What if the thing you’ve been calling a business pivot is actually a realignment? It might be time for your business to pivot. It feels like everyone is pivoting right now: new offers, new audiences, or even an entirely new business.
If you’ve been watching other entrepreneurs make big changes, you might be wondering if it’s your turn, too. After 13 years of entrepreneurship and several pivots of my own, I’ve learned that feeling restless in your business doesn’t always mean you need to start something new. Sometimes, you just need to change the way your business fits into your life. In this episode, I’m walking you through my five-question framework to help you determine whether it’s time for a true business pivot, a smaller realignment, or simply more support in your current season.
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Business Pivot vs. Realignment: What’s the Difference?
I was recently talking with a business friend about all the pivots happening in the entrepreneurial world, and she said something that really stuck with me: “It is not always a pivot as much as it is a realignment.” When you’re feeling restless in your business, it’s easy to assume that something major needs to change.
When you think about pivoting your business, you might picture something major or dramatic. Maybe you’re considering closing down an offer, changing your audience, rebranding, or starting something completely different. Sometimes, those changes are exactly what’s needed. Other times, your business is actually working. You’re profitable, you’re serving great clients, and you’ve built momentum. The problem is that one or two pieces of your business no longer fit the person you’ve become or the season of life you’re in.
Maybe you’re a mom who built your business before having children, and the schedule that once worked beautifully now feels impossible. Maybe you still love your clients, but you’re exhausted by how your services are delivered. Maybe you’ve grown professionally, and the audience you’re attracting no longer reflects your expertise or your pricing. These are all signs that something needs attention, but they don’t necessarily mean everything needs to change.
Why You Shouldn’t Make Big Business Changes Too Quickly
When you start feeling restless in your business, your instinct might be to take action. You start thinking about a new website, a different brand identity, another offer, or a completely different marketing strategy. Those changes can feel productive because you’re doing something tangible, and it feels like you’re making progress toward the next era of your business.
The danger is that you can spend months rebuilding parts of your business that were never actually the problem. You lose momentum, create additional work, and potentially end up with the same underlying frustrations. If only one or two pieces of your business are out of alignment, tearing everything down could be the opposite of what you actually need.
That’s why I recommend getting clarity before making major decisions. Instead of immediately asking yourself what you should change, I want you to first identify what’s actually out of alignment. To do that, I use a simple five-part framework that follows five familiar questions: who, what, when, where, and why.
The 5 Questions to Ask Before You Pivot Your Business
I’ve used this framework to evaluate my own business decisions, and it’s something I also bring into conversations with my private coaching clients. My goal is to help you move beyond that general feeling that something needs to change and get specific about what your next move should actually be.
Before you get started, I want you to approach this exercise with two things in mind. First, be completely honest with yourself. Don’t censor your answers because you can’t immediately figure out how to make something happen. As ambitious entrepreneurs, it’s easy to dismiss what you really want because your brain immediately starts trying to solve the logistics. For now, you don’t need to know how you’re going to make the changes. You simply need to acknowledge what you want.
Second, resist the temptation to start changing things before you’ve worked through all five categories. You don’t need a complete action plan yet. You need clarity about what’s working, what’s not, and where your attention should go next.
1. Who: Do You Still Love the Clients You Serve?
The first question I want you to consider is whether the people you’re working with are still the people you want to serve. This is especially important if you’re a service provider because your client relationships are such a significant part of your everyday work. You’re not just selling a product or delivering a one-time transaction. You’re often working closely with people for months, sometimes years, and those relationships have a huge impact on how you experience your business.
Think about the clients you’ve worked with over the past year. You can even pull up your client management system and look through their names. As you scroll through that list, pay attention to your immediate reaction. Are you excited when you imagine working with those people again? Would you be happy to see their names appear in your inbox? Or do you feel a little bit of dread when you think about another project with them?
Your reaction can reveal a lot about whether your current audience is still the right fit for you.
When you started your business, you probably had a particular type of client in mind. At the time, that audience made perfect sense. You were excited to serve them, your pricing aligned with their expectations, and the work felt meaningful. As your experience grows, your expertise deepens, and your pricing changes, the clients you once loved serving might no longer be the best fit.
That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with those clients. It simply means you’ve grown, and your business might need to reflect that growth. Getting clear on the who can be incredibly powerful because when you’re working with the right people, so many other parts of your business become more enjoyable.
2. What: Do You Still Enjoy the Work You’re Doing?
The second category is the actual work you’re delivering. Sometimes you love your clients, but the work itself has become draining. Maybe you once felt excited about every new project, and now you find yourself dreading the next assignment. Maybe you get that familiar sinking feeling before a client shoot or a major deliverable, even when you know you’re good at what you do.
The work you do is such a significant part of your business, so understanding that feeling is so important. If you’re consistently dreading the services you’re delivering, something is likely out of alignment. Before you decide you no longer love your work, though, I want you to consider whether the problem is the work itself or the way you’ve structured your offer.
Is the Problem Your Work or How You’ve Packaged It?
There’s a big difference between not enjoying what you do and not enjoying how you’re doing it. You might love photography but dislike the amount of editing required by your current packages. You might enjoy coaching but feel overwhelmed by the constant access clients expect. You might love your creative projects but resent the hours, revisions, and communication involved in delivering them. In those situations, the work itself isn’t necessarily the problem. The structure of your offer is.
I saw this firsthand during a recent round of Rise, my group coaching program. One of the photographers in the group had built an incredibly successful business. She’d been photographing weddings and portraits for about a decade and was earning great money, but she was completely burned out. Clients were calling, texting, emailing, and messaging her through different platforms at all hours. She loved her clients and she loved photography, but the way she was delivering her services had become unsustainable.
The solution wasn’t necessarily to leave photography. What she needed was to create stronger boundaries, clearer communication policies, and a more sustainable client experience. She needed to change the parameters around her work rather than abandon the work she loved.
If you’re feeling disconnected from what you do, ask yourself whether you still want to provide these services. Sometimes the most powerful business change is simply giving yourself permission to deliver your work differently. You can love your work and still need to change how it fits into your life.
3. When: Does Your Business Schedule Fit Your Life?
This category is particularly meaningful for working moms, and it’s one that played a huge role in my own entrepreneurial journey. The question is simple: When do you actually want to work?
You might have built your business around a schedule that made perfect sense when you started. Maybe you were comfortable working evenings, didn’t mind spending weekends photographing weddings, or had the flexibility to respond to clients whenever they needed something. At that point in your life, those expectations may have felt completely manageable.
As your life changes, though, your relationship with your time can change dramatically. Maybe you’ve had children, your family routines have evolved, your kids are involved in more activities, or you’re caring for an aging parent. You might simply be in a season where you want more flexibility and control over your calendar. The schedule you originally built your business around might no longer support the life you want.
Motherhood changed my business priorities—when I was photographing weddings, working on Saturdays was part of the business. Before becoming a mom, that arrangement felt different. Once I had children, I started thinking about weekends in a completely new way. A Saturday wedding wasn’t just one day away from my family. It often meant spending the next day recovering from a physically demanding event. That’s when I started asking myself a question that changed everything: What would it look like to make money during the hours I chose instead of relying on weekend bookings?
That question helped open the door to the next chapter of my business. It wasn’t that I suddenly hated photography. It was that the schedule attached to my photography business no longer matched the life I wanted.
What Does Your Dream Work Schedule Actually Look Like?
I want you to give yourself permission to imagine your ideal workweek without immediately worrying about whether it’s possible. What time would you start working? What time would you finish? Which days would you work? How much flexibility would you want throughout the week?
Now compare that vision with your current calendar. How much of your schedule reflects the life you’re trying to build, and how much of it reflects the business structure you created years ago? What would need to change in your offers, client expectations, or business model to make your ideal schedule possible?
Sometimes the most meaningful pivot isn’t about changing your industry or your clients. It’s about changing when you work. If you’re building a business to support your life, your schedule deserves to be part of that conversation.
4. Where: Are You Working and Marketing in the Right Places?
The fourth category is where, and I want you to think about this in two different ways: where you physically work and where you show up to market your business. Both can have a significant impact on how aligned your business feels, especially when your priorities or lifestyle have changed.
Maybe you’re a photographer who loves creating beautiful images but no longer wants to travel every weekend. Maybe you enjoy working with clients but would prefer to work from home rather than drive to appointments. Or maybe your business requires you to be physically present in places that no longer fit your family priorities.
I’ve worked with creatives who genuinely enjoy their work but have realized that the travel requirements are no longer sustainable. They don’t necessarily need to change careers or abandon their services. They may simply need to change their service area, the types of projects they accept, or how they deliver their offers.
When you picture yourself working, consider whether you’re happy with where that work takes place. If the physical location or travel requirements are creating tension in your life, that might be the specific area of your business that needs attention.
The other part of this question is your marketing and visibility strategy. You might be pouring hours into Instagram when you’d rather be writing. Maybe you’re creating video content that feels draining, or you’re spending significant time on a platform that’s no longer producing meaningful results. Sometimes you can become so exhausted by marketing that you start questioning your entire business. In reality, the problem might be where you’re showing up rather than what you’re offering.
Think about which platforms feel energizing and which ones consistently drain your time and creativity. Are you investing your visibility efforts in places that make sense for your business and the audience you’re trying to reach? Is your current marketing strategy producing results that justify the time you’re putting into it?
Your marketing should support your business goals without requiring you to spend all your time creating content you dislike. If the where category is revealing some frustration, you may need a different approach to visibility rather than a completely new business.
5. Why: Is Your Original Motivation Still Driving You?
This final category is the deepest one, and I saved it for last because your why influences almost every other decision you make in your business. I want you to think about why you started your business in the first place and whether that original motivation still feels meaningful today.
Maybe you started because you wanted financial independence. Maybe you wanted to prove you could build something of your own, avoid working a traditional job, or simply earn enough money to pay your bills. Those are all valid reasons to start a business, and they may have been exactly what you needed to get moving.
After several years in business, though, your motivations might look completely different. You may now want to create financial opportunities for your children’s futures, mentor other women, make a bigger impact in your industry, or build a profitable business that gives you more time with your family.
Your why is allowed to evolve. In fact, I think it should. As you grow personally and professionally, the things that motivate you will naturally shift. That’s why I believe revisiting your why should be something you do regularly, ideally at least once a year.
There’s another question I want you to ask here, especially if you’re seriously considering a pivot: Why do you want to make this change? Are you running toward an exciting new vision, or are you running away from something difficult?
If you’re thinking about pivoting because you’re burned out, frustrated by a client experience, or comparing yourself to someone else’s success, I want you to be careful. Those feelings deserve attention, but changing your business without addressing the underlying issues could mean carrying those same problems into your next venture.
For example, if you struggle with boundaries in your current business, starting a new business won’t automatically solve that problem. You’ll still need to learn how to create and maintain boundaries. If you’re exhausted from overworking, a new offer won’t necessarily fix that unless you also change how you’re operating.
On the other hand, maybe there’s an idea you simply cannot stop thinking about. You can picture what your life could look like. You’re excited by the possibility of serving a new audience, creating a different offer, or earning money in a new way. You might still be nervous about making a change, but there’s also genuine excitement and a clear vision of what could be possible. In my experience, that excitement can be a meaningful sign that a true pivot deserves consideration.
How to Decide Whether to Pivot or Realign Your Business
Now that you’ve worked through all five categories, I want you to review your answers. Look at your who, what, when, where, and why. Which categories brought up the strongest feelings? Where did you have the most to write down? Which areas of your business feel most disconnected from the life and work you want?
This is where the framework becomes especially helpful because you can begin to see whether you’re dealing with a few specific challenges or a larger disconnect between your current business and your future vision.
If One or Two Categories Feel Out of Alignment
If only one or two categories feel significantly out of alignment, you may need a realignment rather than a complete pivot. For example, if you love your clients and your work but dislike your schedule, you can focus on changing your hours or offer structure. If you enjoy your work but feel disconnected from your audience, you can focus on positioning and attracting better-fit clients.
The goal is to identify those specific areas and make intentional adjustments while preserving the parts of your business that are already working. You don’t necessarily need to change everything to create a business that feels better.
If Four or Five Categories Feel Out of Alignment
If four or five categories feel completely disconnected from your vision, a more significant business pivot may be worth exploring. If you no longer enjoy your clients, your work, your schedule, your marketing approach, or the purpose behind your business, that combination deserves serious consideration.
This doesn’t mean you need to make a dramatic decision tomorrow. It means you have valuable information about what may need to change. Before moving forward, revisit your motivation and make sure you’re moving toward a vision rather than simply trying to escape a difficult season.
What If Your Business Doesn’t Actually Need to Change?
There’s a third possible outcome I don’t want you to overlook. You may discover that your business is actually aligned, but you need more support. Maybe you need better systems, stronger boundaries, help with delegation, or a different approach to managing your workload. Your offers, audience, and business model might be exactly where they need to be, but you’re trying to carry too much on your own.
Not every feeling of overwhelm requires a strategic change. Sometimes the right next step is strengthening the business you already have so it can support you more effectively.
What My Own Business Pivots Have Taught Me
I’ve made several pivots throughout my entrepreneurial journey, and some of them happened before I even realized I was building something new. Looking back, I can see how each transition was connected to a changing vision for my business and my life.
I started as a wedding and portrait photographer, and over time, I began questioning whether I wanted my income to depend entirely on booking clients, photographing sessions, and editing images. I loved the creative work, but I also recognized the limitations of constantly exchanging time for money.
That realization eventually led me to explore other revenue streams and business opportunities.
Moving Beyond Trading Time for Money
One of the opportunities I explored was affiliate marketing. I wanted to create income that wasn’t directly tied to another client booking or another hour spent delivering a service. Eventually, I generated more than six figures in affiliate revenue without becoming an influencer.
That experience became part of what I now teach through Affiliate Boss, my program designed to help service providers explore affiliate marketing. It was a meaningful shift because it addressed a specific limitation I had identified in my business. I wanted more flexibility in how I earned money, and affiliate marketing opened up a new possibility.
When a New Audience Creates a New Business
Another major transition happened when I started my YouTube channel. Initially, I was simply sharing what I knew about photography and what I was learning as a service provider. As I continued creating content, I realized I was serving an entirely different audience.
Instead of primarily serving people who needed photography services, I was helping photographers grow their businesses. That meant a different audience, different offers, different marketing strategies, and new skills. Without fully planning it, I had started building another business.
That eventually became part of my journey from wedding photographer to business coach and the work I do today through PhotoBoss and Called to Both.
You might find yourself in a similar situation, where you’ve already started exploring a new direction without fully realizing how much your business has evolved. Maybe you’ve created an offer for a different audience or started building another revenue stream, and now you’re trying to figure out how everything fits together.
A pivot doesn’t have to mean that your previous business was a mistake. Sometimes it simply means you’ve grown into something new.
You Can Build a Business That Evolves With You
If you’re standing at a crossroads in your business right now, I want you to know that you’re allowed to change your mind. You’re allowed to want different hours, serve different clients, create new offers, pursue new revenue streams, and build a business that looks different from the one you originally imagined.
You’re also allowed to keep what you’ve built. You don’t have to throw away years of experience and momentum simply because one part of your business isn’t working anymore. You can make meaningful changes without starting from scratch.
That’s why I love this five-question framework. It helps you move beyond the vague feeling that something needs to change and identify what actually deserves your attention. Whether your next chapter involves a full pivot, a meaningful realignment, or additional support, my hope is that you make that decision from a place of clarity.
You can build a business that supports the life you want now, not just the life you imagined when you first started. If your vision has changed, your business can evolve with you.
Find it quickly:
Who (6:08)
What (8:18)
When (12:25)
Where (15:00)
Why (16:47)
Mentioned in this Episode:
1:1 Accelerator Coaching: joymichelle.co/coaching
Affiliate Boss: joymichelle.co/affiliate-boss
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