According to your answers on our assessment questionnaire, your business is in its Development Stage.  This stage is a crucial stage where startup challenges must be overcome with processes and work-flow systems.

Development stage companies primarily rely on the founder's vision and charisma both to attract an employee following and to sell customers on their product or service. At this stage, risk of failure is high without necessary capital which buy the company time to overcome its myriad challenges most of which center around product development and sales. Perhaps the most important internal challenge is putting the right combination of product features and benefits into their offering that match and compell customers to buy.

As the company attracts early adopter customers it is essential that the company find out why their customers buy from them and to develop stickiness so renewals, repurchases, and upsells will occur.

Based on your answers your business is in it Growth Stage which is great accomplishment.  Many companies take many years to master how best to grow because they serve many diferent people.

Successful Growth companies have a product or service that has the right combination of features at right price point.  Their growth takes off because they learn as much as they can about their customers by collecting and mining their sales data.  Then they target more customers just like them to ignite growth.

Igniting growth is called gaining scale which takes more employees, good processes and systems. As sales grow your team becomes more experienced and capable so your customer service is greatly improved. This attention to the customer builds loyalty and in turn fuels more growth as customers become referrals.

The challenge for Growth companies are two-fold: they must hone their message to their customer niche, and they must expand features and benefits by focusing on customer needs and their competition to be sure they are best at what they do and offer.

Current sales growth may not generate enough revenues to fund labor and operations so another hat company management must wear is painting an attractive financial picture that bankers and investors find compelling.

Meantime, the company must continuously workout disruptive events that distract the company from serving its core customers.  Usually this means developing employees processes and adding systems to provide feedback and data to analyze what the company is doing right and what they are doing wrong with a focus on time expended for money spent.

More importantly, the Growth stage is a stage of transition whereby the founders and key management deligate establishing well-defined automomous roles for employees to stabilize company operations so routine spurs continued growth.

Congrats! You made through the turmoil and constant challenges. You now are an Established Company!

Your company has successfully increased its product features as well as its market share moving from being an Established vendor to a first-of-mind solution for customers. Now its time to look at further geographic expansion as well as new products your customers may want and are buying from others. This new offering may be an adjunct offering where you add more functionality typically found in standalone products which could very well streamline customer workflow processes when combined with your current product. Or, it could be another product your customers are already buying which your resources, experience and cababilities could develop and provide.

To expand the company's growth you could now aquire a competitor who is in your business and my offer additional products or services. Growth by acquisition usually requires taking on debt or an equity partner but you may still maintain control. Issues such as that are deal terms and of course are up to you and company shareholders. Be careful making acquistions and in taking on equity partners because it can be a source of internal conflict if personalities and values considerably differ. Keep in mind that your goal is expansion and steady growth whereby your company will continue its record of profitability and steady growth. If your are nearing retirement you need to map out a succession plan. One that considers how and what to do vis a vis the team and your future family finances.

According to your answers to our business assesment questionnaire your company is now mature.

Your company has achieved what many companies can't: stable, continuous growth by offering products and/or services customers want and come back for time and time again.

As a Mature company growth can come under pressure once you have expanded geographically and the size of revenues requires big deals or needle-moving new product offerings to improve your bottom line. Comfort levels and the security of consistent month after month earnings regularlity can introduce complacency. This may invite competition at the low end from a competitor to introduce a competing, lower priced service, perhaps with easier functionality. Alternatively, a new startup may disintermediate one of your best products or services by offering technology to streamline workflow processes.

As a Mature company with access to credit lines and equity capital, don't forget to keep your focus on your company's mission. More importantly, it is time to re-evaluate your company's vision so employees regain purpose. Ask your management team what current front-of-mind popular issues the company may be well-suited to address. Involve all employees to ask them for ideas on how the company can better serve their customers and address big problems.  Doing so away at a retreats can re-energize growth, remove complacency and provide great ideas on how to expand.  Management can them exploer options for growing market share, increasing its product offerings and addressing competitive challenges that may come to the surface