Navigating the Five Stages of Shop Growth
Justin Shaw
Stone Fabricator Elite
If you’re working tirelessly in your business but not getting the result you want or growing at the rate you expect, you might be focusing on the wrong things based on the stage your business is at right now.
This is a brief step-by-step guide to navigating the five stages of building a sustainable business that works for you, rather than you working for it.
I find it extremely helpful to identify which of these 5 stages of growth your stone fabrication or countertop company is in. Once identified, your current stage should define your focus.
Here are the 5 stages:
1. Start-Up
2. Survival
3. Success
4. Scaling
5. Sustainable
While it’s normal to feel that we fit within several stages simultaneously, to build a sustainable business effectively and efficiently, we should aim to minimize overlap for extended periods of time. Especially in our focus and the strategies we adopt and deploy.
Without knowing your current stage of growth, you could easily make two common mistakes that hold business owners back from achieving their desired growth.
1. Doing things out of sequence.
2. Never graduating to new activities.
Doing Things Out of Sequence
Business growth isn’t a linear process; it requires us to adapt to new conditions and challenges. The first pitfall many businesses encounter is doing things out of sequence. For example, a business in the “Survival” stage, striving to keep its sales pipeline healthy, won’t benefit from replicating the actions of a $10 million shop in the “Scaling” stage. It’s essential to tailor your strategy to your current stage and maintain a clear path forward for acquiring customers at the pace your business requires.
Never Graduating to New Activities
Often, stone fab business owners fall into a trap of getting busy “enough” where the majority of their time, energy, focus, and money is spent on delivering their product and service – keeping clients happy and doing good work.
If you’re in what many call the “grind,” it has brought you to where you are now. It’s comfortable but it’s also burning you out. Staying in this state is not sustainable. Over time, you run the risk of losing your passion, drive, and the energy needed to continue.
As your business grows and evolves, it is equally important to focus on personal growth and development. The skills, capabilities, and leadership qualities that got your business to its current state may not be sufficient to elevate it to the next level. The investment we make in personal development, acquiring new skills and capabilities becomes crucial.
As a business leader, your evolution will directly impact your business’s trajectory, enabling you to navigate challenges more effectively and seize opportunities more strategically. In this journey of business growth, who you become is as important as what your business becomes.
I’ve broken down each of the 5 stages, outlined the unique challenges of specific stages, and what the focus should be in order to advance to the next level.
By focusing on the right strategies for the stage you are in, you’ll progress more quickly and easily. Less stress and headaches.
Level 1: Start-Up Stage
Your task is to define your target customers and plan a sales and customer service strategy. The main challenge here is balancing the need for positive cash flow with delivering a great customer experience. The primary reason for stagnation at this stage is often a lack of sales volume.
The task at hand here is straightforward, although easier said than done. You’re going to define who you want to service, and plan a sales and customer service strategy. Yes, a business plan should be in place. Assuming that’s in hand, the priority is to generate the sales required to have positive cash flow and deliver a great customer experience. Balancing the two is the key.
Level 2: Survival Stage
You’ve moved past the initial stages of starting up and your business has now demonstrated its basic viability. It’s like you’ve survived the harsh winter and spring has arrived! You’ve been able to maintain a consistent stream of work and it feels like things are beginning to stabilize.
Don’t rest on your laurels just yet.
Your focus is still squarely on generating enough cash flow to cover your expenses. You’re also looking to fine-tune your business model and ensure a steady flow of projects. It might feel like you’re juggling a lot of balls at the same time, and you may still be heavily involved in many aspects of your operations. To advance to the next level, it’s critical to make the shift from working IN the business to working ON the business.
Level 3: Success Stage
In this stage, you are at a crucial juncture in your business journey. It’s a crossroads that will determine the future direction of your business. The decisions you make here could lead to significant growth and scaling, or it could solidify your business’ current status, focusing on stability and maintaining the success you’ve already achieved.
This choice will shape your strategies, your resource allocation, and your overall business approach moving forward. It’s a turning point that requires careful consideration, strategic thinking, and insight into your business’ capabilities and potential.
If you opt for growth during the Success stage, your emphasis should be on improving operations, devising an effective growth strategy, and investing in marketing and talent. As a company leader, it’s essential to cultivate a growth mindset and infuse it throughout your organization, starting from the top.
If you choose to go for stability in the Success stage, your focus should be on maintaining the status quo and ensuring that your business continues to operate successfully. I’ve included the key areas of focus for both of these pathways in my complete Navigation guide, Contact me for a copy at justin@stonefabricatorelite.com.
Level 4: Scaling Stage
Upon reaching the Scaling stage, businesses are on the cusp of rapid expansion. This point in the business journey is pivotal and exciting, but it also brings its unique set of challenges. It’s important to embrace these challenges as they are part of the hard path chosen and usually represent positive growth hurdles.
At this stage, businesses may experience an increase in customer demand, expanded market reach, and a need for more resources. The operations may become more complex, necessitating a more structured approach to manage the growth effectively.
Companies should also be aware of the risk of growing too quickly without the necessary infrastructure to support that growth. This can lead to challenges such as overworked employees, substandard customer service, operational breakdowns, or even financial issues.
The quote I often share is “You can’t fire a cannon from a canoe.” When applied to business and its various stages of growth, there is a need to stabilize at different points in the journey.
Level 5: Sustainable Stage
Welcome to the summit – the Sustainable stage. Here, your business enjoys a significant market presence and a steady flow of new business. It’s become a self-managing entity, no longer heavily dependent on your day-to-day involvement. Operations are streamlined, and your team delivers exceptional quality and customer experience.
After building your business to this stage, it may be worth more and appear more attractive to potential buyers than it would have been in the successful or scaling phase.
This might be a good point to consider exiting, especially if you’re planning on retiring or passing on the business to the next generation.
If you are going to forge ahead, you are now in the unique position of leading the business as the visionary, focusing on high-level aspects of the business and team development.
=====
I hope you found this article to be useful. It’s a summary from a complete guide I created to help our program members to navigate their journey and growth efforts. If you would like a copy, please reach out to the author directly at justin@stonefabricatorelite.com .
Justin Shaw has been helping stone fabricators and countertop companies since 2017 to implement the systems, strategies, and playbooks to grow their businesses more easily. He also has a coaching program and private community called “Driven For Growth” to learn more visit: https://justinxshaw.com/ and https://stonefabricatorelite.com/ .