When It's the Time for Plan B
Author: Sarah E. Needleman</br></br>Two months after launching Brand Thunder, Patrick Murphy sensed that sales were sluggish because he was charging too high a fee for his sole product, a customized Web browser.</br></br>So he temporarily slashed the price by more than 75% and gave the product new, income-generating features, including ads and a search tool, by forming partnerships with other businesses.</br></br>The original fee "was a leap for something that wasn't proven," says Mr. Murphy, who started the Dublin, Ohio, company in 2007 in anticipation of a pink slip from a large Internet company. "We had to be nimble enough to make that change or this business would not be here today. It was live or die."</br></br>Start-ups don't always evolve according to plan. Some end up targeting the wrong market, while others get sidelined by unforeseen competitors. To avoid failure, experts say it's critical for owners to quickly identify what's obstructing them and come up with a solution that sticks.