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Pivoting a business starts with asking what people still need right now that your existing skills can produce, rather than defending what your company has always sold. Amanda Wittenborn lost 95% of her sales in mid-March, asked exactly that question, and had the best month in her company’s history by August.
In this episode I spoke with Amanda Wittenborn, a student in my Create A Profitable Online Store course who built a seven figure party supply business. Her products stopped selling overnight when parties stopped happening.
Below is the full story: how she found the new product, why it worked so fast, what happened when she reached number one on Amazon, and the counterintuitive strategy that produced her record month.
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Table of Contents
Key takeaways
- Ask what people still need that your existing skills can produce, rather than defending your current category.
- Her first test order was about $700, which felt enormous with no revenue coming in.
- Teacher postcards hit number one on Amazon in four days with zero advertising spend.
- Being number one attracted a hijacker who copied the listing and then filed false claims against her.
- Amazon held $36,000 of inventory in quarantine for months while she proved the claims were false.
- The lawyer cost over $10,000 and made little difference to Amazon’s process.
- She released 38 products instead of two so no single listing attracted attention, producing her best month ever.
- Customer requests are product research. Ten to fifteen people asking for the same thing signals demand.
What losing 95% of your sales overnight looks like
Amanda’s party supply business went from a record year to roughly $1,500 in monthly revenue in mid-March.
The product line was specific enough to be fully exposed. Invitations, stickers, candy bar wrappers, and water bottle wrappers, with paper plates and napkins in development.
Party supplies stop selling entirely when parties become illegal. The drop was essentially immediate as states began shutting down around March 13.
The stakes were total. Her husband had quit his job two years earlier to work in the business, so it was the family’s only income.
She let go of everyone working for her, since she could not justify paying for photography or packaging with no revenue arriving.
How to find a pivot when your category disappears
The productive question is what people still need that your existing skills can deliver.
Amanda gave herself roughly three weeks of doing nothing before starting. Baking with the kids, watching television, and letting ideas accumulate.
Then she started producing candidates rather than analyzing. Color-your-own stickers for kids stuck at home, stickers and package inserts for small business owners, and change of plans postcards for canceled events.
Her design instinct is a specific one worth naming. She works from puns and wordplay, so a canceled event postcard carried a toilet paper emoji and the line about it stinking but rolling with it.
The pivot she needed came from a friend’s reaction. Teacher friends saw that postcard and said they would love to send something like it to their students.
Why the new product worked so quickly
The teacher postcards became the number one selling item in Amazon’s postcard category within four days.
There was no launch and no advertising. Amanda had turned off all PPC when revenue collapsed, so the entire result was organic.
Her explanation is about timing rather than tactics. Teachers wanted a way to connect with students they could not see, and nothing existed to serve that.
Her test order was small and felt enormous. Roughly $700 across two products, at about $1.80 per pack, at a moment when spending anything was frightening.
Amazon’s response to the absence of ads was telling. The longer she went without advertising, the more they offered her, including an account manager, a built store, and free video content.
How customer requests generate your next product
Repeated identical requests are the clearest product research signal available.
Teachers wanted something that said “I miss my students” specifically, rather than generically cute teacher cards.
Amanda resisted at first, hoping the pandemic would be short enough that the product would not sell long.
Roughly ten to fifteen people asking the same thing changed her mind. That set became the number two selling postcard within five days.
Her general rule is that one or two people asking the same question usually means many more want it.
What happens when you become number one on Amazon
Reaching the top of a category makes your sales visible to anyone with a research tool.
About four weeks into the postcards, Amanda found an ad for her own product in her email, which she was not running.
Someone had copied her listing entirely and was selling it under their own brand.
Her filing got that listing removed the same day, and the seller immediately jumped onto her listing instead, undercutting her price and taking the buy box.
The copy was detectable. Subtle polka dot backgrounds had lost sharpness, suggesting a scan of a purchased pack, and the card backs were blank where hers carried her website.
How a hijacker used false claims to shut down her listings
Once removed from her listing, the seller filed copyright infringement claims against her.
The first round took down three listings, including both bestsellers, and his copy reappeared immediately.
She recovered those in about four days, filed against him again, and he responded by taking down eleven of her listings on a Saturday morning.
The recovery mechanism is a counter notice, which effectively dares the claimant to sue within ten days.
She escalated broadly. A lawyer, a documented case sent to Amazon legal, and an email to Jeff Bezos that produced an executive assistant working the case with little visible effect.
The listings returned after ten days and the inventory did not.
Why the inventory stayed frozen for months
Amazon quarantined the stock from all eleven listings on the assumption that the claims against her were valid.
The bestseller alone had 1,300 units held. Across all eleven listings the total came to roughly $36,000 in inventory.
New shipments went into the same state. Anything sent in was checked in and then held indefinitely regardless of quantity.
Seller support could not identify the problem. Repeated calls produced the answer that there was nothing wrong with the account and processing simply took time.
The resolution came from one associate mentioning a quality assurance team, and a subsequent two hour call with a representative who worked through every detail.
The bestseller inventory was finally released in September, months after the takedowns.
Her assessment of the legal spend is direct. Over $10,000 on a lawyer, with no evident acceleration of Amazon’s process.
The strategy that produced her best month ever
Amanda released 38 back-to-school postcard designs instead of two, so no individual listing became conspicuous.
The reasoning came directly from the hijacking. Success concentrated in one listing is what attracts attention, and success spread across many is invisible.
Individual listings occasionally reached the top 100 and never the top five.
Combined, the 38 products produced six figures and the best month in the company’s history.
No copies of the back-to-school designs appeared.
Preparation made the difference this time. Printing started in June, everything shipped into FBA before the listings went live in July, and roughly 500 mixed packs plus 100 of each individual grade-level design.
Why the copycat problem cannot actually be solved
Amanda’s original postcards still compete against a copy that currently outranks them.
She has stopped filing infringement claims on it despite having the right to, because retaliation cost her more than the copying does.
The copies degrade as they propagate. She describes it like a game of telephone, with copies of copies producing postcards whose puns no longer parse.
Her honest conclusion is that the strategy is avoidance rather than enforcement. Staying out of the top few positions is what protects the business.
How to manage creative work alongside operations
Amanda works in blocks rather than splitting each day between creative and operational tasks.
Her creative periods last roughly a week to ten days, during which she does nothing but design. One recent stretch produced 140 new postcards.
She does not check email, leave the room, or handle anything else during those periods.
When the quality drops and every design looks like trash, that signals the end of the block.
Operational work fills the two to three weeks that follow. Facebook ads, website redesign, and email sequences.
Getting into that state requires quiet and solitude, and stress or noise prevents it. One idea sparks and the rest follows.
Her husband handles inventory and ordering, and another employee handles shipments, which is what makes the block structure possible.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pivot a business when your category disappears?
Ask what people still need that your existing skills can produce, rather than defending what you currently sell. Amanda Wittenborn’s party supply business was dead, and the same design skills produced postcards teachers used to reach students.
How do you know what new product to make?
Listen to repeated requests. Ten to fifteen people asking Amanda for a card that specifically said “I miss my students” produced her number two bestseller, and her general rule is that one or two identical questions signal broader demand.
Is being number one on Amazon a good thing?
It attracts hijackers. Amazon research tools make your sales visible, and Amanda’s number one and number two listings were copied within weeks, followed by retaliatory infringement claims that took down eleven of her listings.
What do you do if someone files a false infringement claim?
File a counter notice, which requires the claimant to sue within ten days or you get the listing back. Amanda recovered her listings that way, and Amazon still held the associated inventory in quarantine for months.
Does hiring a lawyer help with Amazon disputes?
In Amanda’s case, not measurably. Over $10,000 in legal fees, a documented case sent to Amazon legal, and an email to Jeff Bezos produced an assigned executive contact and no clear acceleration.
How do you avoid attracting copycats?
Spread success across many listings rather than concentrating it. Amanda released 38 back-to-school designs instead of two, none reached the top five individually, and the combined result was her best month ever with no copies appearing.
How much should you order when testing a new product?
Enough to validate without risking the business. Amanda’s first test was roughly $700 across two products at about $1.80 per pack, which felt enormous with no revenue arriving.
How do you balance creative work with running a business?
Work in blocks. Amanda designs exclusively for a week to ten days, producing as many as 140 items, then spends two to three weeks on ads, website work, and email sequences once the creative period ends.
