The 4 stages of business growth
Once you identify where you are, it’s easy to see what the next Stage actually looks like.
Which stage are you?
Founder Stage
It’s all on you. There may be some people on contract or folks you bring in every once in a while but no stable employees beyond yourself or your co-founder(s).
Turn The Passion That Got You To This Point Into Disciplined And Focused Work Habits.
Get Some Early Customers And Deliver Your Offering. Find Out What Resonates With Them.
Start Tracking Results In Systems And Software That Will Scale With You Into Operator Stage.
Figure Out What Is Repeatable And Delegable. Turn Your Work Habits Into Processes And Roles.
Build A Steady Stream Of Customers While Also Doing The Work To Keep Customers Happy.
Create Roles And Hire Early Employees. Refine Roles And Processes With Early Employees.
Do All This Without Running Out Of Money Or Pulling All Your Hair Out First!
Survey Company Triples Monthly Revenues and Hits Profit Margin Targets.
“Ronin brings financial intelligence to a small company. They are my partner in crime, someone who thinks about my business the way I do. They help you steer some of your short term, medium, and long term goals hopefully towards the most productive areas. They help you prepare for scalability.”
— DEREK KINSAUL, SURVEY WORKS
You’ve Got a Vision. We’d Love to Hear About It.
- What’s your revenue model?
- What challenges are you having?
- Where are you getting stuck?
- Who do you need on the team?
- When will you hire them?
- Do you need funding?
- How do you know?
01.
02.
Operator Stage
You have employees and a steady flow of business. You are still running the day-to-day and the team cannot operate without you yet.
Take Stock Of Where You’re At Relative To Your Bigger Vision And Why You’re Doing This.
Set Goals Annually And Track Progress With A Disciplined Monthly Cadence.
Articulate Your Vision Into A Growth Story People Can Get Behind.
Get Your Key Players To Their Highest And Best Use. Develop Top Employees Into Managers.
Get Sales Targets, Budgets And Standardized Reporting In Place With Your Management Team.
Identify The Best Areas To Invest In For Growth. Invest Retained Earnings Or Funds Raised.
Enjoy The Fruits Of Your Labor And Take An Uninterrupted Vacation.
Food Business Kicks It Into High Gear.
“They’ve taken us from being reactive to being proactive. They’ve moved the needle for us so we are now looking ahead and able to make big plans for the entire year with goals in mind for the end of 2020 and working towards those goals the whole time as opposed to just reacting to whatever comes our way.”
— AMANDA WADSWORTH, TINY PIES
You’ve got a good thing goin’. We’d love to hear about it.
- Where are you going from here?
- Are you happy where you are at?
- Do you have the team you need to get there?
- What are your financial goals?
- How much business do you need to make them?
- Do you need funding?
Asset Stage
A solid management team is in place and the business has become an asset to you. You can step out and the business keeps going.
- Take A Realistic Look At Where You’re At. Make Sure You’ve Honed A Business Unit First.
- Make A High Level Plan Of How To Scale The Business. Account For Competitive Landscape.
- Develop Your Management Team So They Are Poised To Grow With The Business.
- Start Building Additional Business Units To Prove Out Your Ideas. Overlap Timelines Strategically.
- Recruit New Key Players To The Team As Needed And As Afforded To Achieve Growth Goals.
- Enable Management With Tools And Reporting To Keep An Eye On Existing Business Performance.
- Do All This While Recruiting Investors And Raising Funds As Needed. Don’t Run Out Of Cash.
Climbing Gym Builds New Locations.
“With Ronin by my side, I feel more confident as a business owner— I have someone to collaborate and share ideas with. While there is a price tag attached, I just couldn’t imagine not having them around. They bring a component to the business that I feel I couldn’t do without. They are the ultimate business partner. “
— KEVIN GORADIA, CEO CRUX CLIMBING GYM
You’ve Got a Solid Business. We’d Love to Hear About it.
- What’s the next step?
- How big do you want to be?
- Do you have business units that can scale?
- What does growth look like?
- More locations?
- More teams?
- More production capacity?
- How will you fund the next phase?
03.
04.
Expansion Stage
You are building an executive team. There are clearly defined business units that can be replicated to take what was once a small business on to the middle market.
- Squeeze Some Time For Self-Reflection Between Running Your Company And Having A Life.
- Figure Out How Your Personal Goals And Skills Align With What’s Right For The Business.
- Set Up A Board If You Haven’t Already And Build A Governance Structure And Investor Relations.
- Identify Gaps In The Leadership And Management Teams And Fill With Executive Roles As Needed.
- Stay Ahead Of The Game By Weaving Strategic And Operational Planning Together With Your Team.
- Keep The Company Focused Around One Vision As You Bring More And More People On Board.
- Continue To Innovate. Convince Institutional Capital Partners To Trust You With Their Money.
TalentGuard Lands $4 Million in VC Funding.
“The thing that was most important to me when choosing Ronin was experience. They have done its before and are able to support what they put together in front of people who can tear it apart. They are going to help you create the financial models you need to run your business, talk to your investors, and talk to your board to demonstrate the metrics you are attaining on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.”
— LINDA GINAC, CEO TALENTGUARD
You’ve Got a Growth Company. We’d Love to Hear About It.
- What direction are you going next?
- Are you staying on to run or hiring executives?
- Do you have a proper board?
- How are you aligning the board with management around a shared vision?
- Do you have investors or capital partners?
Still have questions?
It’s all on you. There may be some people on contract or folks you bring in every once in a while but no stable employees beyond yourself or your co-founder(s).
Turn the passion that got you to think point into disciplined and focused work habits.
Get some early customers and deliver your offering, Find out what resonates with them.
Start tracking results in systems and software that will scale with you into Operator Stage.
Figure out what is repeatable and delegable. Turn your work habits into processes and roles.
Build a steady stream of customers while also doing the work to keep the customers happy.
Create roles and hire early employees. Refine roles and processes with early employees.
Do all this without running out of money or pulling all your hair our first!
Survey Company Triples Monthly Revenues and Hits Profit Margin Targets.
“Ronin brings financial intelligence to a small company. They are my partner in crime, someone who thinks about my business the way I do. They help you steer some of your short term, medium, and long term goals hopefully towards the most productive areas. They help you prepare for scalability.”
— DEREK KINSAUL, SURVEY WORKS
You’ve Got a Vision.
We’d Love to Hear About It.
- What’s your revenue model?
- What challenges are you having?
- Where are you getting stuck?
- Who do you need on the team?
- When will you hire them?
- Do you need funding?
- How do you know?
You’ve Got a Vision.
We’d Love to Hear About It.
- What’s your revenue model?
- What challenges are you having?
- Where are you getting stuck?
- Who do you need on the team?
- When will you hire them?
- Do you need funding?
- How do you know?