How would you, as a Business Owner, like to be able to:
1. PREDICT how the increasing complexity of your company will affect you
2. FOCUS your efforts and resources on the right things at the right time; and,
3. ADAPT to the needs of your company, at each of its various stages of growth?
The 7 Stages of Growth Enterprise Development Model helps business owners get ahead of growth issues, actually allowing them to predict the impact growth will have on them so they can proactively understand what they’ll have to do to manage their company as they add more people.
Did you know there are 7 Stages of Growth, based on the number of people you have in your business? The complexity of any organization increases because of the number of people, not the amount of revenue, you have. Money and processes are easy to manage compared to the dynamic impact that people bring to the equation.
Developed by James Fischer, the 7 Stages of Growth Enterprise Development Model is based on a six-year study of entrepreneurial companies and interviews with over 650 CEOs. For companies with 500 employees or fewer, the 7 Stages of Growth gives you key information regarding where you are now so you can plan where you want to go as a company.
The reality is that business owners struggle trying to keep their focus on the constant barrage of issues they have to deal with in a fast-growing enterprise. Typically, companies grow beyond the owners’ ability to manage everything. This happens, by the way, as soon as you start adding full time employees to the mix.
Intuitively, business owners can recognize the signs of growth that impact their company’s performance as they experience, perhaps, a dip in profits, customer satisfaction decline, or the inevitable poor employee morale.
Four Key points to remember when it comes to growing a vibrant business in the 21st century:
1. When you own a business, you become a Business Architect.
2. As your business grows, the rules change.
3. You can’t grow your company by doing more of the same.
4. As your business grows, its leaders must grow and change.
The honeymoon is over. You have your startup capital, you’ve hired 4 – 6 employees quickly. Let the games begin.
Starting and growing a company isn’t easy but it becomes easier to create a consistently profitable business that you can run (and not have it run you) when you understand the 7 Stages of Growth Enterprise Development Model.