The Council for Entrepreneurship’s monthly workshops focus on key tracks: Leadership, Sales and Marketing, Strategic Planning, Technology, Finance and Capital.
Each track features workshops that are designed for the four stages of business growth: Start Up and Solopreneurs; Early Growth; Advanced Growth; and Mature Growth.
All Council members are allowed to attend all workshops, no matter your company’s current stage of business growth. In fact, we often recommend attending the workshop that focuses on the stage above your current level (Remember, our goal is for you to reach those higher levels of business success).
However, we know that different stages of growth bring different challenges, particularly when it comes to leading and managing people, job responsibilities and finances. To assist with finding the best stage for you, we’ve defined the four stages of business growth as follows:
Start Up and Solopreneurs: The owner of a business this size usually does not have any managers and they do it all themselves. You are integral to your business. Bookkeeping, marketing, and administration can all be outsourced to others, but you can’t! You’re focused on setting up lines of financing, establishing marketing and networking systems, setting up lines of suppliers and distributors, determining pricing and establishing internal operational processes. Your biggest challenges involve revenue and cash flow. You’ve been in business for 1 to 2 years or more.
Early Growth: The owner of the business now needs to start hiring managers because they can no longer handle it all themselves. You have established your core customers and established your niches within a community. You need to continue creating new customers, while building loyalty with existing ones. Your biggest challenges still involve revenue and cash flow. You’ve been in business for 2 to 5 years or more.
Advanced Growth: The owner now has multiple managers reporting to them and is starting to get a couple of layers of management in place. Cash flows have probably become stable and all marketing and operational channels have been established, the most important thing for a business to consider is expanding and diversifying its sales channels. Your biggest challenges begin moving from finances to people and human resource issues. You’ve been in business for 5 years or more.
Mature Growth: A company of this size typically has an executive team, as well as a management team. As you get bigger, there is just more people (and problems) and more layers of management. At this stage, your focus is on the emergence of competitors who may take away formerly loyal customers and the loss of profitability due to continually increasing costs which can occur even as sales increase. You goal is to keep your competitive edge and continue to grow (and manage that growth well) despite years of past success. People and human resources become more and more important and succession plans and future growth opportunities are top of mind for you right now. You’ve been in business for 5 years or more.
