Businesses are said to have a lifecycle. They go through stages of development. Experts—the kinds of folks who teach at top-tier business schools—typically identify five stages. Effective business growth planning depends on an understanding of these stages. In essence, a business either fails, sustains, or grows.

Stage I is categorized as “existence,” and Stage II is “survival.” In the first stage, most businesses are busy growing their customer base and delivering their product or service. It’s the startup phase, and as such it is spending capital to refine sales and delivery infrastructures. The owner/founder does almost everything, and supplies most of the energy and direction. If there are employees, they are directly managed by the owner/founder.

The goal of a Stage I business isn’t growth; it’s to survive. Many business owners quit due to the demands on their time, energy, and resources. Those that remain viable, who turn their startup capital into a sustainable or nearly sustainable revenue generator, have reached Stage II.

In Stage II, the key problem most businesses face is one of cash flow. That is, balancing revenue and expenses to earn a positive return on assets and labor. Business growth planning is minimal, the organization is simple, and the brand is still primarily identified with its owner. Profit margins may be minimal or nonexistent.

A business can remain in survival mode indefinitely. Mom-and-pop retail, small restaurants, and many local professional services fall into this category. There’s no moral judgment here; they are not bad businesses. They’re simply not growing.

Stage II is where many companies will engage a marketing agency for the first time. There’s a desire for profitability and growth, but not enough revenue to employ a full-time in-house marketing manager. Or there is a full-time marketing manager, but they are stretched thin with the demands that Stage II entails. They have little to no bandwidth for growth. And often, growth isn’t a skill they were hired for.

It’s only after proving that they are a stable, profitable enterprise that businesses reach Stage III, “success,” and owners have to decide whether to disengage (Stage III-D) from the company and sustain it at current levels, or marshal resources to invest in growth (Stage III-G).

Stage III is where your partnership with a growth-minded agency will really pay off. All the planning initiated during Stage II will have already borne fruit. Stage III is now all about organization, branding, and finances.

Just as some marketing managers aren’t equipped to oversee major growth, many creative agencies aren’t able or, frankly, interested in buckling in for the rocket that’s about to take off. They may say they’re interested in your growth, but a pure creative agency is mostly invested in your advertising budget. They won’t help you plan that budget. They shouldn’t help you plan that budget. A pure creative agency is equipped to produce dazzling creative—which plays a role in growth—but they aren’t in a position to explain why you might want to scale back your media buys in this stage, or why you might want to invest in a new brand identity that’s independent of the founder.

Stage IV is “takeoff,” and is characterized by rapid growth. Stage IV issues often revolve around delegation, cash, and organizational division, with the owner still a large presence. Stage V is “maturity,” and a potential threat—sometimes called Stage VI—is rigidity or “ossification”.

A good agency understands these stages of business growth, and can help you plan your growth in a way that avoids the pitfalls that lead to rigidity. A good business growth agency can give you a strategic framework that defines your identity, your market, and your objectives, and aligns these in an elastic brand with a strong growth plan.