There are phases within business growth that, by adapting and managing them effectively, generate a much faster and more sustained evolution.
During its progress you will be able to see little by little how your organization takes a more sophisticated form; Your processes become increasingly strategic and coupled to your type of industry and company Local content.
Here are the stages of business growth:
- Existence
In this first stage, companies should focus on obtaining customers and sales. There are very few involved within the organization. There are even times when only the owner or founder is in charge of the entire business process.
The advantage of this stage is that you can explore the opportunities your company has and the alternatives that can be taken. This is achieved as long as the value of your products or services is increased and a better experience is provided to customers.
At this moment your company demands all the attention possible. Building a solid database requires incentivizing consumers. This can be through samples or free trials so that people can learn about the features and value of your market.
Unfortunately, there are many businesses that fail to get the necessary attention or make poor investments that leave them without capital. For example, in Mexico only 10% of projects last 10 years .
There are two common reasons why this figure continues to hold: the absence of a business plan and the lack of a revenue model that provides financial viability. Therefore, it is important to train yourself and find the financial stimuli that adapt to your possibilities and needs .
Technological solutions can be really useful from your first stage. For example, Marketing Hub Enterprise is marketing software that helps you simplify your company’s organizational growth. The best: it is a very easy solution to use and you do not need previous experience in data analysis, since the platform does it for you.
- Survival
At this point, your company already has enough customers and your product or service offering is capable of keeping them satisfied.
Now, the most important thing is to plan and project cash flows, in order to make accurate forecasts about the growth of the company. Additionally, anticipate possible financial risks you may face. Something common within this stage is to stagnate in a comfort zone because your sales satisfy you, but you will not continue advancing. If your desire is to continue, you may need the support of some financial stimulus to help you progress.
- Success
By this stage your company already has a presence in the market and is profitable. The processes no longer fall only on you, but on a larger team and in different business areas. Here you have two options: enhance the opportunities that your business is providing to continue growing or keep your income sources as they are to carry out other activities (such as founding another company).
In this sense, there is no right or wrong decision: only you can decide the direction of your company. Perhaps not continuing to grow is the most viable alternative, due to the current economy or if the demand in your market is very saturated. Remember that you already have financial strength, so staying here is understandable.
Keep in mind that, if you no longer want to advance, you must leave your company in good hands so that it is more than preserved. Otherwise, sales could decrease and there will be a setback.
- Takeoff
To achieve takeoff, it is vital that your organization expands internally, that is, that you have more personnel and areas to manage it . As an owner, you have to start delegating tasks and trusting the people you surrounded yourself with.
This aims to retain human talent that is efficient and avoid unnecessary investments in new hires. Additionally, you increase the productivity of your company if you have a trained leader in each of your areas and you guarantee that all of your company’s operations will be ready for the next and final stage.
Once you have formed your work team, equip them with the best tools so that they can carry out their work in a more functional way. With HubSpot Sales Software you can save time by automating manual tasks such as:
- Personalized email follow-up and reminder sequence
- Sales Email Performance Measurement
- Automatic lead tracking
- Meeting scheduling
- Automating tasks like contact information, email opens, and clicks
- Sync with HubSpot CRM to properly track won, lost, and in-progress business
- Maturity
At this stage the first thing you need is stability. The organizational changes you made in the previous stage will begin to be visualized. This will give you a broad overview of your decisions and the opportunity to change or add strategies to avoid mistakes.
In the maturity stage, your company has to lose the fear of innovating and diversifying products or services. Your clients have stuck with you; If you want to continue expanding, it is best to explore new territories. You can increase your product lines or think about branches in other places.
And although you have managed to reach this goal, you cannot trust yourself. Market trends and financial crashes can affect you if you are not prepared to face them. Therefore, carry out strategic planning that provides you with support to identify opportunities and prevent crisis situations.