ALERT! Shameless promotion of my Stages of Growth Books!
Many of you know I am writing a series of books on each of the 7 stages of growth to provide a business owner a ‘How To’ approach for growing a business. I wanted to focus in on the specific challenges for each stage of growth and provide answers to those challenges. I also wanted to give each of you another resource that you can use to help you understand the dynamics of each stage of growth and the hidden agents.
Here is a quick review of each of the books. The books highlight the five top challenges for each stage of growth and provides exercises on each challenge.
You can find them on the Growth Curve Specialists website here:
https://www.growthcurvespecialists.com/products/
All are also available on Amazon.com by searching by title or by my name Laurie L Taylor.
Secrets to Stage 1: Survive and Thrive: How to Unlock Profits in a Startup with 1 – 10 Employees
The honeymoon is over! You have your startup capital, you’ve ramped up to four to six employees quickly and now the fun begins. Getting out of the gate with a new company isn’t easy, but it’s a cakewalk compared to creating a consistently profitable business that you can run without it running you. Not a startup? If you have 1 – 10 employees and have been in business for many years, there are still valuable lessons to be learned in Laurie’s first book such as improving profitability by using a profit plan, creating an effective sales process that’s scalable and getting your products or services to market.
Secrets to Stage 2: Sales Ramp Up: How to Kick Start Performance and Adapt to Chaos with 11 – 19 Employees
You aren’t sure when it happened, but without being cognizant of it, you have between 11 – 19 employees. That’s a lot of people who rely on you to bring home the bacon. You are now the proud owner of a Stage 2 company! Stage 2 is all about ramping up for growth – now is the time to start delegating responsibility to capable people and your focus needs to shift to managing the changes that accompany growth. It’s harder than ever to get work done, manage your time as well as your people. Laurie’s second book is a must read if you have any intention of moving into Stage 3 in the future. Not taking care of the top challenges in Stage 2 will make that next transition extremely difficult.
Secrets to Stage 3: The Art of Delegation: How to Effectively Let Go to Grow with 20 – 34 Employees
Hang on to your sanity, your world just shifted. You’ve grown to a Stage 3 company with 20 – 34 employees. A strong phenomenon occurs with the addition of employee #20. It’s similar to when your pre-teen, who used to think you walked on water, now thinks you’re dumb and dumber. Your are just months shy of a staff revolution. You’ve felt the change. Your employees are harder to manage, they push back more often and their attitude hits you in the face when you least expect it. Here’s a hint. Don’t point the finger at them; look at yourself. Your skills as a leader will be tested every day at this critical stage of growth. In Laurie’s third book, learn the value of understanding when to delegate, what to delegate and even more importantly, what not to delegate.
Secrets to Stage 4: Managing the Managers: How to Accelerate Growth Through People and Processes with 35 – 57 Employees
In Stage 4, with 35 – 57 employees, you need managers who have ‘been there, done that’. This isn’t the time to think about saving money by hiring inexperienced managers. Your leadership skills will be put to the test along with your ability to put your ego aside and hire people who know more than you do (and expect a pretty good-sized paycheck in return!) Still hanging on to your need to control everything? Still playing specialist or out there ‘visioning’ your next opportunity? Sorry – wrong time, wrong focus. In Laurie’s fourth book, you’ll understand the need to up your manager skills, improve your communication skills, getting the right people on board, putting effective processes in place and maintaining your market position.
Secrets to Stage 5: Leadership Integration: How to Cultivate Collaboration from the Top Down with 58 – 95 Employees
As a Stage 5 CEO, you’ve already seen your fair share of changes. It’s time to transform your managers into an integrated leadership team. They need to operate as a single unit, focused on the company’s overall goals and strategies, not as a number of independent departments. There’s a subtle difference now that you’ve breached 58 employees. While maintaining a dynamic organization is your number one priority; you have to shift (ever so slightly) into a more visionary role. Laurie’s fifth book explores your role as the CEO to create a clearly defined vision that trickles down and ignites the hearts and minds of each and every employee and explores the challenges of becoming a great leader.
Secrets to Stage 6: Fostering Happy Employees: How to Ensure Staff Alignment and Engagement with 96 – 160 Employees
There’s a rhythm now. Patterns of behavior have been established, processes are in place and the morning walk through your company has an air of familiarity that feels good and comfortable. Your confidence in your staff is strong. If you’ve captured the imagination of your leaders, they now provide the stability of making good decisions; connecting with their direct reports and providing you sound input that keeps you updated on critical issues and day-to-day progress. Stage 6 has 96 – 160 employees. You have to evaluate everything and be willing to change how you think and act to enable growth today and well into the future. As the leader and visionary of the firm, you will notice that most of the challenges typical for Stage 6 relate to people, which requires a leader who believe strongly in the power of effective and consistent communication. In Laurie’s sixth book on the 7 Stages of Growth, learn the value of teaching your leadership team how to adapt and not be afraid of uncertainty. This will be your greatest challenge in this Strategic stage of growth.
I sell my books wholesale to my GCS if you buy in quantities of 10 or more. You can then give them away or sell them to your clients. I can also provide cover images for the books if you want to put them on your website. For pricing and shipping information, just email me at laurie@igniteyourbiz.com.
Thanks to all of you who have contributed to my books. It’s your continued belief in the 7 Stages of Growth that is helping businesses not just survive, but thrive.
Your success. My passion.
Laurie Taylor, FlashPoint!
