This roadmap is basically a growth ladder for a business: you start by proving the idea works (Viability), then you make it wanted (Marketability), then you make it consistently profitable (Profitability), and finally you build something that runs and grows without burning you out (Sustainability).
Each stage has its own focus and its own set of disciplines.
Viability: Does this thing actually work?
Viability is about answering one blunt question: Is this a real business, or just an expensive hobby?
At this stage, the work is things like:
- Clarifying your business strategy and unique selling proposition
- Listening hard to the voice of the customer
- Running a break-even analysis and basic business metrics
- Getting your own personal productivity and mental game under control
Quick example:
You’re a consultant testing whether people will actually pay for your expertise. You talk to prospects, refine your message, run a few paid pilots, and track if you’re making enough to cover your time and costs. If you can’t hit break-even, nothing else matters yet.
Marketability: Can you attract and win the right customers?
Once you’ve proven the business can work in theory, the next question is: Can you reliably find and win customers?
Here, the focus shifts to:
- Clarifying your winning aspiration and competitive position
- Improving how you market and promote your brand
- Tightening up product/service positioning and the sales process
- Designing a better customer experience and starting to think about financial management and profit growth strategies
Example:
That same consultant now doubles down on a niche—say, small B2B SaaS companies. They refine their positioning, improve their website, create a simple outbound process, and design a clean onboarding experience so new clients feel confident from day one.
You’re still not scaling yet. You’re proving there’s a real market and you can win in it.
Profitability: Can you scale this without it falling apart?
Once you’re winning clients, the next test is: Can this business produce healthy, predictable profit without chaos?
Now you’re working on:
- A real operational plan and focused strategic initiatives
- Strong lead generation and multiple revenue streams
- Better pricing, budgeting & forecasting, and cash flow
- Basic quality assurance, work design, and management
- Starting to build a team: recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and work assignment
Example:
Our consultant now has more demand than they can handle personally. They standardize delivery, document processes, hire an associate, and introduce value-based pricing. The business moves from “busy but stressed” to “predictable and profitable.”
Profitability is where you stop relying on heroics and start relying on systems.
Sustainability: Can this business thrive long term without you holding it together?
Finally, Sustainability asks: Can this business prosper for the long haul, with or without you in the weeds?
Here the work gets more strategic:
- Strategic deployment: aligning projects with long-term direction
- Creating automatic customers through recurring revenue and retention
- High-performance selling and tight financial controls
- Managing capacity constraints and scaling sensibly
- Building a valuable business that could be sold or handed off
- Developing autonomy & empowerment so the team can run day-to-day
- Steering the company through the five stages of business growth
Example:
The consulting firm now has a small team, recurring contracts, documented playbooks, and leaders who can manage clients and delivery without the founder in every meeting. The owner can choose to grow, sell, or step back—because the business has real enterprise value, not just income.
The 8 Disciplines running underneath it all
Across all four stages run the 8 Disciplines of Business Mastery: strategy, marketing, sales, profit & cash flow, operations, process, leadership, and culture/change.
You don’t “finish” one discipline and move on; you deepen them as you climb from Viability to Sustainability.
Taken together, the diagram’s message is blunt but useful:
- Don’t obsess over scaling before you’re viable.
- Don’t chase fancy strategy before you can reliably win in the market.
- Don’t pretend you’re sustainable just because you’re busy and profitable.
Nail each stage in order, and you end up with a business that not only makes money, but can keep doing it for years without consuming your entire life.