Emphatically yes when it comes to business! Businesses go through developmental stages just like humans; birth adolescence, adult, and mature. The age of your business determines. how you need to plan to grow your business.
At birth companies are like babies you lose sleep, they need constant attention and you wonder if you are doing it right. You read books and talk to others and still you worry. This is the beginning of the strategic planning
The next stage is adolescence or rapid growth and can last 7-10 years. OK.. that’s a little scary. This is when you need to set guidelines employee manuals, processes and procedures, as well as job descriptions. The key at this stage is learning to delegate; and just like with kids allowing them to test the waters and see what they can do; who can help you today and be developed for tomorrow, How is the strategic plan coming; time to revise and set new goals? Did you do the SWOT? What are the trends in your industry?
Ah the adult arrives! Time to breathe a little reflect and see what going on in your industry and your competition. Time for a new vision of 3-5 years. What needs to be in place? Do you still have the right people are they trained well and can they take you to the next level?
It’s been 20 years or more since you started wow how time flies and you are in maturity. At this stage you have 2 choices; continue to examine how you are doing or sadly begin a death spiral of limited growth or worse, loss. I was speaking to a company owner recently who had been in business for 25 years but competition has changed and that company must change as well to maintain its brand and position. One of the suggestions is go back to basics, making sure everyone is still in agreement on the mission, then through some exercises do a gap analysis and create a new plan for growth.
What Stage are you in and how will you master it? What assistance do you need?
Great points! Thank you! But Yikes! I’ll be quite advanced in age by the time I’m a business adult!
LOL Relax those are general guidelines of what is needed as the business is developing. As we all know some people mature faster than others and the same with a business. Stay the course.