As a business owner the decisions you make will depend on what level your business is at.
Too often I have seen business owners try and skip a level which results in a huge amount of frustration and often it ends up taking them longer to get what they want. If you would like to make more money in your business, then the first step is understanding what “level” your business is currently at.
There are 7 stages or levels that a business typically goes through.
1) Seed
2) Start Up
3) Survival
4) Stable
5) Successful
6) Scalable
7) Self Sustaining
For example, it is very difficult to scale a business before you have predictable, profitable work and have the time and resources to invest to take your business to the next level.
Case Study
Slowing down to speed up, one of my clients had decided to “Scale” her business by opening a second branch in another city.
The challenge is her current business had just reached the “Stable” level. She was getting the right work in, was making a profit after she had paid herself and was down to working 40 hours per week.
Tempting as it was to skip a level I suggested we focus on first taking her existing business to the “Successful Level” where she had predictable, profitable work, strengthen her systems and stabilise her team.
We then reduced the hours she worked in the business, so she could focus on working on getting everything ready for the next store.
6 months later she opened her second store, it was organised, it was done well, and the branch was cashflow positive within 3 months.