Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/and-away-we-grow!-a-five-phase-model-for-growing-a-child-care-business/5009967/
The report to the board was an overwhelming success. Everyone was pleased and excited about the numbers - all slots filled, a long waiting list, and now the go-ahead for the third expansion in a year. Yet the gnawing in your stomach just won't go away. Why do you feel so nervous, even scared, at a time when so many others are telling you "bravo"?The answer to your question may be related to one of the best kept secrets in child care program administration. Growing a business and managing it well is difficult, trying, even painful work. It requires a keen understanding not only of where you are going, but where you have been. Growing well takes insight, courage, and information about the nature of growth itself.
In a provocative article on managing expansion, Sharlit and McConnell (1989) propose a five-phase model of business growth: creativity, direction, delegation, coordination, and collaboration. Each of these phases is further divided into two stages designated as evolution and revolution.
During the evolution of a phase, growth is relatively calm and predictable. This is often the time when practices and policies are formulated. As the revolution phase ...