Barbara Smith

Background

About Barbara Smith

About Are you a business owner? Are you constantly looking for new ways to grow, a new plan to implement to scale, or a way to delegate tasks to management? Do you know which of the four stages of growth your business is in? We've observed that your business is going to go through four stages of growth. Here's what those look like: 1) Founder - It's just you and maybe the occasional help from another freelancer or PT employee. At this stage, the "next level" means getting enough financial visibility and processes in place that you can afford to hire full time employees. 2) Operator - It's you and a few employees that help you scale your time. However, if you were to step away from the business, it would probably fall apart after a short period of time. The "next level" here means standardizing your org chart and financial visibility so that you can put a layer of management in place that will eventually allow you to step out of the day to day of the business. 3) Asset - At this point, you have a layer of management in place that allows you to step out of the business and have it still create value (it's now an "asset" on your balance sheet). The challenge here is deciding whether to relax, sell the business, or grow it. The "next level" here is having the ability to model out different scenarios, see the outcomes, and make the best decision for you and your company. 4) Expansion - At this point, you've decided to expand. You want to go to replicate what you have into new markets, new products, and new customers. The "next level" here is having a fully operational management team with department level budgets and goals, clear governance structure to maintain control and cohesive strategy, and using the right type of capital to fuel that growth. We Join Your Team and Use Weekly Strategy Sessions, Financial Planning and Analysis, and Management Consulting to Grow Your Business Authentically.