This piece is your orientation to the whole model – it explains what the four stages of business maturity are and how to use them to make better decisions inside Empower.
At a high level, it’s saying:
“You’re not just a ‘small business.’ You’re at a specific stage of maturity – and what you should focus on next depends on which stage you’re in.”
Here’s the walkthrough, talking directly to you as an Empower user.
Why this exists
The document gives you a common language for describing where your business is today:
- It makes it easier for you to be honest with yourself.
- It makes it easier for your advisor/coach to meet you where you are.
- It keeps you from chasing “advanced” strategies before you’ve nailed the basics.
You’ll keep coming back to this as a reference point.
Stage 1: Viability – “Can this thing actually work?”
If you’re in Viability, your main question is survival:
- You’re still proving that people will consistently pay for what you do at a price that makes sense.
- Revenue is lumpy. You’re heavily involved in every decision and every sale.
- The business probably lives inside your head more than in any real systems.
Typical focus areas at this stage:
- Clarifying your offer and who it’s really for.
- Getting to break-even and controlling cash.
- Building basic personal discipline and work habits so you can actually execute.
If this sounds like you, your #1 job is proof of concept – not branding, not scaling, not hiring a big team. Just proving “this can be a real business.”
Stage 2: Marketability – “Can I reliably win the right customers?”
Here, you’ve shown the business can work. Now the question becomes:
- Can you consistently attract and convert the right kind of customers?
- Is there a real market for what you do, not just a handful of early wins?
In Marketability:
- You’re narrowing in on a target market and ideal client.
- You’re testing and improving marketing channels, messaging, and offers.
- Sales becomes a defined process instead of a random set of conversations.
If you’re here, your main job is to build a repeatable way of getting good customers, not just hoping referrals keep happening.
Stage 3: Profitability – “Can this make real money without chaos?”
Once you can bring in customers, the next brutal question is:
“Is this worth it financially – and can it keep up without burning me out?”
In Profitability:
- Revenue is no longer the primary problem; margin, efficiency, and capacity are.
- You start seeing where money leaks out: poor pricing, scope creep, rework, inefficiency.
- You may have a small team, but a lot still flows back to you by default.
The work here:
- Tightening pricing, packaging, and cost control.
- Standardizing how work is done so quality is consistent.
- Getting basic dashboards and KPIs in place so you’re not flying blind.
If you’re in this stage, the shift is from “busy” to intentionally profitable and controlled.
Stage 4: Sustainability – “Can this thrive without me holding it together?”
This is where you start building something that has real enterprise value, not just an income stream.
In Sustainability:
- You’re building leadership and management layers so the business doesn’t depend on you for every decision.
- Systems, SOPs, and culture do a lot of the heavy lifting.
- You’re thinking about scale, succession, or eventual exit – even if you have no plans to sell soon.
The questions here:
- How do we grow without breaking what works?
- How do we keep our culture healthy as the team grows?
- How do we make this business more valuable and less founder-dependent over time?
If you’re here, your job shifts from “heroic operator” to architect and steward of the business.
How you’ll use this inside Empower
When you work through Empower tools and resources, you’ll be asked (explicitly or implicitly):
“Which stage are you in right now?”
Once you answer that honestly:
- You can ignore a lot of noise that isn’t for your stage.
- You can prioritize the right tools and exercises for where you are.
- You and your advisor can talk about your business using the same framework.
So before you dive into the deeper content and tools, pause and ask yourself:
“Am I fighting for Viability, building Marketability, tightening Profitability, or designing for Sustainability?”
Everything else in this section is designed to help you move one stage stronger from where you are today.