Defining Success in Growth
As The Peach continues to grow, I’m realizing a shift in myself. My definition of success has changed so much from the original “plan” I had for The Peach.
When I started this little biz it was simply to get me out of the craziness of Atlanta traffic and help put food on the table for our little family of three. A handful of clients and a laptop computer was all it took for me to make the leap from the Marketing Director title I once held. It was the scariest thing I've ever done, but it felt amazing!
Recently I read an old article from the Harvard Business Review. In it, the authors discussed the five stages of small business growth:
Existence
Survival
Success
Take-off
Resource Maturity
This got my brain working... Am I holding the Peach back because I feel like I’m not focused on the right growth stage?
In the early days, I would work all day and freelance at night. It was long hours, but it was necessary in order to showcase my work - existence. I landed a few clients and the business began to grow. Once I had a steady (enough) stream of clients, I jumped into the small business world full-time and opened the “doors” of The Savvy Peach, LLC. Over the next year and a half, new and old clients filled the books just enough to pay expenses and offer a paycheck - survival. In 2017, just three years in, The Peach expanded by adding two additional contract designers and a virtual assistant to assist with client projects and business marketing - success.
Who knows what the rest of 2017 and even 2018 will bring? Perhaps we will take-off or even move into the resource maturity part of the growth chart. Those who know me know that I’m not to biggest fan of change… BUT, change is good. Change helps us grow.
Recently, I read a great article on ways to grow your business by John Hawthorne. It's geared towards businesses that are larger than the Peach, but the nuggets are good y'all. Check it out!
I want to issue a challenge to you: where is your small business on the growth chart mentioned above? What changes you can make in your life - personal and/or business - to help you grow and your business grow?