights and, you know, gym equipment and all of that. So they've pivoted to offer online training, a certain portion for free, but a certain portion paid as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it may not be as much as, again, their per-hourly rate when they're actually in the gym, but they're actually being able to pivot that way. Restaurant owners, obviously curbside pickups. And, you know, I mean, we're seeing Uber Eats, DoorDash, SkipTheDishes, these are all flourishing right now because of course we're all ordering in. So it's really just about taking a look at your business and seeing what you can do differently. We've seen online platforms, you know, that have popped up that now are doing thousand-person events, and, you know, companies that are looking at how do they move their events online. I heard another story, somebody's looking at potentially opening a drive-in here in Alberta, and not just for movies, but for concerts and venues, so we can go back to concerts in our own cars. So, you know, flipping everything back, looking at old models and new models, and figuring that out. Again, it's really looking about What do you do and what are you good at? And then, how can you transform that?
How do you leverage what you can do? Yeah. And it's interesting that you said that because I know of a business here in Kalmar, Alberta for those who might be looking at this out of province. He started a small welding shop that was servicing the oil and gas industry. And in 2016, he was getting so busy that he actually went and got a bigger space, a huge space and hired 25 employees. By the time 2018 rolled around, he had to start laying off all his people. And fortuitously, he was at a barbecue at his cousin's house and saw the fire pit that his cousin had bought and thought, I can do better than that. And now, he's pivoted his business to making these beautiful, absolutely beautiful fire pits. And now, with COVID-19, he's taken it one step further. Now, instead of doing just oil and gas and his fire pits, he's doing construction steel now. So, he's being contracted to do these big massive fire escapes and that sort of thing for construction. So, here's a guy who started off as oil and gas, pivoted to something that all of a sudden got the contracts for the fire pits. And I'll put the Facebook link here and you can see how gorgeous these fire pits are. Absolutely incredible. And then, of course, being then to leverage to the construction industry, which is what a brilliant way to be able to do that. And I was just listening to Tony Chapman's podcast. He's got a podcast called Chatter That Matters. And he interviewed Ernesto Gomez, who is a serial restaurateur. And it was an amazing story because Ernesto Gomez ended up getting COVID-19 and was sick for weeks. And when he got better, he took a look at what they were doing and figured out he could use— he started using food delivery services and realized how awfully expensive they were. So, he created his own. And so, he's now got a food delivery service that he delivers the food to his restaurant. And then, he decided that at the same token that other people didn't want to necessarily buy food to eat at home, that they wanted actually to be able to make some fancy food. So, he started meal kits. And it's like, it's just so amazing how innovative and how inventive I think some of the entrepreneurs can be. I just want to stop for half a second and just see if there's any questions at the moment. I'm just looking down. In the past, I did at least one training program for BizLink. Oh, this is Alberta speakers. Oh, that's awesome! That's great. And yeah, so we don't have actually any real questions yet for us. So, that's interesting. So, if you're going to be watching this in the replay, please feel free to drop questions in it. I will monitor it quite often and I will be able to push you to the resource that you need. But we've talked about all these good stories about pivoting. There are a lot of successes out there. But also, we know that there are failures. I mean, I was just reading a statistic that said that 10% of startups that try to pivot actually fail. So, what can entrepreneurs do to drive their pivot to success? What are some of the steps you think they need to do in order to be successful when they decide, no, we have to do something?
Well, I think it's the same thing you do when you do anything within your business, right? You do your research, you plan well, you understand your cash flow, right? And then you build strategy around that, right? Everything has to be done in a concerted effort, right? You don't just— and it does happen. I mean, we all have looked at—
Absolutely.
There's a bunch of businesses out there and some businesses entrepreneurs just go into it. They're great technical people. They see an opportunity, they jump in. they haven't necessarily built a business around that that's sustainable, right? So if you're, if you're gonna pivot in any way, do the same things you've done to build a really strong, solid business, right?
Mm-hmm.
So you're gonna business plan it, you're gonna figure it out. And it doesn't have to be a long, intensive process, right? Spend a couple of days looking for the opportunity, seeing what the target market is, you know, saying, yeah, I have enough money to cash flow this for a little while. Maybe it's your existing audience. You're using, giving them a new product. Go out to them really quick and say, hey, what are you looking for? What can you deliver? You don't have to spend years on this. You can spend days on it, but take the elements of really good planning and a little bit of research and managing that cash flow to ensure you're making your investment properly.
Mm-hmm.
You know, the challenge with today is, is that if you're, you're gonna, there's gonna be businesses that are gonna put their heads down, they're gonna work really hard, and they're gonna be fine. They're gonna survive this. They're going to work. They're not going to pivot, right? Then there's those businesses that are really going to take this opportunity and look for those new things that they can do. They're going to pivot. They're going to look for new lines of business. And then there's those businesses that are just not going to survive. And that's unfortunate. It's really terrible. We won't want that to happen. But the key to that is put the things in place in your business today that can see you through That's managing your cash flow, building out good systems within your business, being on top of those financials, having good HR policies, and having a great strategy moving forward. And that will help you get through crisis at any point in time.
Yes.
And, you know, Marc, you were saying about pivots and things that are going on. I look at things and I go back and we think about large companies like Procter Gamble and Heinz. Those all started off as entrepreneurs and those were all entrepreneurs that looked at different things in their environment. Oh, I see that opportunity. Oh, I see another opportunity. Oh, I can do this better. So, they were always— they didn't build those companies. They didn't start that way. They built them by looking at new opportunities on an ongoing basis. So, I think that's what every entrepreneur has to take to heart. Yeah.
Well, and what's interesting about that is I've known a lot of entrepreneurs who started their business. And when they're in the developmental stage, they're doing nothing but pivoting. Right? And they're testing systems. They're testing employees. They're testing training. They're testing execution. They're testing customer service. They're testing everything and adapting at the early days. And somewhere along the way, I don't understand where this mindset comes in that all of a sudden, they stop and go, okay, now we've got the secret sauce. Now, we don't have to change anymore. I think that's illogical in the best of times.
Well, in today's environment, if you're not consistently looking at what's going on out there and how you need to shift, Hmm. We used to say shifts came every 3 to 5 years, then it was 2 to 18 months. It's every 3 to 6 months now, right? Something in your environment's going to change. Something's going to impact your business. Technology is just moving us forward at such an aggressive pace. The demands of people are changing on an ongoing basis. So, even if it's not a crisis, even if it's not a recession or a pandemic, I think entrepreneurs really need to learn how to build that kind of environmental that look at what they could do different, those customer listening posts right into the core of what they do on a day-to-day basis.
Yeah, I love that philosophy of the customer listening post. What are you doing to test with your customers all the time? So, for those people who just might not know that they need to start pivoting, what's the big kick in the bum that you can suggest for businesses to pivot? What would that kick in the bum be?
Well, if COVID-19 is not going to do it for you, I don't know what is.
Oh yeah.
It's probably the biggest kick we've had in a long time. I think for Alberta especially, I'll use Alberta right now as an example. It's obviously been a series of things, whether it's a recession, global oil prices, natural disasters, or a pandemic, right? If you haven't been looking at how your business needs to change over the last 5 to 6 years, then, you know, now you're in a position where it's— that's got to be the biggest kick you've had is what we're hearing. Again, I think it's part of philosophy. I think you need to build it into what you do every day, day in, day out in your business. Don't let a crisis be the thing that's going to kick you. Don't be losing your major customer as the thing that's going to put you into the tailspin. I think the most important thing is if you haven't built that in your business and you are in a tough spot right now, pick up the phone and talk to somebody, right? Like you probably got families and friends, advisors, mentors. Just talk to somebody. Call Business Link. We're here to help for sure, right? But talk to somebody. Spend that hour in conversation with, hey, this is what my business is. You might be surprised what you can turn up. We've had businesses call us right now that are like, I need to declare bankruptcy. I'm, I'm, I don't know what to do. And after an hour on the phone with us, we've been able to turn them out of bankruptcy, find something else for them to focus on. And just the process of talking to somebody is what they needed. They needed to talk it through. Thanks for being there. Thanks for listening. So I think that's the biggest thing right now, right? Like, Your kick in the butt is here. But how do you deal with that kick in the butt?
Yeah, yeah. And what's great about this and so, this is the sense I really get when it comes down to Business Link's kind of participation is that you are a contributor to the entrepreneurs. You are there in order to be that ear. And let's face it. I love the fact that you said they call when they don't know what to do. Well, you know what? I'm hoping that people call before they get to the point where the only option now is to put the key in the lock and lock up my thing or just kind of wallow in a corner or call somebody. Right now is the time that you should be making a call. If you're not sure of what you want to be doing, now is the time that you should be calling somebody. And in my previous podcasts, I have offered 30 minutes of my time With you and your team to just get it out in the open. Just talk about it. Just brainstorm it. Now, Barbara has mentioned that you can call BusinessLink. And you have at your disposal all sorts of amazing, amazing specialists at BusinessLink who can help you. Whether that's planning your next step, or a business plan, or whatever that is. That's what it's there for. It's there for you to take advantage of it so you don't have to do this alone. And just because you built your business alone doesn't mean you can continue business alone. Barbara, this has been really great insights and some really great information. Do you have any last words for the people who would want, who are watching this as far as this idea of pivoting? Because it's so scary. It can be so scary.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely scary. But the opportunities are really out there, right? You can look at your business differently. You can look at what you do. I mean, Maybe you're a barbershop and you have a product that you have. Well, get that product out there to market potentially through an online store. I think you just have to look at your business, look at your customer base, understand who they are. And it's really about getting the support and the advice you need as well, right? You're not in this by yourself. I mean, at BusinessLink, our vision is to be the number one source for entrepreneurs in Alberta for support, for business support. And we really want to talk to every We are here, even if that's only a 1-hour conversation and that's the only time you ever talk to us. We're here to help you do that. We're here to help listen, talk you through, work with you, figure it out. So I think that's the most important thing. Get out there, reach out to somebody, talk to somebody. You're not in this alone. Let's work through it together. That's great.
Barbara, thank you so much. I really appreciate the fact that you took this time out to be on this vodcast with me and to really bring this forward because I think our entrepreneurs need to hear this. There are a lot of woe is me stories. And like you mentioned, there are 3 kinds of people. There are the people who are going to step up to the plate. There are other people who are going to wallow a little bit but know that they have to change directions. And then, there are those people who are just going to be, I've never done anything different so I'm not going to change now.
Right.
And we know that those are the people that's probably going to be a portion of that 12% that are thinking about closing their doors through this pandemic. But this is an incredible resource. And so, thank you so much for taking the time today to speak with us and to speak to our entrepreneurs on this broadcast. That's all the time that we have for today. I hope you got a lot of information that you can apply to your business. You know, I hope that you could look at some of this information and you could say, this is what I need to do starting right now. And if you don't have a plan on how to pivot or what you can do to pivot and you need to talk to somebody, maybe the first step of your plan right now is to pick up the phone and call Business Link and talk to one of their specialists. I'd love to know what you think about today's episode. So, please drop a comment in the box below. And if you think you know somebody who could use this information, please go ahead and hit the share button. It's information is power. But it's only power as long as we share it. And so, we give it to other people so that they can use it. So, if you found this really helpful, please go ahead and let your friends, let your contacts know that this resource exists. And if you haven't done it yet, please hit the subscribe button and ring the bell. If you ring the bell, then we can notify you whenever I bring you some fresh and relevant content. This is Marc Haine and I will see you next Tuesday when we sit down with diversity expert Tina Verghese to discuss what we need to do in our businesses to eliminate racism and inequality. We're in a time now that we are extremely sensitive to what the world has been going through. The secrets of racism has been hidden in the past and I think it's coming to the surface now. But what are you doing in your business to be able to eliminate any kind of inequality, or racism, or perception, even perception of inequality in your business. Whether that's a racial inequality, or a sexual inequality, anything along that. It's important that we talk about that. We are in an extremely huge world and our world is a huge sandbox. So, it's really important that we all play nice together. So, I hope you'll join me Tuesday at 10 o'clock Mountain Time next week. And we will be talking to Tina Veragheese. I hope you will stay safe and healthy. And I hope you can dare to be the exception. Thanks for joining me today. Thank you, Marc.
