Produce

“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” ― Thomas Edison

Finally, you are in the production phase! This is what you have been sweating over, now family, friends, your community, and most importantly potential customers can start to see the fruits of your labor. In this phase, you introduce your products/services into the market and begin to generate sales and revenue. Some business owners may now think they are now finally able to operate without the need of advisors, attorneys, accountants, or any other nasty "A" words. However, once again recall, great business owners, respect the cycle. Now that you are in production, you may begin planning for business development, scale, expansion of product and service portfolio, and more all. Advisors, consultants, and a legal team can help with these by writing and reviewing:

• Third-Party Vendor Contracts
• Sales Agreements
• Consequences of Expansion
• Lease Agreements

This is the phase most business books, courses, and schools tend to focus on. As such, quite of bit of ink has been spilled and vocabulary created to assist business owners in measuring their success in this phase. If your business is successful, this phase will never end for the business. But as the owner/executive your thought process should return to the cycle. Make plans for your next great idea or expand to a new market requiring preparation and protection from new conditions. 

Indications the Production phase is being executed properly are some of the following:

• Acquiring and documenting new customers.
• Seeking best sourcing practices to cut costs.
• Continuously re-evaluating marketing strategies to increase engagement.
• Obtaining reviews and words of mouth referrals from past and current customers.

Many owners feel once they have made it to the production phase, the race is over and they have won. They have a business and are (hopefully) making money, and for some, that may be all the satisfaction they need. There is nothing wrong with remaining at any one of these phases, but remember the only constant is change, therefore the moment a business stops updating to please its customers and market an expiration date is placed on it. Based on our experience, here are some indicators you, as the owner, may be stuck in production.

• You're so busy working in your business, you have no time to work on your business.
• You worry about losing sales or production if you take a single day off.
• You aren't seeing new customers.
• Your business depends on one (or very few) clients.

At Lawrence Law Firm we assist small businesses and their owners in navigating the cycle of small business, thinking ahead to the subsequent phases, and executing them. Our founder, Aaron Lawrence has assisted businesses nationwide as a consultant, attorney, and advisor. Whether you are in a pre-startup phase and looking to incorporate, are scaling into new markets, or have hit a new point in your business and would like guidance on how to proceed, schedule an appointment with us to see how we can assist.