May seem like a strange title but in may ways a is business just like having children.
The first stage of having a child is when they are in the womb. You monitor what you eat and drink so they grow healthy. Get regular check ups to monitor any health problems. And you start to communicate with them as they grow to develop a healthy relationship. All this is work you do to have a healthy baby.
The first stage of a business is the planning mode. It is inside your self and all your actions at this phase directly affects how healthy your business develops. You research about licenses, taxes so you do not have any issues with government, you save or apply for money to make your business grow, and you communicate with those around you to help meet your needs.
After birth your baby is in the first stages of infancy and they grow very quickly but have constant needs like changing, feeding, cuddling, and comforting them. This is always a big change for parents and is often not what they expected. You can sometimes become exhausted from just maintaining their daily needs and getting into a new routine.
After a lot of planning comes the execution part of owning a business. This is the part when things happen very quickly and you invest a lot of time, money, sweat, tears, and more into building your business. This is often the 1st cut of survival of a business. It is not always what you expect and obstacles come up that you are not expecting. You become exhausted just trying to keep up or wish you could clone yourself to get it all done.
The next steps are the toddler years. This is one of the first steps of independence your kids take from you. Although they can not be left alone. They begin to dress themselves and feed themselves. This allows you more time just after you have gotten used to the constant flow and demands. Now you can start to develop relationships with other parents and have play dates or have time for a small hobby.
Your business after start up begins to become a working routine. It is still young but no longer in the beginning phases. This is first steps of independence for you. You would not want to just allow staff to make all choices since small issues could come up that you need to adjust but you could get away for an early afternoon or a whole day off. You may have to work extra hard the day before or after but the time away will allow you to take on the everyday tasks with a better mind set. You can start to meet other business owners and become active in more community events.
My business is currently in the toddler years and things are becoming more routine for me. I still have things that come up that need tweaking and it continues to grow as I make choices to continue that growth. If I was an absent owner those choices may not happen. The next phases of raising children I am familiar with and I can speculate the next phase of my business will remain similar to rearing children since I have managed other businesses in these phases.
The school age children is next phase and they often leave their parents for the first time during this phase. They quickly gain some independence and skills but continue to look at their parents for support and reinforcement that they are doing the right thing. This happens all through elementary school as they begin to learn things from others around them. They also begin to try many new things some that work out and some they do not like as much.
Your business is much the same as you can hire someone to manage your business now and delegate people to do the things that need done instead of wanting to clone yourself. Your business continues to take shape influenced by you and your staff and it grows to better fit your customers needs because more people have influenced your choices kinda like the kids at school.
The next phase is middle school and high school children. Kids at this phase start to have their own personality and like and dislikes. This is often when parents hold back and try to protect their kids from growing up and the kids push to gain their independence causing friction. They do not seek the approval they used to and often communicate more with their peers than their parents. They are learning many life skills of how to care for themselves.
This can be considered growing pains in a business, maybe if it is a family business it can be the time a child takes more effort into making choices for the business or the owner stepping back a little more but the business has become much more than the seed of an idea. The business changes based upon actions of those who operate it as well as the owner's choices but is more largely effected by those who are there day in and day out. It could be a make it or fail stage for a business and you may experience this many times over the course of ownership unlike teenage children.
The next phase is adult children and as I am just beginning that phase of parenthood. I am still learning but I am seeing some of the skills that I thought my kids would never learn being used in day to day activities and I am proud of who they are becoming. They no longer need my time but remain a part of my day to day life.
I imagine your business in this phase would be much the same. It no longer demands all of your time and you can see the outcome of all your sweat, love, tears, and hard work. You look back and may think if I could do it over again I would change this but who knows maybe that would have taken you a whole other direction so enjoy and be proud of what you accomplished.
