Do You Know The Lifecycle Of Your Start-Up?

Jeremy Streten is a founder and chief executive officer at Business Legal Lifecycle. He is the author of the Amazon number one best-selling book, “The Business Legal Lifecycle.” The Business Legal Lifecycle is an innovative legal concept in the law-tech space to help business owners –

- understand complex legal matters in a simple manner

- understand why they need to take certain legal steps

- and help business owners develop a plan for the future.

That new business looks confusing and exhausting, right? This episode is for you!

Stages To Identify Before Starting A Business

• Startup Phase

You’ve got a great idea; now it’s time to implement it. This is one of the most difficult stages because you need to get things right – any mistake could cost you your company even before it gets off the ground. You need to choose the right structure and make sure you’re engaging with your customers properly. Even though you’re trying to do everything right at the moment things will definitely change as you progress making it all the trickier. This is a stage that requires agility and a mentor (or two)!

Now, let’s talk about the next three phases!​

• Consolidation Phase

Consolidation in business is a combination of different business units into one. It starts with bringing on employees and ensuring they are the right team for your vision. Onboarding the wrong group of people can cause failure. The key here would be making sure any new members get off to an excellent start by properly training them before letting any unfortunate situations arise that might cause unhappy customers or investors.

• Expansion Phase

This is the point in business where you’re comfortable enough to extend your branches. At this point, you’re ready to bring something or someone else in and be confident the additional resources will generate positive results. It could be organic growth, potential franchises, or even a business acquisition.

• Selling Phase

This entails the business exit strategy. It is the phase where you make a deal to sell your business, and just because you’re out doesn’t mean you need to leave completely. You could strike up a deal that’d keep you on as an employee if that’s something you’re okay with.

“I’m just trying to startup, and here you’re telling me about selling?!” I read your mind, right?

Always have the future in mind. Always start with the end in mind!

Legal Mistakes You Should Avoid

It’s no news that several challenges are bound to occur when you’re starting a new business. Mistakes are inevitable; we’ve seen different startups and entrepreneurs make mistakes in the past and present – all we need to do is learn from them.

The following are some of the legal mistakes you should avoid:

1. Not understanding what the goal is: The first thing is to understand your own goal – what is it you’re trying to achieve; what is the end to all of this?
2. You can only understand other people’s goals when you’re clear on yours. That is when you can communicate properly with them. Understanding people’s goals gives you a clear idea on what they want, and this is especially important when you’re negotiating a merger.
3. Not having ‘the conversation’: Regular checkups are necessary. You need to talk to your team to know what they are doing. It’s better to be in the loop, so you’ll be up to date with what everyone wants.
4. Not documenting the agreement: Make sure you read and understand what you are agreeing to. You need to know what the deal is – ensure what you’re reading on paper is what you understand the deal to be. Get advice from someone who knows what they are talking about too.

Answer This Question Before Taking That Step!

What are you doing now and where might that go in the future?

Listen to the full episode with Jeremy here.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal-Ready Assessment today!