February 13, 2024
If there are 10 business owners in a room, 5 of them will have a failed business 5 years from now.
That is the sobering reality of founding a business.
Sustainability has become an increasingly crucial concept in today's fast-paced and ever-changing business environment. For your business to survive and become sustainable, you must take the essential steps we walk through in this guide.
Community has played a central role in the development of your business already.
In the existential stage, we identified what community you want your business to have the opportunity to serve. Then, in the discovery stage, you validated and tested this community opportunity. As you moved into the adoption stage, you explored how to tap into and engage the community. Now, as you enter the sustainability stage, the question you face is how do we establish a community?
This community you’re establishing has two essential features.
An active community is following and participating in the compelling narrative you established in the adoption stage. A vibrant community can provide valuable feedback, support, and referrals.
Once you've established a community, the next step is to research and maximize ROI. This means working on your business and exploring what's possible.
You must ensure you're making the most of your resources and investments. This includes analyzing your revenue streams, optimizing your processes, and reducing your costs. The goal is to create a solid foundation for your business that can support long-term growth.
Each time you iterate, the community grows, and the system becomes more efficient.
It is also an excellent time to leverage research to explore what's possible, identify efficiency gaps, and develop solutions to mitigate them.
You’re developing a leaner, healthier business by asking questions like where can we go with this? How can we make this more efficient? What are ways we can maximize ROI?
How do we build systems and processes so that our Guaranteed Outcome operates in a turn-key way?
With turn-key systems, no one in your organization will be irreplaceable.
You’re building processes that are easily replicable so your business can continue to operate effectively even if key people leave. It's essential to have systems in place to ensure your business can continue operating efficiently and effectively, even in the face of unexpected challenges.
Systems and processes are crucial in building a sustainable business. With turn-key systems, no one in your organization will be irreplaceable, making it easier for you to pass on your operations to someone else when you're ready.
You'll also be able to create efficiency and consistency across all aspects of your business. However, for your turn-key systems to work well, you need to document everything, train your team, and ensure everyone understands the systems.
The growth spiral brings all of these sustainability elements together.
A business has a rhythm to it. It runs in cycles. Each time you iterate, the community grows, and the system becomes more efficient.
The word begins to spread that you’re doing great work, and more referrals start to come in. The business grows and establishes a momentum of its own.
If there are 10 business owners in a room, 5 of them will have a failed business 5 years from now.
Your business is also becoming more efficient, reducing waste and shortening time. You work on the integrity of your business. It becomes complete, having no gaps.
When you’ve stacked enough cycles in the growth spiral, you become a sustainable business.
Building a sustainable business requires more than just a great idea. It requires you to establish a community, conduct research, develop systems and processes, and create a growth spiral with integrity.
When complete. You will have a successful business model to sustain growth and serve customers better. Remember that this process takes time and effort but is worth the investment. By building a sustainable business, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success.
And this places you at a critical point in the journey.
You have a sustainable business.
And many owners plow ahead into scalability and saturation only to see it eat them alive. You must be confident you actually want to go forward. This goes back to your why in the existential stage.
Why did you create this business in the first place?
Don’t get lured away by the temptation of growth at all costs if it compromises your reason for founding the business.
