In the beginning, a business has momentum to grow organically but at some point, that stops or slows and in order to grow, you’re going to need an iron clad plan that can be implemented, scaled and adjusted in order to achieve your growth plans. It comes down to knowing precisely how to navigate the stages of business growth.
Stages of business growth
I refer to business growth as being split into 5 distinct stages – Start Up, Infancy, Adolescence, The Groove and Maturity – each stage has its own set of challenges or business behaviours.
Do you know which stage of business growth you and your business are currently in?
Business growth stage #1 Start-Up
You know you’re in Start-Up if the business challenges you face today include tasks like registering your business, developing your logo, creating a website. It’s the set-up, the ‘getting everything’ in place, the ‘soft’ launch’ stage of business growth.
Start-Up is when you take your idea and turn it into something which says you are open for business.
Business growth stage #2 Infancy
Now this is where business growth starts to get interesting. It’s the stage all businesses move into after coming out of the initial new biz start-Up phase.
You know you’re in Infancy if the business challenges you face today include figuring out how to find customers, and in the early days, an over dependency on 1 or 2 key customers. Not forgetting poor or no cash-flow, receiving bills and probably more bills. Some days feel like a whirlwind of reactive tactical tasks.
Infancy is similar to operating in survival mode. You will need to shift from gut instinct to implementing practical business sense in order to move to the next business growth stage.
Business growth stage #3 Adolescence
This is the stage where you start to ‘build out’ your business. It’s the business growth stage where your business can quickly grow, BUT it can easily and just as quickly take 3 steps back. Great if you can handle it and are prepared, terrible if you’re not ready.
You know you’re in Adolescence if the business challenges you face today include continued customer concentration risk, the robustness (or lack of) your strategic plan is in question and your operations are under pressure particularly when demand is high.
Adolescence is the double-edged sword. You’ve got the momentum of being a new business firmly behind you pushing your through the headwinds, but if one big storm comes it can easily throw you off course.
Business growth stage #4 The Groove
The Groove is all about harnessing the growth and scaling up, but it isn’t without it’s growing pains.
You know you’re in The Groove if the business challenges you face today include inefficient operations; the engine room is just not pumping at the pace it needs to. You need to scale your sales and business development to hit your business growth goals. BUT you’re hiring, firing and managing people without a defined people plan in place and it is starting to cause you some headaches.
The Groove is a great place to be if you’ve set yourself up for success and put in those hard yards and solid foundations during Infancy and Adolescence.
Business growth stage #5 Maturity
Maturity. The holy grail in some people’s eyes but not without its own set of challenges.
You know you’re in Maturity if the business challenges you face today include loss of momentum and flexibility, your losing talented people and you’re not sure why, your losing customers and you’re not sure why.
The key here is to anchor your successes whilst keeping your eyes open to new opportunities, challenges and any potential de-railers.
Now this all sounds great, but how do you really know which stage of business growth you and your business are in?
Well let me introduce you to The Business Growth Pathway™.
The Business Growth Pathway™
The Business Growth Pathway™ is a digital platform that delivers a clear blueprint for scalable growth, wherever you are on your business journey.
After two decades of coaching and mentoring business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs, I’ve distilled all this insight and intelligence and developed a unique tool that will change the way businesses are built and grow.
Want to jump right in?
Assess your business against 10 key growth enablers and receive a comprehensive report with actionable insights to help grow your business. Get started today with a personalised report on one area of your business completely free of charge.
The pure overwhelm or second guessing what you need to do to successfully manage and lead your business, never mind grow it, can take even the seasoned business owner-leader to new heights of OMG / WTF or any other three letter acronyms you can think of!
Sound familiar?
I get it. I’ve been there.
Which is why I’m so passionate and believe that if you understand what business growth stage you and your business are in, identify what you should be focusing on and just as important, what you should be staying far far away from, you will grow your business to its full potential.
The Business Growth Pathway™ is a 360-question insights tool which gets right to the heart of the your business and creates a personalised data-led pathway that identifies where your business is today, and the accelerated route to get your business to where you want it to be.
Remove all your second guessing. Assess your business today and identify the stage of business growth your currently in. You never know, you may surprise yourself! Access your free trial here to find out.
Want to know more..
Check out The Business Growth Pathway™
Access your free trial here and assess your business against one of the 10 key growth enables completely free of charge.
