Expanding the Life of Your Business
Today I’m going to talk about the life cycle of a business and how to get the most out of each cycle while also extended the lifespan of your business.
The four different stages of a business life cycle are:
- Infancy
- Adolescence
- Growing Pains
- Maturity
We’ll talk a little about what each of these cycle’s means and how they can each help expand your business’ lifespan.
Infancy
This is generally considered the technician’s phase, which is the owner. At this point, the relationship between the business and the owner is that of a parent and new baby. There is an impenetrable bond that is necessary to determine the path your business will follow.
The key is to know your business must grow in order to flourish. You cannot stay in this stage forever.
And this is the toughest stage for most business owners to take on an advisor, coach or consultant. Because in this phase, many new business owners think they know what’s best for their baby. Things are still new and the baby is developing. Notice I said developing, not growing.
Adolescence
In this stage you need to start bringing your support staff together to delegate leverage to and allow growth to happen. The first line of defense is your technical person as they need to bring a certain level of technical experience. This cycle really belongs to the manager though. The plan stage needs to start and a relationship should be built with the entrepreneur to plan for the future.
Like an adolescent child, this is where you will start being tested by your business personalities (technician, manager, entrepreneur) and other employees. Be firm and stick to the plan.
Growing Pains
There’s a point in every business when business explodes and becomes chaotic. This is referred to as growing pains. It’s a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless. You are often faced with a number of choices:
- Avoid growth and stay small
- Go broke
- Push forward into the next cycle
I see too many business owners who buy into the idea the business must grow before it’s profitable. This is simply not true. Your business can grow and profit at the same time. But if I have to choose between the two, I chose profits over growth every day of the week and twice on Friday. Which is great for me because I chose not to work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Maturity
The last cycle is maturity, though this doesn’t mean the end of your business. Your passion for growth must continue in order for your business to succeed. You need to keep an entrepreneurial perspective in order to push your business forward.
If you’re not the entrepreneur in your business, find someone who is and work with that person.
You see how all three of these cycles are connected and depend on a strong foundation for each one of them for your business to be, and continue to be, successful. All three of your key roles must also work together to work through these cycles.
As you already know, you might be the technician, manager or entrepreneur. You might think you’re all three. But that is not sustainable for continued growth and profits.
If you’re having trouble putting your business life cycles together and figuring out which of the key roles you fit into, take a guided tour of my Abundance & Prosperity Business Mastery eLearning System.
Then book a Live Business Breakthrough Session with me. I know I can find $10k to $50 or more in your business in just 45 minutes. Put me to the test.