The Evolution of Business-Building

December 2026

I’ve been reading recently about business growth: partly through curiosity, partly because I enjoy connecting ideas back to my own experience building, scaling, and selling a company.

One model that caught my eye was the Greiner Growth Model. It describes five stages of business growth — start-up, rollercoaster, adolescence, scale-up, and flow.

Useful, yes, but a bit too tidy for the reality most entrepreneurs face.

The truth is that building a business is messy, never linear. It’s a mix of energy, fear, excitement, and pure determination. You can draw charts and frameworks all you like, but the real lessons only appear when it’s you who’s signing the cheques, making the calls, and taking the risks.

Here’s how it looked and felt for me, with thanks and apologies to Greiner for taking his model and running with it my way.

Getting Going: 1–8 people

When you start a business, belief is your only real currency. There’s no salary, no safety net. Just conviction that you can do it better than the next person. You know the market, you’ve spotted a gap, and you decide to back yourself. That decision changes everything.

Those early months are intoxicating. Every win feels like validation; every setback feels personal. You’re the face of the brand, the salesperson, the accountant, and the cleaner.

It’s exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. I used to joke that it was “live by the sword” territory, and that’s not far off. When the cash runs low or a deal falls through, the responsibility is entirely yours.

The Ups and Downs: 8–25 people

This when the real test begins. You’re no longer running on adrenaline alone. You’re juggling clients, chasing invoices, trying to recruit, and firefighting all at once. Time disappears, and focus becomes your most valuable commodity.

This is when a lot of good ideas die: not through lack of talent, but through distraction. I remember entire mornings lost to low-value admin or other rabbit holes, convincing myself I was “being productive.” I wasn’t.

You have to be ruthless about how you spend your time. Make the calls, see the clients, do the doing. Take advice, but not too much — because if you listen to everyone, your mind ends up puddled. Make decisions with the information you have, and move forward.

This stage is uncomfortable. It should be. It’s where resilience is built.

Don’t Play With Your Business: 25–50 people

At a certain point the company starts to take shape. You’ve hired some excellent people, made a few wrong calls, and learned a lot about what sort of leader you are. The culture develops a personality of its own, and you realise you can’t be good at everything.

That’s when leadership really begins.

I learned to take responsibility when things went wrong. Not all of it, but some of it. Every time someone left or underperformed, I asked what could I have done differently? I tried to be visible, to lead from the front, and to keep the tone positive even when things were tough.

I also started using what I called the mirror test: at the end of the day, look yourself in the mirror and ask, “Have I done everything I can to influence today for the better?” If the answer was yes, I could sleep well. If it was no, then I knew where the problem lay — and it might just be me.

Let’s Go: 50–150 people

This is the phase where a business grows up. You’ve got structure, clients, reputation, and a management team that can actually manage. We used to have a phrase at Sellick Partnership - “How’s the engine room?” - because once things are running, your job becomes keeping that engine humming.

You start focusing on systems, training, and development. The numbers matter more. So does communication. People want to know where the business is going and what part they play in it. Confidence becomes essential, not in a loud way but in a reassuring one. Your belief sets the tone for everyone else’s.

The growing pains are still there, but they’re the good kind — the ones that tell you you’re moving forward.

Continue Plus: 150+ people

Now you’re not just running a business; you’re running a brand. The decisions get bigger and the consequences sharper. It’s where judgement, humility and nerve really count.

The temptation is to step back into the boardroom bubble, but that’s exactly when you need to stay accessible. Leadership isn’t about distance; it’s about connection.

Saying no is as important as saying yes. Focus keeps you successful; over-reach kills momentum. And when it all runs well, when the people and the systems click into gear, there’s one final piece of advice I always give: take a holiday.

Because if the business can’t function without you for a week, you haven’t built a business, you’ve built a dependency.

Looking Back

Building a company from scratch is the hardest, most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. It demands more resilience, humility, and self-belief than any course or MBA could ever teach.

It also gives you perspective — on people, on leadership, and on yourself.

You can plan and strategise all you want, but success still comes down to determination. Getting up early, staying late, doing the unglamorous work, and learning from every mistake.

If you back yourself, stay honest, and keep turning up, you’ll build something that matters - something that reflects not just what you do, but who you are.

And that, to me, is what being an entrepreneur is all about.