In the post “What Is a Self-Sustaining Business?” the correlation between the growth cycle and creating a self-sustaining business introduced. Here I’d like to share how to scale your business to make it self-sustaining!
Achieving a self-sustaining business is simple enough. You just have to achieve the goal of each of the first 3 stages of the growth cycle!
Two things prevent small business owners from getting there. First, most small business owners get distracted because they get advice that takes them in a hundred different directions! Without a focus it’s difficult at best to scale your business.
Here is how to get focused purpose quickly. When someone gives you advice or guidance ask yourself the following question:
Will doing this take me closer to achieving the goal for my business’ current stage of growth?
If the answer is yes, then do it. If the answer is NO, drop it like a hot potato!!!
The second getting in the way is if you don’t know the stages of the growth cycle. Even fewer owners know the primary goal of each stage, so let’s take a quick look there.
What are the 3 Stages to Scale Your Business?
Stage 1 of the growth cycle is the foundation stage. Your goal in the foundation stage is get monthly cash flow to consistent breakeven, so don’t do things to scale your business. Just focus on getting to breakeven.
Most people think this is the startup of a company. But in fact, many businesses that have existed for years struggle to breakeven month to month.
To conquer the foundation stage the business owner needs to create a company system to create consistent monthly cash flow. Then when completed, this system needs to become someone else in the company’s primary job and the owner needs to move on to the next stage – survival.
Delegating this responsibility to someone else is critical! As a business owner you need to learn to delegate as it is important when you scale your business. If you don’t then your business cannot and will not grow.
Where You’ll Get Stuck Scaling Your Business
Stage 2 of the growth cycle is the Survival stage. The goal of the survival stage is consistently achieving owner established profit requirements.
You shift your focus at this stage is to profitability. Someone else is now responsible for assuring you “cover your nut.” Now it’s time to focus on getting a return on investment (ROI) for your time and money.
Again, focus your attention. Begin creating systems in your business that consistently generate profit. Your level of business acumen needs to increase at this point. If it does not you’ll struggle to scale your business and it your business will stagnate.
This is where many small business owners get themselves stuck for 1 of 2 reasons! Either their business knowledge isn’t sufficient to move beyond this stage. Or, they haven’t created the necessary systems so they can hand-off this responsibility of creating consistent profit to someone else in the company, just like in the foundation stage resulting in getting stuck!
If you feel like you are stuck contact us. Our business solutions are designed to get companies unstuck and assure startups don’t get stuck in the first place!
The Prize of a Self-Sustaining Business
You achieve business success on top of your personal success when you achieve stage 3 of the growth cycle – the Self-Sustainability stage. The goal of the Self-Sustainability stage is deciding do you want to sustain the current size of the business and step away for your business OR enter the Rapid Growth stage and really scale your business.
At this point you have all the systems in place. You may have already even hired someone to manage the business from you – your successor.
This is where business brokers love to see a business when it comes time to sell. The cash flow thrown off by the business is not dependent on the owner. The business has real value! A business like this is easy to sell!
But, let me ask you another question. If your business runs by itself, why do you need to sell it? You don’t because now you have choices. Most small business owners have no choice. If they cannot sell their business, then they’re stuck and cannot retire!
So there you have it. Achieve the 3 stages of the growth cycle and you scale your business a self-sustaining state. A self-sustaining business creates business success which gives you choices. Choices you probably don’t have now. But, the choice of life independence and financial freedom was probably the reasons you started your business in the first place!
Finding Out More to Scale Your Business
You can read more business growing a self-sustaining business by purchasing a copy of the book Business Growth Simplified: How to Rapidly Create a Self-Sustaining Business. You’ll get a clear picture of what you need to do at each stage of the growth model and see it applied to our three example companies, each at a different stage of growth.
Sign up now to begin building self-sustainability in your business via our BGS Business Accelerator Masterclass. It will provide you with the accountability necessary to assure you successfully navigate the each stage to build a self-sustaining business!
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[…] So, how do you do it? Well, you have to come back next week to find out. Next week my topic will be 3 Steps to Creating a Self-Sustaining Business. […]