PIVOT Image Consulting

I Make $35K/Month Helping Men Dress Better

February 16th, 2025

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About
Business

Patrick Kenger

Founder, PIVOT Image Consulting

$35K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

PIVOT Image Consu...

pivotimage.com

from Scottsdale, AZ, USA

started September 2015

$35,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

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Who are you and what business did you start?

I'm Patrick. I'm the founder of PIVOT, a personal styling service for men. We work with great guys to help them improve their wardrobe efficiently, primarily entrepreneurs, executives, and other high performers. We basically help guys understand what looks best on them, and then build them a wardrobe filled with those items.

We focus only one working with men and have worked with over 1200 guys for the past ten years. It's a labor of love for us and we totally transform the guys we work with. We work with guys both online and in-person around the country. The online portion of our business is slightly more popular than our in-person services.

We typically do about 35K per month. The business is somewhat seasonal, though.

My image

How do you come up with the idea for PIVOT Image Consulting?

I was always fascinated by human communication and the way clothing can help to "broadcast" elements about your personality.

In college, I started blogging about style and similar topics. Friends in college started asking for my help - where to go for certain things, how to put items together, etc.

That was the "aha" moment - thinking "what would this look like if it were a business?" and that was that almost a decade ago. Since then, we've been able to develop proprietary methods and continue to innovate in ways that serve our guys best.

I had always tinkered around with entrepreneurship, but I think part of the reason things took off was that this is something that truly helps guys solve a big problem. We get guys emailing us, giving us credit for helping them meet their wife and things like that. If you're going to start something, in my opinion, it should solve a big problem and you should be the absolute best at solving it.

How did you build the initial version of PIVOT Image Consulting?

I did some market research, developed a business plan, made a website, and filled for an LLC. Total start up costs were likely only around 1-3K. This is why I think service-based businesses are so great if you're just starting out - you can easily get up and running.

The above stuff was important, but really not needed. Looking back, the first step was to just get moving and work with someone - anyone really. You need testimonials, referrals, and to dial in your process. I worked for extremely low hourly rates in the beginning - I had no idea what I was doing or what this service was worth to someone. But this is how you get in the reps. The path sort of illuminates itself as you start walking.

From there, I continued to refine things built out different service offerings, and kept trying to innovate for our customers. Guys hate shopping so we wanted to make looking good as easy as possible for them. I would say it took about 1-2 years to even get any sort of traction. I was working another job and doing this on the side. After that, I made the switch to full-time. When starting, you're just sort of hoping for the best and it never happens as fast as you want it to. But if you believe in what you're doing and have a great product - not what you believe to be a great product but what the market tells you is excellent - you'll be able to stick it out.

Now, my goal is primarily to train and develop the great team of people around me and to drive the business forward. We have some incredible people on the team and hiring/outsourcing has allowed us to deliver things at an even deeper level to our clients.

My image

How did you launch PIVOT Image Consulting and get initial traction?

"Launch" is a bit of an exaggeration. Because everything was bootstrapped, it was much more of a slow ramp-up. Once the first offer and website was built, I had no one to sell to.

I started writing content that drove some traffic to the website and then got local listing pages up and running like Google My Business, Yelp, Thumbtack, and other local directories. These are great when you're first starting. Again, at that point it was like, I just need to get the reps in and work with whomever. We've been so fortunate to get to work with great guys.

After starting the business, I'd say it took around 3-6 months to see that first dollar. However, I was working another job at the time, so my focus was divided. What I didn't realize is how much work it takes to get momentum. You really have to be delusional at first and keep pushing. Once you have momentum, things get a little easier. But these are the things that develop you as a business owner and help you become better at what you do.

What was the growth strategy for PIVOT Image Consulting and how did you scale?

The business has continued to grow, especially in the last few years. The channels we've used to attract customers has changed a lot over time. Originally, it was very content focused. I would go on forums like Quora and just start answering questions. I would write these huge blog posts. Basically just putting out a ton of written content to help define us as the experts in the space but also for SEO purposes. This lead to a lot of good press. A lot of news outlets started to ask for recommendations for their readers, and that again helped to drive traffic.

Now, we're using a strategy of the above, as well as paid advertising. At some point, developing that much content became far too time-consuming while also trying to run the business, manage a team, clients, etc. I still do it, but it's not the entire strategy. If you can start doing some sort of paid advertising, it's a good way to start to get eyeballs on your business, but I still believe in just developing absurd amounts of content so that people see you as an authority in the space regardless. If you look at our website, we have pages of blogs, tons of ebooks, videos, etc. The goal is just to make it painfully clear that we know what we're doing.

What were the biggest lessons learned from building PIVOT Image Consulting?

Starting a business is likley one of the hardest things you'll do, but one of the most rewarding things as well. There is no better avenue for self-development and helping others than entrepreneurship, and it's why I love it.

Some mistakes I've made while starting: Not hiring/delegating quickly enough. I hung on to tasks I shouldn't for far too long and this stunted growth. Almost every business owner should have a VA at the minimum and then start outsourcing more from there.

I also was typically very frugal - I wanted to try to cheap out on certain elements like tools for the business, and again, this hindered growth. Like we tell our clients, buy the best you can afford.

Finally, thinking it would be easy. Business typically comes in seasons. Sometimes things are good, and other times the business requires a lot from you. You have to be willing and able to put in the work when needed. But, you do get the benefits when things are great. Learn to ride the waves and you'll have a lot better time on your journey.

PIVOT Image Consulting Acquisition: How much did PIVOT Image Consulting sell for and what was the acquisition price?

Right now, we're not looking to exit; instead, we are actually looking to acquire businesses in the same/similar spaces.

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