Stage Right

Models of business growth are taught in most college-level entrepreneurial courses and are frequently referred to by management consultants when deciding on courses of action to recommend to their clients. Even with all their limits, however, business-growth models can be helpful in providing snapshots of the problems likely to fill an entrepreneur's viewfinder.

Pinkowski doesn't feel her business fits any model particularly well, but she still uses the image of a business growing through stages to help her strategize. For instance, after dealing with marketing and sales in 1995 and capacity issues in 1996, she's now facing marketing once again as a critical concern. And she welcomes the growth, whether it fits a model or not: "Hopefully," she says, "in 1998 we can keep that going."

Mark Henricks is an Austin, Texas, writer specializing in business topics.

This article was originally published in the April 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Stage Right.