The Business Life Cycle - Leveraging Coaching to Get Where You Want to Be

In this episode of Making Cents of It All, host Jesse Stakes welcomes seasoned business coach Scott Coble for a deep dive into the business life cycle—from startup to renewal—and how intentional coaching can help business owners navigate each phase with clarity and purpose.

Together, Jesse and Scott unpack the sigmoid curve of growth, explore common inflection points, and share actionable insights on how coaching can unlock strategic breakthroughs. Whether you're scaling, plateauing, or reinventing your business, this conversation offers a roadmap to help you achieve the success you truly want—not just the success you’ve settled for.

Tune in for:

• 🔄 Real-world examples of business transformation
• 🧭 Coaching frameworks that drive results
• 💡 Leadership lessons for every stage of growth

If you're a business owner, executive, or aspiring leader, this episode will challenge your thinking and inspire your next move.

Transcript

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Jesse Stakes: Hey, everybody! Welcome to making sense of it all! I am pleased to bring you Scott Koble. He has come back to share some more knowledge with us when it comes to

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Jesse Stakes: businesses where they are in their business cycle. I wanted to dive into this because people don't understand this. A lot of the times, at least, not from a from a real technical standpoint. So Scott, thank you so much for joining me.

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Scott Coble: Well, it's great to be here, Jesse. Thanks for having me.

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Jesse Stakes: So like I was saying before, I think one of the biggest things that we wanted to talk about or kind of pull out and really focus on today was was kind of the life cycle of a business and kind of where people are the different traps or the different things that people don't think about along the way that things that can happen. And

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Jesse Stakes: I figured there was nobody better to talk about it than yourself.

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Scott Coble: Well, I appreciate the opportunity. And you know you've mentioned it before when we've talked about what puts people in business. Yeah, it's typically a dream that they have a vision, a need that they see, and a way to apply some skills that they either have or that they're partnering with.

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Scott Coble: To provide a service or products. And so it's really exciting. And the life cycle typically has 3 parts. You know, there's the learning phase where you're in the business. You're learning the ropes. It's kind of the

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Scott Coble: you know, where the you're in the honeymoon, which can be a little bit of a trap, too.

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Scott Coble: But it's the honeymoon time. And then you move into the growth phase of a business where you're really starting to gain traction based on the things that you've learned earlier.

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Scott Coble: And then, as some businesses face and we see it, business can begin to decline and.

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Jesse Stakes: Sure.

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Scott Coble: And it's where a fork in the road is reached, and unless something is done to change that, then the business could go into decline, and sometimes a business owner will be in a bit of denial about what's what's causing that downturn to happen. But what we see is most successful is as a company is is growing.

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Scott Coble: and they're they're achieving success. That's the time to pay particular attention to the industry, the marketplace. What are the small incremental things that need to be done within the business to continue making it viable

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Scott Coble: it it. The life cycle of a business doesn't mean that every business's life has to end at some point in time.

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Jesse Stakes: There!

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Scott Coble: Yeah, the life cycle of the business means there's certain phases to go through. So look, I know business owners who have been really, really successful, but had the foresight to see.

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Scott Coble: I need to add a complimentary part to my business, and I'll tell you about my brother. Yeah, he's a successful contractor, and he's been in construction for about 48 years. But he saw the opportunity to go into the pavement ceiling business and parking lot ceiling business. And so now he has a business that

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Scott Coble: is a little more steady than some of the big contracting jobs. And he has a team that does that.

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Scott Coble: and it really has diversified his business. Well, that what that's done is, it's created a new stream of income, a new business opportunity. And you know he's less. He's less volatile to changes in the economy on the building side of the business, too. So I think businesses just have to think those things through, and every business comes to a fork in the road. Multiple times within the life of the business.

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Jesse Stakes: I couldn't agree with you more, and I get several different people that I know that I think of in my head when you're talking about your brother's business. I mean, I've had people that I mean, you think about certain industries that are hot and heavy for a long time.

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Jesse Stakes: depending on what matters in the economy like, let's say, power plants. I'll give you an example. On the power plant side. I had a customer who did expansion joints for power, plants for coal, fired power plants. So as our economy, and as our country is trying to go more towards clean energy, and to do something different on that side.

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Jesse Stakes: All of a sudden. Their business isn't necessarily obsolete, but now they're maintaining, or they have maintenance contracts, but they don't have any new power plants that they're building, or, you know, needing expansion joints. So they have to take the skill set that they have. They have to take the tooling that they have in their shop, and they had to think, what can I do to generate additional revenue? That'll probably end up being a primary source of revenue at some point in my business's lifecycle.

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Jesse Stakes: But if they didn't have those thoughts they'd have been out of business when when the power plant business started to to go down. And when I,

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Jesse Stakes: the other things that I think about, you've got people who are essentially to your point, like in the construction or in trades or things, things to where they have skill sets to, where

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Jesse Stakes: they have learned, and they train their people on certain tasks. Well, you think about plumbers, I mean, my God, I mean plumbers deal with water, they deal with gas, they deal with all sorts of things that people don't really think about when it comes to plumbing. So if they're not upskilling, if they're not trying to, you know, diversify their skill set when it comes to additional ways to generate revenue.

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Jesse Stakes: they really are potentially setting themselves up for a downfall or

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Jesse Stakes: or forcing themselves at some point in the business lifecycle sell the business, and they may not want to do that.

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Scott Coble: Exactly, and when the business is in some type of decline, the market value of that business is not going to reflect what the owner wants it to, and that's the cold reality, you know. That's the price you pay for not reinvesting in the business and not making it viable. I'll give you the name of the business that those of us that are old enough will recognize for not realizing when the business needs to be reinvented. Blockbuster video.

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Scott Coble: Think of that, you know. For years they were the place to go to rent your movies. People showed up on Friday, and they would rent movies through the weekend and.

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Jesse Stakes: Absolutely, you know it. It's where the term be kind and rewind. And now, good.

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Scott Coble: You know, they they were across the country with locations. And now there's 1 blockbuster video left. It's in Alaska. And what happened was, you know, the advent of streaming happened, and they didn't pick up on it. And

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Scott Coble: what happened next was basically was history for them. So that's 1 of the most vivid examples of just failing to when you're successful. Failing to look at how you may need to reinvent yourself.

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Jesse Stakes: It's kind of ironic, isn't it? The last blockbuster videos in Alaska and the gentleman Wayne Heizenga, who started blockbuster, has a team named the dolphins in Miami, Florida.

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Scott Coble: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: Our head.

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Scott Coble: Yeah, he he did. He used to own them and and was a great part of that community there around Miami.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah. And but that's just just ironic that the frigid cold of Alaska is the last place that his that his moneymaker ended up.

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Jesse Stakes: You know, it's interesting, because I mean, and I'll put the Graphic up for some of the videos that we do. But like you had provided me with a, you know, kind of a graphic of the kind of the business cycle, and as far as through the learning phase, through the growth phase and into the decline phase, and you said it like not. Everything has to go to the decline phase, and I think that there's a lot of people who will listen to this, and it's you're not necessarily talking about somebody who's just starting a business and who is

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Jesse Stakes: they're they're looking for. They're looking for help on the front side. It's really those people that are that are truly at. They could be at the zenith of their success. They could be, they could be at what they would call their mountaintop right now, and they have that thought in their head. It's like, Okay, now, what?

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Jesse Stakes: And if you have that now, what thought in your head? That's the perfect time to bring in a coach. It's the perfect time to bring in kind of that second set of eyes. Someone who's going to look at it without the emotional attachment to your business and really give you kind of give you that thought of. Okay, what could I do now to where

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Jesse Stakes: this isn't the mountaintop. We're just halfway up that we're just halfway up to the peak right now, and it's I think, that that's I want to impress upon the audience that because this is not about.

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Jesse Stakes: this isn't about starting a business per se. This is about taking that next step, whether you're whether you think you're at the top, or if you think you're in the middle, wherever it is, it's if you feel like you need a little a little bit of help taking that that next step. That's where you come into play.

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Scott Coble: Well, I'll give you a great example of that. I'm working with a business now very successful, but the father wants to eventually exit the business, and the son is the person primarily running the business. But my coaching with the owner will be how to transition the business

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Scott Coble: and shore up the things that he's done in the past, that the sun's not as talented and do his talents lie in a different area. And so

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Scott Coble: how do we fill that gap. How do we get from point A to Point B, and part of what I do is about is understanding the business and helping the owner build the bridge to the next phase. Well, in a way, he's reinventing things to be able to step away

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Scott Coble: hand more to his son.

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Scott Coble: But then, knowing that his son's got somebody working with him to coach him, which would be me to help make that transition as smooth as possible, so that Dad can enjoy the rewards of what he's worked so hard for years for, and the son can reinvent the business. Take the business over, maybe do some things a little bit differently than Dad that he's been wanting to do for years, but he's doing it with somebody who's helping him. And again, he doesn't feel alone

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Scott Coble: in doing it.

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Jesse Stakes: Now.

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Scott Coble: Dad may have the the founders syndrome where there's only one good way to do it. It's the way that made this business successful. And, by the way, I did that, you know, which is a perfectly understandable place to be. But it's not always the best thing when you're transitioning to somebody else. They're going to have to run it their way, and I'm there to help them achieve success, doing it their way.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah, you kind of give them the like a little bit of assistance in letting go of that control. Feeling, feeling secure, feeling safe that they can do so, and knowing that the person that they are relinquishing control to has a little bit of support going through that process.

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Scott Coble: Exactly, exactly.

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Jesse Stakes: Hmm.

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Jesse Stakes: so you know, it's just like just like we have on the other episodes. I mean to me. The whole important part of this is that if it sparks somebody's interest in having a conversation, that's where everything starts. It's not necessarily that they have to say exactly. Oh, that's me. But if any of this makes them, you know, gets their creative juices. Flowing, gets them thinking about their business, gets them excited about what could be. What's the best way for them to touch base with you and and start that conversation.

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Scott Coble: Well, you're right. We work with people across each phase of the business cycle, Jesse, so it doesn't have to necessarily be a struggle. It might be that business owner that's looking at the future, you know, and how to achieve the goals that that maybe they don't have a hundred percent thought out. But they know there's somewhere else. They want to be. The way that we would do that really is through a conversation. Anybody can email me at skoble

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Scott Coble: at focal pointcoaching.com. That's SCOB. LE. At Focal pointcoaching.com.

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Scott Coble: And what we can do is have a conversation. You know, I typically start out with just getting to know somebody build rapport with people, you know. Obviously, you know, I want to know who I'm working with, and maybe most importantly, so does the business owner.

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Jesse Stakes: Percent.

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Scott Coble: Right and so.

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Jesse Stakes: People work with people. You gotta you gotta like who you're working with.

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Scott Coble: Exactly, and that's why every business won't be for me, and I won't be for every business. But when that connection happens and you can work together. What'll happen is first, st it's about gaining clarity, you know, around what you want as the owner, around what the business needs to thrive and prosper, and then it's about building that bridge. How to get there now, sometimes a hard question becomes, well, why aren't you there already?

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Jesse Stakes: Sure.

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Scott Coble: It's gotten in the way, what's constrained the business, and that can be a very healthy conversation. I don't ever judge people because I haven't lived their life. But what can happen is is when you gain clarity around it. It's easier to work on it.

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Scott Coble: So if it's something that you think is constraining you. Look, we take on a we will not. We like we'd like to do approach to things. So if you're going to get there.

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Scott Coble: if you're going to get to your goal, let's talk about how we're going to get there, not what's holding us back.

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Jesse Stakes: 100%.

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Scott Coble: It's got.

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Jesse Stakes: Thank you very much. I appreciate it, and we look forward to the next one.

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Scott Coble: Thank you, Jesse. I appreciate it.

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Jesse Stakes: All right. Catch you down the road.