Business Article

How Evolved Is Your Business?
(The Seven Stages of a Business)

By Pam Butterfield

Is your “baby” at risk? Like new parents totally absorbed in caring for their infants, business owners often become so wrapped up in planning and launching their “babies,” they usually fail to anticipate key challenges their businesses will face down the road. This failure to anticipate—and to respond both personally and professionally—can spell the difference between success and disaster in the future.

Furthermore, businesses grow and die in similar ways. Many evolve along a continuum of seven stages, each with unique characteristics: founder’s mind-sets, management practices, planning mechanisms, financial considerations, and product/ services considerations. The key to success is to tailor these characteristics to the unique demands posed by each stage. For example, if management practices remain frozen in a prior phase, bad things can happen. However, if management remains flexible and open to change, success is not assured, but is more likely. Let’s take a look at the seven stages and the characteristics and key challenges posed by each, keeping in mind that not all businesses evolve and experience all seven stages. In fact, the final stage can happen at any point along the continuum.

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