Part time business life-cycle (part2)

Posted on September 9, 2006

OK, so you’ve done the Idea/start-up
Now, you will probably think about building a site to get that “one billion people” exposure you’ve heard a site could bring. 2 words about the site:

  • It will take longer and it will cost more to build than your worse estimation
  • You will more or less never update it
  • and it won’t bring you anywhere near the “one billion people” exposure unless you put a lot of work into it

Great. So when do you know you’re into the next step, Growing?

  • Growing

Remember my last post, I’ve said that at some point when thinking about opening a business you will write a business plan. Well, not true accordingly to this study. You won’t actually have a business plan. But when you run your business for a while and feel that you don’t know what to do next without a business plan - well I think it’s a sign your growing. Moreover, the same study says that 73% of new businesses start with the owners funding - when the business generates enough cash flow to sustain itself - it’s another sign you’re growing.

Yep, my business is growing. It went from the stage I could run it in the evening to the stage I have to consider hiring people. But wait a minute, the entire business is built to work as a part time job. And I found an article that says: “69%, say their businesses can’t afford an additional worker. But 16% say their own personality won’t allow it, and 13% say that they are unwilling to share the workload of their business.”

The thing is that I’m not well into it yet…But anyway you will get to a point when you feel you could do a little more by focusing. You should focus on:
- building steady revenues
- grow your portfolio
- expanding your services/products

WARNING: any time soon at this point you will have a strong desire to SPEND MONEY. There is a saying: if you’ll buy a BMW from your first deals, your business will die. You’ve past the idea/start-up stage, (when you assumed most of the risk of failing) if you don’t play it safe at this time, it won’t be good.

If the above signs are not enough, there is one more: if you feel a little proud of your company and what you have done so far, you’re growing.

  • Maturity

Not there yet. I will tell you later.

  • Decline

Hm. Nope. You got here before me.

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