It’s easy to look at other businesses and attribute their success to luck. We often think success is about being in the right place at the right time. But coincidence and luck are never enough. Luck is useless if you don’t know what to do with it. Unless you have a solid foundation and systems, your company cannot take advantage of unexpected opportunities.
In this sense, no business is lucky. Successful business owners had to learn how to run their businesses in ways that allowed them to expand fast while maintaining margins. Growing a business requires much more than hard work and luck.
In my experience, working harder doesn’t usually translate into more success – just more exhaustion. To grow from a small enterprise into a thriving business, you must understand the success cycle. I call this the 7 Stages.
The 7 Stages of Business Success
I’ve worked with thousands of companies, and time and time again, I’ve seen how the 7 Stages of business growth works in all kinds of situations. By following the lessons offered in each stage, companies can grow from a small enterprise into a major company with dependable revenue in just a few years.
If an entrepreneur is unfamiliar with these stages, they will not understand how to scale their business, which usually means they get stuck. They stop growing, and they don’t know why.
Business success is not about luck; it’s about strategy and process. The 7 Stages approach is an achievement-focused methodology that helps businesses understand what they need to do to grow and prosper reliably and predictably. I’ve used this approach to help over 7,000 companies in 68 countries, so I know it works.
Stage 1: Strategic Planning Stage
Success starts with a plan. Without a roadmap indicating goals and strategies, it will be tough to make rapid progress. The good news is it’s never too late to start planning. Whether you started a business this week or ten years ago, a strategic plan will help you grow in a predictably progressive fashion. With a plan in place, you’ll have context for decisions, reasons to move forward, and rationales for rejecting ideas. The strategic plan also makes it much easier to keep your team focused (even if you don’t have a team yet.)
Stage 2: The Specialty Stage
Once you know what you want to do, it’s time to become the best at it. In Stage 2, you develop expertise that puts you ahead of the competition. You do what you need to do to be the best and become known as an expert. This builds your reputation, cements your credibility, and positions you for premium pricing.
Stage 3: The Synergy Stage Business owners hate to cede control, but in Stage 3, it’s a necessity. Running a growing business is a team sport. In Stage 3, you’ll need to develop strong leaders to handle different parts of the company. This is the time to stop doing everything and let others lead certain parts of the firm.
Stage 4: The Systems Stage
Without processes, you can’t gain momentum. As your organization expands, creating systems for everything from ordering office supplies to onboarding new employees to converting new clients becomes increasingly important. When your company develops repeatable processes, checklists, and evaluations, success becomes predictable.
Stage 5: The Sustainability Stage
With systems in place, it’s time to think about fortifying your brand, your point of difference, and what makes your business unique. Once that’s well-defined, you can scale quickly without losing momentum. Maybe you want more locations. Perhaps you want to franchise. Once you’re clear about what makes your business model sustainable in a variety of situations, you can scale your product, operations, markets, and expertise in ways that allow you to increase profits exponentially.
Stage 6: The Salability Stage
Many entrepreneurs love creating successful businesses but don’t want to run them forever. Others create companies with the intent to sell. But both types must pay attention to what makes your business salable. You must have top management in place. Your brand and operations should be appealing and contribute to your company’s value. Your books have to be immaculate. By looking at your business from a buyer’s point of view, you add value and increase stability, even if you’re never going to sell.
Stage 7: The Succession Stage
Some business owners don’t want to sell. They want to pass the business on. Whether you plan to step aside, step down, or step away from a company, you need a succession plan. At this stage, it’s the business owner’s job to ensure that the firm continues to succeed even after you’re gone. In Stage 7, you will make adjustments that ensure the firm runs profitably after a handover.
Getting Started
Every business owner is different, and every company is unique, so there’s not a one-size-fits-all roadmap for success. But if you internalize the 7 Stages of Business Success, and you follow the system in ways that build on your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses, you might just become one of the thousands of people who own a multi-million dollar business. 7 Stage Advisors can help. Contact me to find out more.