♾️ The Pivot Happy Entrepreneur
✅ Summary
A client who decided to pivot to an entirely different audience and product focus midway through the project.
📜 Full Story
When copywriter Tom Mason first connected with tech entrepreneur Devon Walsh about creating website copy for Mindfully, a meditation app targeting busy corporate professionals, the project seemed straightforward enough. The initial creative brief was clear: sophisticated, results-driven language that would appeal to high-performing executives seeking stress management tools.
Three weeks into the four-week project, with 80% of the copy already approved, Tom received an urgent Slack message from Devon: "Had a MASSIVE breakthrough during my morning surf session. We're completely reimagining Mindfully. Instead of corporate meditation, we're pivoting to gamified mindfulness for middle school students. Same amazing app, just totally different audience and features. Can you revise all the copy to speak to 12-year-olds and their parents? Still need to launch next week!"
The original $4,000 project now required a complete restart - new audience research, fresh competitive analysis, different voice and tone guidelines, and entirely new copy for every page. The messaging needed to simultaneously engage young teens while reassuring parents about screen time and digital wellness. Yet Devon expected the original timeline and budget to remain unchanged.
When Tom explained that this constituted an entirely new project requiring additional time and budget, Devon pushed back: "But it's the same number of pages! We're just tweaking the audience a bit. I thought copywriters were supposed to be flexible."
🛠️ How to Fix This
How the Issue Could Have Been Prevented:
Tom learned an expensive lesson about protecting creative work from scope creep and pivots. He now includes the following protective measures in his contracts:
- A detailed "change of scope" clause that defines what constitutes a major pivot (new target audience, significant product changes, or fundamental strategy shifts) versus minor revisions
- Clear language specifying that major pivots nullify previous work and trigger a new project agreement with updated timeline and pricing
- Milestone approval documents that formally lock in completed stages of work, making it harder to backtrack without additional fees
- A project deposit structure where 50% is paid upfront and additional 25% payments are required at key milestones
Tom also adjusted his client onboarding process to include direct discussions about potential pivots. He now asks prospects about their product development stage, market validation, and decision-making process. Red flags include phrases like "we're still figuring things out" or "we like to stay agile."
For clients who seem pivot-prone, Tom builds in additional buffer time and higher rates to account for potential changes. He's also learned to document all strategic decisions and approvals in writing, maintaining a clear paper trail of project evolution.
The experience with Devon taught Tom that even the most enthusiastic clients can unintentionally derail a project with sudden inspiration. While creative flexibility is valuable, it shouldn't come at the expense of professional boundaries and fair compensation for work performed.
Today, Tom still works with early-stage startups, but his clear contracts and milestone-based approach have helped him avoid similar situations. He's even turned the experience into a popular workshop session: "Protecting Creative Work in the Age of Constant Pivots," which he presents at freelancer conferences.