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Stages Of A Small Business

A business coach can help support and guide you through all stages of a small business, providing marketing coaching, financial coaching, strategy coaching, sales coaching, and more!

Below are the typical stages of a small business.

Exploration Of A Small Business

Exploration can be one of the most exciting phases of a small business. This is the time when you’re thinking about starting a business and exploring various types of businesses. Will you start a business from scratch? Will you buy an existing business? Will you lease a franchise? How much will it take to start a small business, and where will the funds come from? When will you breakeven and begin to pay yourself a salary? Will you hire employees? Do you have the skills, experience, and resiliency to pull it off? An exploration coach can help answer these questions and hundreds of others.

Start Up Of A Small Business

The start up stage for a small business typically lasts one to two years. In this phase, you’re creating your business, sometimes on the fly. You’re making marketing decisions, financial decisions, organizational decisions, strategic decisions and more – often with little or no information. A start up coach can guide you through this critical phase, often making the difference between success and failure.

Stability In A Small Business

For many entrepreneurs (especially particularly creative business owners), stability can seem like a sort of death. Everything is going well, you have lots of clients, you’re making plenty of money, your employees are functioning as a cohesive team. And this is when it’s time to take a deeper dive. Are you happy personally? Is your small business reflecting your core values and desire to contribute to the community? Do you feel in control, or is the business running you? What’s next? At this stage, a life coach can help you attain more personal fulfillment, and a strategy coach can help you plan for the future.

Growth In A Small Business

Some small businesses are in a constant stage of growth, which also means that they’re often in a constant state of flux. Growth can come in many forms: introducing a new product or service, opening a new location, hiring employees, and more. Unplanned growth can lead to all sorts of trouble in a small business, whereas smart growth can bring stability to the business and/or lead to increased profitability. To ensure healthy growth, it helps to have marketing coaching, operations coaching, strategy coaching, and business development coaching.

Merger Or Acquisition Of A Small Business

A merger or acquisition for a small business can be a boon or a disaster, depending on how the transfer is handled. Trouble can bubble up if the operations aren’t compatible, client or customer relations aren’t dealt with delicately, and/or the cultures and management styles of the two companies clash. Leadership coaching, transition coaching, and management coaching can help ensure a healthy merger or acquisition.

Reinvention Of A Small Business

Some small business owners reinvent their companies out of necessity, because of changes in the marketplace, client and customers needs, or operations and technology. Other entrepreneurs make radical changes out of boredom, a change in vision, or the perception that a bigger, better opportunity lies just around the corner. Reinvention can be an empowering, thrilling experience, but it also comes fraught with risks. Depending on the scale of the reinvention, it can be as risky as starting a new business, replete with all of the challenges and unknowns. A marketing coach, strategy coach, and/or operations coach can help ensure a successful reinvention.

Downsizing A Small Business

Small business owners downsize for a number of reasons, including: necessity, urge to run a more simple operation, desire to not have employees, transition into retirement, pruning of products or services, and more. Change can be tough, even if it’s driven by positive reasons. To help you through the process of downsizing your small business, you could benefit from a business coach with experience in strategy coaching, operations coaching, life coaching, transition coaching, financial coaching, and/or marketing coaching.

Sale Or Transfer Of A Small Business     

The sale or transfer of a business is often the end of a chapter for a small business owner, which can be a bittersweet experience. Through this transition, you could benefit from both emotional support and tactical support. What is the business worth? Who will you sell it to? What will you tell clients or customers about the sale or transfer? Will you stay on in some capacity? What’s next for you personally? A small business coach can help you address these issues and others, to ensure that your experience is more sweet than bitter.

Are you ready for coaching?  A business coach will be happy to talk to you about your business, no matter what stage you’re in. Schedule your free consultation with one of our small business coaches, or e-mail us at contact@thesmallbusinesscoaches.com.

Please note: Our business coaches provide coaching and consulting services for small business owners in Denver, Colorado, and the U.S. For more information call today (720) 312-8737, or e-mail our coaches at contact@thesmallbusinesscoaches.com.