The Small Business Lifecycle: A Guide for Taking the Right Steps at the Right Time - Softcover

Gilkey, Charlie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938886488 ISBN 13: 9781938886485

Publisher: Jetlaunch, 2013

Synopsis

Small businesses have much different growth patterns than large corporations. Small business owners who look to large corporations for insight and guidance on how to grow their own businesses often feel overwhelmed and demotivated. The Small Business Life Cycle lays out the five stages of small business growth and explains how you can navigate each stage in your business. To be successful, you have to take the right steps at the right time. Each stage has different challenges, strengths, inconvenient truths, and ways forward. This guide shows you where to focus your resources in each stage so you can grow your business efficiently. Whether you're thinking about starting a small business or you've been in business for a while, The Small Business Life Cycle will give you a better gauge to evaluate where you are and what you need to do next. If you’re growing fast and want to keep growing, this book will show you how to do it strategically. And if you’re stuck and don’t know what to do, you can determine what stage your business is in now and figure out what you need to do next to get unstuck. This guide will specifically help you work through:

Questions to ask before you start your own small business

How to get a foothold in the market and why you should be marketing fewer things to fewer audiences

Why some "successful" products and services will cause you to get stuck and lose momentum What four things must be in place to grow your business

How not to break a successful, scalable small business once you've got it there

This no-fluff guide will lay out the foundation upon which you can grow your small business. The only question left to answer is: what's your next action?

About this title

About the Author

Charlie Gilkey is the founder and CEO of Productive Flourishing, a company and website that helps professional creatives, leaders, executives, and changemakers take meaningful action on the stuff that matters. Productive Flourishing is one of the top websites on the topics of planning, productivity, creativity, and team development.

His most recent book, The Small Business Lifecycle, helps people navigate the unique lifecycles of small and microbusinesses so they can make better, more aligned choices about how to take meaningful action and drive their businesses forward. His forthcoming book helps people start finishing the stuff that matters.

Charlie's work is widely cited across media outlets and is routinely featured, showcased, or highlighted in places like Inc., BNET, Fortune, the Guardian, Lifehacker, Copyblogger, Problogger, and the Domino Project. He's also a sought-after speaker, event facilitator, and teacher.

Charlie's perspective is guided by his dual background as an Army logistics officer and his graduate studies in philosophy. He deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 - this experience was simultaneously the worst and best year of his life - and is working to complete his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This unique background makes him deeply researched and analytical at the same time that he's imminently practical and action-focused. In his infrequent spare time, he's a singer-songwriter and outdoor enthusiast.

Review

"This book made me see my business in a whole different light."
-Alexis Grant, Innovator-in-Chief, Socialexis

"The Small Business Life Cycle does the best job I've seen of pointing out the key opportunities and potential pitfalls that make up the daily reality of self-employment for professional service providers."
-Stephen Lahey, Owner, SmallBusinessTalent.com

"Because this book packs really insightful information into a short package, you can actually take the time to read it."
-Rachel Rodgers, Owner, Rachel Rodgers Law Office

About this edition

• Publisher: Jetlaunch
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1938886488
• ISBN 13: 9781938886485
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 92