Let’s talk about the life cycle of a business and how to get the most out of each cycle while also extending the lifespan of your business. The four stages of a business life cycle mirror the stages our own lives:

• Infancy
• Adolescence
• Growing Pains
• Maturity

We’ll talk a little about what each of these stages means and how each one can help expand your businesses’ lifespan.

Infancy

This is generally considered to be the technician’s phase. At this point, the technician is the owner: The relationship between the owner and the business is like that of a parent to a new baby. There is an impenetrable bond that is necessary to determine the path your business (baby) will follow.

At this stage, the owner must know the business intimately so that it can nurture the business into growth and flourishing. While fun and fulfilling, the owner, and the business, cannot stay in this stage forever.

Adolescence

Here is where we start getting some ‘push back’ from our little darling. In this stage the owner has to start bringing no staff members to allow growth to happen. Those technical duties must be shared with other technicians. Sometimes the Adolescent business needs to get input from someone else. However, this stage still belongs to the owner (parent). Delegation, not abdication, is the key. This is the time during which significant planning for the future of the business takes place.

Growing Pains

There’s a point in ever 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

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.

You see how all 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 (Technician, Manager, Entrepreneur) must also work together to work through these cycles.

If you’re having trouble putting together your business life cycles and figuring out which of the key roles you fit into, check out our NEW ‘Clarity Coaching Video Package’