Developed by TTI Success Insights, the “Stages of Growth Matrix” is a helpful outline designed to give startup entrepreneurs insight on common challenges that new businesses face at different stages of growth. Here are the seven stages of business growth with some tips on how to scale your startup once it starts growing.
7 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND BUSINESS SCALING TIPS FOR YOUR STARTUP
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Start-up Stage.
In the first stage, your business is just getting started and has only a few employees, no more than 10. During this phase, your main goal is likely figuring out how to make a profit. If you haven’t already, you should develop your business model. It can also be helpful to apply to a business incubator at this time.
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Ramp-up Stage.
By this point, you’ve probably doubled the number of employees working at your business, with personnel ranging from 11 to 19. Because you’re onboarding more people, you’ll need to modify your hiring process. While you may have previously hired acquaintances or those you found through word-of-mouth recommendations from people you trust, now you’ll have to truly vet candidates to determine whether or not they will be a contributing asset to your workforce.
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Delegation Stage.
During this stage in your business development, you might have 20 or 30 employees, which means that your operation is getting a little too big for you to handle everything on your own. Thus, you may need to start expanding your leadership team to delegate tasks within the company. At this time, it is vital that you iron out and clearly define your core values as a company and that the values of your promising leaders are in alignment.
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Professional Stage.
Once you’ve started making money and formed a reliable team to help your startup grow, you can figure out how to make your business processes as effective as possible. Consider bringing on a business consultant to streamline your efforts and scale your business.
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Integration Stage.
At this stage, you can no longer focus only on one aspect of your business. Rather, you must be thinking about profit, personnel, and processes all at once and evaluating how best to bring each aspect together into one integrated system.
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Strategic Stage.
Similar to the “Ramp-up Stage,” the “Strategic Stage” allows for business scaling on a much higher level. As your business continues to grow exponentially, you must consider your strategy for onboarding more and more new talent. Namely, you must strategize ways to attract talented individuals to hire and implement retention strategies to ensure they stay motivated and productive employees.
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Visionary Stage.
In the final stage of business growth, you likely will have developed and nurtured a successful profit-making process that works best for you and your hundreds of employees. However, your journey is not over. In order to maintain your business’ development, scaling, and growth, you must continue to respond and adapt to an ever-changing corporate landscape. Most importantly, you must always focus on your core values and be mindful of your vision for the future.
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