The Stages Of Business Growth
Let’s be honest, business growth is far from a linear process.
There are ups and downs, highs and lows.
There are periods of rapid growth, then periods of slow growth.
It’s all normal and all part of the business-building process.
And although rapid growth may seem like a dream come true and something you’re constantly striving for - it essentially poses quite a lot of challenges.
Rapid growth means that you’re constantly needing to cater for all the expansion by strengthening your technical & admin support as well as business workflows. You’ll find that you need to heavily invest in things such as more staff, followed by training and development, additional support systems, more office space etc etc.
It can be A LOT.
This is where the benefits of reaching a plateau (a sort of a standstill) in your business growth come into play. Because after a heavy period of growth, a business usually reaches a plateau which is characterised by slower growth.
These periods on your business timeline actually give you the time that you need to get things in order – systems, processes, onboarding new staff etc – to prepare for the next phase of growth that will come your way.
How to prepare for the next growth phase
The most important thing to focus on while preparing for the next growth phase is your systems & processes.
I’m a big fan of the idea of the business owner freeing up their time to work on overall business strategy, growth & direction - which, in turn, means learning to delegate.
When you hire new staff, you can then continually devote more of your time to high-value activities which will then allow you to cross that plateau you have reached.
So as your revenue and workload increases, take on new staff and train them. Let them carry out the day-to-day tasks while you work on tweaking your business processes and planning for the future.
Being well-equipped with the knowledge about how a business typically grows is key information for you as a business owner. By recognising each of the business growth – then plateau phases, you’ll know exactly what your next steps need to be.
So, take a good look at where you are now, and plan ahead of time for the next business growth phase that lies in front of you.
If you’d like to learn more, please take a look at my most recent podcast episode on this exact topic:
Click here for the podcast episode.
Click here to watch the video.
Josh ‘Business Growth’ Stone
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