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What stage of growth is your business in?

Guest post by: Diana Long

Article Overview: learn how to care for your business and give it the boost it needs

What stage of growth is your business in?

We've got a beautiful lush planting in my garden called periwinkle. We learned that "periwinkle" grows according to its own rhythm: the first year it "sleeps", the second year it "creeps", and the third year it "leaps". Had we not known and trusted this natural growth process, we would have been frustrated and unhappy with the periwinkle. We might have tried to force growth by aggressively over fertilizing or worse case scenario, rip out the plants complaining that they weren't good performers, etc. Three patient years later, we experienced a marvelously lush ground cover. The takaeway here? No forcing, rather an approach of perfect timing & action.

Can you relate this metaphor of growth to your own business? Your life?

There's a trap that entrepreneurs can fall into called "forcing outcomes". This looks like trying to make things happen,competing, pushing, striving with will-power and our ego.

Think about times when you rushed and forced a result? How did it turn out for you? More often than not, our results are NOT what we intended! Forcing can cost you money, create relationship problems and result in bad timing For example: puny sign ups for your next webinar, strained partnerships, loss of personal energy and confidence and an anemic bank account.

Instead of the exhausting "forcing, always in action & doing mode" try this effortless & elegant "coach approach "and celebrate your results:

1. Vision- Everything you want to accomplish, manifest or bring into your reality starts with your desire, your vision of what you want. Create a strong platform by writing down what your next goal is

2. Design It- Once you are clear on your intentions for your next program, product, or other goal then create your "project plan" What resources do you need, what is your timetable? Who's responsible for what task? What are the barriers ( internal or external) to achieving this?

3.Implement- Know what you want? Have your plan,strategies & tactics in place? Time to implement. A great way to ensure your success is to have an accountability partner via your coach, a community or colleague.

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Article Tags: goals, implement, plan, project, vision



Related Forum Posts
Growing ... or not - I've seen this done successful and I've seen disastrous results. From the expansions I've seen, a lot depends on the business owner and/or manager. Some people can run a business if it stays on an even keel, but many are simply not qualified to handle a business "explosion". Its wonderful to have the opportunity to grow your business in a hurry, but if the people or person in charge can't handle the growth, it can be really ugly and can cause huge problems within the business. Having the right people in place to deal with the growth is a key to making it work for you and not against you. Shri
Growth? - when we say "Grow" are we talking about growth in scale or growth in their bottom line. I feel when business owners talk about money their main concern is to have their current customer buy in more frequency and thus improving their bottom line i.e through referrals, joint-ventures etc. growth in scale can be scary due to the amount of risk and effort required to undertake it. Not to mention the owners also being concerned about being in more than one place at once as they haven't in most cases systematized their businesses.
Returns - Those are fairly accurate expectations. Part of the reason is high failure rate in early stage ventures. With VCs, they pool investments, so the overall return of their portfolio will be affected by some failures. You are also competing for money with other early stage deals. Mining is all the rage and usually has relatively quick exits. Not understanding what the investor expects is one of the reasons that early stage people have difficulty raising money. The other is not having a clear strategy for the next round or exit for the investor.
timeframe for loan process - In general, it should not take more than 10 - 12 weeks once the lender has your loan package. Unfortunately, I have heard horror stories where 4 - 6 months after the person submitted their loan package, they still have not closed on their loan and some cannot even get in touch with the lender for an update. (not with my business and the lenders we deal with, but others have told me this when they contacted us after they were fed up with their current lender). I think it's dependendent upon whether or not you have gone to the right lender for your type of business loan and also dependent upon whether you have packaged the loan properly. When a loan has not been packaged properly, lenders will not even review it. It can sit on their desk for any legnth of time before they get around to sending it back to you "declined" (for improper packaging). It's best to have your loan professionally packaged. That's the beauty of dealing with a loan broker or other professional who provides this type of service. It's best to seek out professionals who specialize in your specific type of business loan. The loan goes through diffrent stages. The first stage is the initial review by the lender, where the Lender will decide if you are favorable for loan approval. If you are, the loan will be sent onto the underwriters and you may or may not receive a proposal letter from the lender (it depends upon the lender). this letter may need to be signed and returned. The lenders initial review should take anywhere from 5- 10 business days. The second stage, is the underwriters review where your loan with either be approved or denied. This is a crucial stage and can take about 3- 4 weeks. Once approved you will receive an approval letter that needs to be reveiwed by you (or your lawyer) carefully. this letter needs to be signed and returned in order for your loan to go through the final stage. The third and final stage is your loan closing. This is where everything is finalized so they can fund. This stage can take another 3 - 4 weeks. Keep in mind that if you are dealing with a loan broker, you should add another 2 - 3 weeks to your loan timeframe as it will take about this long for the loan broker to gather and process all your documentation and package it and get it off to the lender (this includes delivery time).
Mentoring events for Entrepreneurs - These free events are held monthly for a select number of early stage ventures. If you have a high-quality early stage project, register an interest in participating and we will try to accommodate you.


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