
Most business owners don’t know that how they interact with their business can be defined within four phases, starting from the beginning to the end of the business’s life cycle! If you don’t know the phase you are in right now, it can affect the way you conduct business and lead to lost opportunities and loss of revenue!
And by understanding where you are, you could improve your business in a huge way! The four phases consist of:
THE CREATIVE PHASE
Everybody loves this phase. This is where the idea of the business is still new, fresh and innovative! This is where you see new avenues of revenue, you see opportunities everywhere, you believe in your product and in how it helps your clients…
This is the most important phase, the phase that gives you a “buzz”, keeps you on your toes and has you excited to come in and build your business.
THE MANAGEMENT PHASE
You’ve made it, you have a consistent income and a … system that works! It works, but you find yourself coming in to work every single day and doing the same thing… managing!
Sure enough, every day looks similar and you slowly stop innovating and setting goals. But here’s the thing, the management phase can often be dull and lead to…

THE DISLIKE PHASE
It’s been a couple of years and you are becoming a bit frazzled and frayed at the ends – you only seem to come in every day to put out fires!
Having worked at the same business for years on end and not innovating, your business seems to have fallen by the wayside, where your competitors are undercutting you and stealing your market share! What’s going on!?
THE DIVORCE PHASE
It’s been going tough. The economy has changed and your few clients don’t seem so eager to go along with your business!
Sure enough, after disliking your business for years, only using it as way to “get by” – You slowly see why it sounds like a good idea to drop this whole “entrepreneur” thing and…
Oh no, don’t say it – Give up!
In other words, you’re at the end of the line and if you go through a bad month, it’s all over! Often, we find that business owners attend seminars, growth conferences online and consult with business coaches when the going gets tough. And we mean, really tough. So much so they attend expecting miracles to happen.
So how do you fix this kind of predicament?
We believe it involves a bit of awareness (where are you?) and action (what can I do about it?) If the CREATIVE PHASE was where you loved what you are doing, why not visit that space again? Here are three things you can do to get back into the CREATIVE ZONE.
#1 CHANGE YOUR MINDSET
You have been stuck in a rut for ages. Working harder will get you out of it, right? Sorry – the data is in and working harder isn’t the clear cut answer.
Your mind has been conditioned from years of managing, disliking and internal divorcing… To understand the fact that you need to change your mind-set drastically in order to see real change in your business is a good step to start with. When last have you considered your mindset needs a touch up?
#2 GET HELP
Whether it be from a book, an experienced business coach or both (combinations are good.) You need help if you are stuck in the bottom three phases. Often enough, by being in the latter three, you get inclined to want to get rid of your business, assuming that you have no chance of making money in that business…
An experienced business coach could see the gold in your goldmine, and using their experience, provide detailed blueprints on how you can achieve greater success in your business! When was the last time you read a book on business, or got professional coaching to identify what you perhaps might miss?

#3 IMPLEMENT CHANGE (DO SOMETHING)
Learning new things isn’t helpful without finding out if those new things work!
And when we say taking action, we don’t mean trying a solution and not getting the results you want – we mean implementing a proper, resolute action and seeing the outcome through! This could include hiring somebody to do the management things you aren’t good at or setting permanent system changes that last!
When was the last time you took action to change something for the better in your business? Two behaviours (mindset and action) work in tandem to build something better than what used to be. As Richard Rohr greatly put it: “You don’t think your way into a new way of living… You live your way into a new kind of thinking”
Understanding the “Business Phase” you’re in might be just the right thing you needed – and your business, staff and income might thank you for it 6 months down the line.