Just like we apply Maslow's hierarchy of needs to our personal growth and development, I believe every business has to move through certain stages to truly grow to a point where it's empowering and self-sufficient .

First, we must leave struggle behind. This is the hardest stage. This is where everyone starts, and it covers the first two stages: revenue and profit. Until you've got revenue, you don't have a business. Once you have revenue, we want to get you profitable as soon as possible. Until that point, it can be a hard slog. And yet, it's usually where the most passion, excitement and creativity happens (not to mention the personal growth that most business owners go through during this stage as they face some hard truths).

The second is the scaling stage. This is where we create strong foundations, optimise our systems, and amplify impact and outreach. Most people try to start here, but in skipping stage one, their struggle-mess just gets amplified - the problems don't disappear; they just become riskier. Personalised to you, success in this stage is where you'll really start to see flow. This stage is the most important in business longevity.

And third: the contribution stage. This is where you're using your money, time & resources for good - to contribute to something or someone outside of yourself and business. Something that feels really meaningful to you. For some people, that's creating generational wealth and leaving a legacy for their children. For others, it's joining a board, doing philanthropic work, doing research, fostering a child, furthering their study, developing local communities or creating the time freedom to commit more to their families... anything goes, really. This is where we build a strategic system into your business that allows for joy-giving - the freedom to contribute to the world beyond your business's current reach.

I built The Efficiency Lab to support people in stage two, with the plan to help small business owners in South Australia move more quickly and seamlessly into stage three. Part of what we do is lay strong foundations for stage three by creating a sustainable and efficient business model that supports the business owner and their teams to grow through the stages confidently, and ripple their impact out into the world.