Books / Jetlaunch · Second Edition
The Small Business Life Cycle
The No-Fluff Guide to Navigating the Five Stages of Small Business Growth
Think of it as What to Expect When You're Expecting for your business. Small businesses grow through distinct stages, and each one asks something different from the person running it. This is how to tell which stage you're in and where to put your attention next.
Inside the Book
The right priorities, stage by stage
Your business doesn't grow the way a big company scales, and the advice written for big companies keeps steering you wrong. This guide meets your business where it is — and shows you what the next stage actually requires.
Before you start
The questions worth sitting with before you build the business.
Getting traction
How to find your market and reach it, without spreading yourself thin.
When success stalls you
Why the offering that got you here can be the thing that keeps you stuck.
The elements of expansion
The four things a business needs in place before it can grow.
Scaling without losing it
How to grow while keeping what made the business work in the first place.
Knowing your stage
A way to place yourself on the life cycle, so you stop taking the wrong advice.
For Founders & Owners
Prioritize what this stage needs
If everything feels urgent and you can't tell what to work on next, the life cycle is the map. Charlie also speaks on navigating the five stages — and advises owners directly.
Charlie Gilkey is the founder of Productive Flourishing and the author of Start Finishing and Team Habits. He has advised small business owners and leaders for more than a decade, drawing on his own experience building a business and his years as an Army officer.