While Norm Trainor's book The Entrepreneurial Journey is written for those in the finanancial services industry, the author's description of the fournder's journey from start-up to exit is spot on.
Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
5 Stages of The Entrepreneurial Journey
1. 5 Stages of the Entrepreneurial Journey Survival
Finding right pattern to survive, prosper
Experimentation
Trial and error
Leads to a formula that works (or fails)
Success
Consistent growth (sometimes explosive)
but short bouts of growth (brief)
Ceilings of complexity encountered
Sustainability
Continually reinventing itself
Founder in position to find balance
Significance
Business becomes means to make a
difference … but only happens when the
process of growing the business is mastered
Succession
Occurs when sustainable business outlives
the founder … selling, transferring, or
dissolving. Paradoxically succession planning
starts when the business is started
Which stage are you in?
Which stage do you want
to be in?
Adapted from The Entrepreneurial Journey, by Norm Trainor