All businesses have a life cycle. There is the initial phase, where it's just an idea, a stroke of genius in the mind of an entrepreneur, merely imagination. However, sometimes it's not enough to have a good idea, you also need to have it at the right time and have the right means to carry it forward and bring it to life.
What are the vital steps for a company to become established, capable of independently generating profit? And why is it so important to know how to adapt in the business world? Let's take a look at the different stages of creating a business, from the idea to establishing an international reality.
The idea phase
So you have a new business idea for selling a new type of clothing that can change its temperature depending on the external thermal conditions. As we were saying, this is the stage where your idea is, in fact, just an idea. The first step is to look for tools to bring your idea to life, to get you started. So you put your idea on paper and look around, hoping to find someone who might be able to give you a hand.
Early stage
After searching around, you find a good incubator for your idea. A programme in which a number of professionals provide you with their entrepreneurial skills and experience in exchange for a share of the business. There are several incubators available and, generally speaking, they are all very good. This stage varies in terms of duration. It all depends on how complex your idea is, amongst other things.
Startup
The incubation phase is over. You now have a small business, which will begin to take its first steps in front of a large audience. In this startup phase, your company will not yet be able to guarantee high profits. At this stage, the team is generally still limited to the founders and a few professionals that were involved in the incubation phase. However, this is the most delicate phase of all. You'll need to prepare yourself to accelerate your business and aim for the best growth possible. No startup stays a startup for life, it either develops or disappears.
The role of users at this stage
One of the best ways to organically develop at this stage is to gain the trust of your target audience. Let's go back to the example of your business idea on these new temperature-changing clothes: at this stage you have probably already set up an e-commerce dedicated to this activity.online store to sell these products. Modules such as the official PayPal module, available at PrestaShop, are among the best tools to win your customer's trust at a sensitive time like the first purchase.
Accelerators
During startup, you'll easily notice if your idea is an idea that works or an idea that's struggling to hold its own. You'll see this in the numbers, the results, the reactions of your audience and the professionals around you. It's definitely a good sign to see people in the industry showing interest in your project. If you have all the positive signals, this is definitely the time to speed up and aim for the scale-up phase. Accelerators or mentors can help you a lot in this phase, professionals similar to incubators who invest economic or human and professional resources in order to help you get through the startup phase.
Scale-up
Once you have passed the startup phase and have demonstrated that your company has the ability to expand and establish relationships with larger companies, your company will be considered a scale-up. Here, your idea will be able to express itself to its full potential. You will be able to take care of your brand perfectly, win the trust of your audience, build relationships with other companies, think about expanding into other markets and other countries, etc. You might even start thinking of another business idea to start at the same time.
The importance of scalar growth
Scaling growth is a key element when you have a business idea. This is because it is the catalyst that makes the startup phase as short as possible, which is also the phase in which the company is at its most vulnerable.
The startup phase is where you have to draw up your business plan, calculate the break even point, produce and collect data. You also have to finance your project and somehow "sell" your idea to your future target audience and potential investors, those who will help you grow.
In the modern market, where the space for new ideas and new companies is increasingly difficult to conquer and maintain, securing scalar growth means, in simple terms, ensuring your business' survival. A startup that doesn't make it out of the startup stage is a business that hasn't made it, and it's a business that will usually disappear.
