Arise2Live Podcast
Transcript for Episode #147 ‘Seeing the Future with the Business Maturity Curve’
Host: Scott Weaver
Date Dec 1, 2021
Intro: Welcome to the Arise2Live podcast, episode #147.
Today, my dad talks about the stages that every business goes through. This is an important business principle and knowing what stage your company is at empowers your strategic and planning moves.
Arise2Live’s purpose is to bring clarity and perspective so you can have freedom in both your business and family life.
Let’s dive in.
Scott R. Weaver: 0:32
Hello everyone. Great that you’re listening in today. My guess is that all of you think that it is important to see what’s ahead and the path forward. One of the ways to do this is using the timeless principle called the Business Maturity Curve, the life cycle that all businesses travel through.
My name is Scott Weaver, the Arise2Live business coach and I use a 3-step approach of Vision, Profit-loop Planning, and Implementation. At the end of this episode, I have a free quiz and video offer so you can explore how the Business Maturity Curve can be an important tool for your business success.
Also, please share this episode to people you think would benefit from it. And leave a comment or review, ‘cuz that would be helpful getting the word out about Arise2Live.
Inflation 1:28
Before we get into the topic, I would like to give a heads up or reminder about the inflation the U.S. is experiencing in late 2021. If you haven’t already, I suggest you business owners start planning and budgeting for the impacts of inflation. Inflation is an economic threat, or at least a strong headwind. The latest numbers are coming in at about 6% nationwide, over 7% in the heartland states. I hope I’m wrong, but I really don’t see inflation going down in the next six months. The Federal Reserve target rate is 2%. If those finance wonks are off 300%, uhm, we little people need to be on high alert because something is being overlooked. So, start reading up on inflation, what you can do about it as a business owner, and follow what is going on in the news. Be prepared for next year. Yeah, I know we are just coming out of the pandemic and now we have inflation woes, it seems like we can’t buy a break. However, remember to ask yourself what is now possible in your business given the new economic conditions. Some new opportunities just might be in sight.
Ok on to the episode:
Knowing what is down the road has been one of my coaching secrets and has helped many business owners over the years. The timeless principle of the Business Maturity Curve is one way to see what’s ahead for your company, and what the overall requirements are for success.
What the Business Maturity Curve is 3:18
In the simplest terms, the Business Maturity Curve is a visual description. This is a picture of the life of a business, or sometimes it can apply to products, too. There is a picture of it in the show notes. The cycle goes from start-up to growth to mature to death, no business last forever. This curve applies across time and industries.
This curve has been documented for at least a 100 years, but it goes by different names: business life cycle, business model development, maturity models, etc. For our purposes, let’s call it the Business Maturity Curve because I like to simplify things on to one page.
Well, showing the visualization of this curve in a podcast might be a little hard. But here it goes: think of your basic x-y curve…specifically in our case, making money on the y-axis and time is on the x-axis. In the start-up business stage is near the beginning of time, the time where business is losing money, so the curve goes down. Business owners quickly find that losing money is not good, so the company enters a customer growth phase and over time, the business is making money, and more money. Then the curve flatten as revenues flatten out and the business enters the mature phase. A mature company can last a long time, but it will hit a survival wall, where it’s either close down or start a new business.
In summary, as the curve goes through time, it first dips down then slopes upward fast and eventually becoming flat. The end of time is that Wall.
The Arise2Live Profit Loop System breaks the curve into 5 Stages in the Business Maturity Curve: Start-up, Breakout, Growth, Maturity, and the Wall. Every business goes through these stages, some fast, some slow. But they do go through each growth stage.
I should say that other people break up the curve into 7, 8, or more stages. That is perfectly fine to do. It’s just that in my experience for small and mid-sized business owners, 5 stages have been the most helpful.
Each stage has its own unique financial and operational requirements 6:04
Now this is important: Each stage has its own unique financial and operational requirements. Let me say it again. Each business season, that is start-up to the wall, has timeless principles that spell out the requirements for success in both the money side of the company and the operations side. Misapplying good approaches in the wrong season can get a business owner in a world of hurt.
When you know what growth stage your business is in, then you can truly understand your current situation and can accurately plan the steps that confidently get you to the next business stage.
In some ways, this curve is a roadmap to the future, or maybe I should say it like this: When you climb Mt. Everest, there’s a better chance of success if you have a map, as well as having a Sherpa along. That really helps, too.
Business Maturity Curve 7:07
The Business Maturity Curve is something that many folks overlook because it either seems too simple or they think it doesn’t apply to them.
Think about it, no doctor would diagnose a patient without knowing their age. What’s good for an infant is different than a teenager and different from what’s good for the elderly. The same is true for a business. What a start-up can get away with in their internal business process would kill a mature company and probably land the owners in jail. That’s not to say that owners of a start-up are doing anything wrong. It’s just like a toddler, it’s okay to be given food and shelter, and not produce anything useful. Do that as an adult, and things end poorly.
IBM Company Example 8:03
Let’s have a positive example, the company IBM has been in business for over a hundred years. If you compare today’s IBM with the IBM of a hundred years ago, they are complete different companies. Yet, IBM itself survived. One reason is that they completely understood the business maturity curve and knew that they would have to reinvent themselves before they hit the Wall. In fact, they had new products and services on the market before they hit the wall with their past products and services. Over the last century, they made a lot of money and saw incredible good products die. They followed the timeless principles of the business life cycle and won.
IBM is one example of applying timeless business principles to stay in business over the long haul. The business maturity curve applies across time and industries. However, I hope this episode has shed some light on how you can use this and why it is important to know where you are on the curve, namely, knowing what the basic financial and operational requirements are. It’s also good to prepare for the next stage that is coming up.
The application of this is usually in the planning stages, that is the strategy and tactical planning. The Business Maturity Curve brings visibility to the decision-making process, the real challenges you are facing, and can help you get a competitive edge. So I encourage you to include this curve in your planning and as a roadmap to your future so you can identify what’s coming down the road and what things you need to face today. It’s a business tool for you, the owner, so you can prepare for the future because I want you to Arise2Live.
Sponsor 10:10
If this episode resonates with you or you’re curious where your business is on the Business Maturity Curve and how it can help you out, please check out my short quiz that will determine your position on the Curve and it provides access to a video about the requirements for the business stage you are in. This video is based on a workshop that I do. It’s the real thing.
Please take the quiz at Arise2Live.com/BMC_quiz. Yes, BMC stands for Business Maturity Curve. Again, the web link is Arise2Live.com/BMC_quiz
I look forward to hearing from you.