Your Business NOW - The In-Between Zone (Part 1 of 2)

February 28, 2018 | By Paul Latham
Financial Advisors Accountants Clients & Business Owners

Is your business NOW in the “In-Between Zone”? PART 1 of 2

Would you ever drive your car aimlessly? Probably not – so why do so many business owners “drive their business ” without knowing where they are NOW – or WHERE they are planning on going? It’s no wonder that most business owners fail to maximize business potential.

You should use exactly the same thought process with your business. The two most critical parts of the creating your business roadmap is to establish your business location NOW and WHERE it is ultimately heading.

Today in Part 1 – we are going to begin by talking about where your business is located NOW - we will concentrate on the WHERE you are heading in Part 2.

Typically, businesses slowly transition through 4 Growth Stages: At Elite Resource Team Solutions we call them –“Start-Up Zone”, “Entrepreneurial Zone”, “In-Between Zone”, and the “Properly Managed Zone”.

Growth Stage 1: Once upon a time your business began in the “Start-Up Zone”. Your business idea was a success and you quickly “turned the corner” into the “Entrepreneurial Zone”.

Growth Stage 2: As a business owner, the “Entrepreneurial Zone” was where you learned how to become a great "plate spinner". Lots of adjectives here – you were bursting with “passion”, “zeal”, “zest”, “enthusiasm”, and you would “knock down brick walls” to make things happen. But even the best plate spinner eventually reaches their limits. Beyond a certain point, business owners discover that it becomes almost impossible to grow significantly without a change of business style.

Having reached that point – most business owners try to build a management team – in fact they are trying to transition directly to the final stage (Growth Stage 4) – the “Properly Managed Zone” – but that’s not where they move to next.

Growth Stage 3: In fact most small-to-medium sized businesses (those with annual revenues between $1m - $20m) move straight into the “In-Between-Zone” and their business owners say things like:

- “We lack direction”
- “We have great people but they are not all pulling together”
- “We’re not as efficient as we used to be”
- “We start lots of new initiatives – but we never see them through”
- “We’ve reached the point where we need an injection of new skills”
- “We seem to do too much for the money we charge” (our customers)

They may not say ALL of the above – but if even a FEW of these symptoms sound like your business – then we can safely say that your business is currently in the “In-Between-Zone”.

We all know that the “Definition of insanity” is to keep doing the same things and expect a different result.

If you want to significantly and successfully grow your business - and move out of the “In-Between-Zone” towards the “Properly Managed Zone” - then you need to learn new skills – you need to stop “plate spinning” and start to properly plan your “business growth journey”.

We know where we are NOW and we are ready to get going – but WHERE are we heading? That’s for next time!

If you are an accountant or advisor and want to learn more about the Elite Resource Team System™ visit staging.elitert.com/findouthow.