I absolutely love Autumn, more than any other time of year. Not sure why … probably because of the vibe in the air, the spectacular colours and it happens to be the exciting side of the holiday period.
As we’re firmly into this lovely season now, I started wondering how we know when our company or brand may be in the Autumnal stage of its life.
On the bright side — it’s the stage where our clients have warmed to us. Everything feels comfortable, a bit cozy. We’ve reaped the benefits of our hard work.
On the dark side — it’s the stage of late maturity, verging on decline.
It doesn’t have to do with a certain number of years in business that automatically kicks us into a particular life stage. After all there are century old brands who are masters at keeping their brands relevant, fresh and forever growing. Likewise, some brands die a quick death soon after coming into existence … usually because they didn’t have a great idea to begin with. The reality is that most of us live somewhere in between — running businesses that have a few years under our belt so we’d benefit from taking a moment to ask ourselves…
Is our market moving faster than we are?
Are our competitors making us look a bit old & tired?
When’s the last time we introduced something new to our clients?
Do our clients enjoy the same value from us today as when we first came on the scene?
It doesn’t mean we walk away from who we are, quite the contrary — but it does mean that we rediscover who we are in light of the current environment and keep breathing plenty of exciting new life into it!
