The four stages of entrepreneurship

Every business goes through four distinct growth phases. Collectively, I call these phases The Creator Method, which is a proprietary framework I developed to help entrepreneurs progress consistently and in sequence from starting a business to growing a business to expanding a business that makes you happy and successful and can generate income for life.

My patented Maker Method is a systematic approach that takes the guesswork out of moving your business forward. When you don’t know what to do, consult the creator method to determine what phase your business is in and it will inform you what types of activities are most important for you to pursue at this time.

The four phases of entrepreneurship in the Maker method are:

1. Emergence Phase: Build a solid foundation for profitability and success

During the emergence phase, your only task is to build a solid foundation for success. During this phase, make sure you have a clear vision of how you define success as a business owner. Create a vision for your business and where you want to take it in the future.

What lifestyle do you want your business to make possible for you? Do you want to start small and stay small, or do you aim to get your products into major retail stores worldwide? Clarifying these questions in the emergence phase empowers you to take steps that will lead in the direction of your ultimate success.

Other activities to complete during the origination phase include establishing corporate status in your state, identifying your target audience, opening business bank accounts, setting up your tax ID, setting prices, and starting to build customer list.

2. Engagement Phase: Sell products and services by sharing your brand message, focusing on your specific target audience

Unsurprisingly, the engagement phase is all about engaging your target audience in order to make sales.

In the engagement phase, you will go out into the world and share your brand message and pitch to the target audience you identified during the emergence phase.

During the engagement phase, you’ll use social media, text messaging, direct mail, and newsletters to spread the word about what you’re offering. You can also host informational webinars and videos, attend networking events, participate in vending events, make guest appearances on media outlets that serve your target audience, and do whatever you can to build awareness and community around your brand.

The engagement phase is where sales start to take hold. When you engage with more people, you enjoy more sales opportunities. As you close sales, you’ll develop relationships with customers who buy on a repeat basis. Over time, these repeat sales will make your business profitable. Once you’ve created effective engagement systems that produce regular sales, you’re ready to move on to the development phase.

3. Development Phase: Stabilize your business by designing repeatable systems that allow your business to operate without your direct and continuous presence

During the development phase, you will use the patterns and trends developed during the engagement phase to stabilize your business and create systems that will allow the business to operate without your constant and regular involvement.

The development phase is a time of exfoliation. In other words, you’ll smooth out the rough edges of your business and establish operating systems that create ongoing success with greater ease. One of the ways you will do this is by hiring people to do the tasks that produce the result you want in business.

By the time you get to the development phase, you’ll have a clear picture of which products and services sell best so you can maximize those business lines. You can also discontinue products that are not selling well or have a poor profit margin.

In business, you are constantly innovating to keep up with changing customer expectations, market trends and new business opportunities. As a result, some aspects of your business will always be in the development phase, even as you move into the expansion phase.

4. Expansion Phase: Capitalize on your success by creating multiple revenue streams that generate lifetime income

Once you reach the expansion phase, you are ready to use your existing success to create multiple streams of income. During the expansion phase, you can look at the main profit centers and expand them.

There are two main ways to do this. First, you can sell new products to existing customers. Second, you can sell existing products to a new target audience.

Kimberly Cross of Zhi Bath and Body (link https://www.zhibathandbody.com/) in Charlotte sells artisan bath and body products direct to consumers through her website and through social media. As Kim entered the expansion phase of her business, she realized that other cosmetics companies wanted to add to their product line but needed help with production.

Kim added a private label to her business and now sells the same products she makes for her clients under other brands. By adding private label, Kim created an additional revenue stream by selling existing products to a different target audience.

“The Silent: Fifth Phase: The Exit Phase

None of us live forever. At some point you will leave your business and it is wise to have as much control over this as possible by planning ahead.

You can choose to exit your business at any time, so it’s important to be aware of the “quiet” fifth phase of the Maker Method: the exit phase. Keep quiet because it can happen at any time.

You may decide that you no longer wish to run your business, so you can exit by selling it or simply closing and liquidating the assets. You can exit by leaving your business to your children or other family members.

Monitor and evaluate your progress quarterly so that you can control the eventual exit process as much as possible.

Every business is somewhere in one of the four phases of The Maker Method, but many business owners are not aware of which phase they are in. This can lead to engaging in activities that are not appropriate for the current phase, especially in the beginning.

Take an honest and regular look at what phase your business is in so you can do the activities that are appropriate for that phase. Don’t put the cart before the horse and don’t wait too late to take important action.

Take the right action today to make sure you build a business that makes you happy and successful and can generate income for as long as you want.

Let’s talk about it!

What phase of The Maker Method is your business in? How are things going? Are you taking the right actions at the right phase? How can I help you take your business in the direction you want it to go?

Send me your questions and comments through this form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScSG94HoO5PumZ3X94L53HEEuw4x0uBTnZ0qbOEbd1wwAhslg/viewform or email me anytime at donnamaria@qcitymetro.com.

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