Is your business really innovative, or are you stuck in a time warp?

As a kid, time passed pretty slowly, but as an adult, it races by without us realising. And it happens to businesses too.

When did you start your business? Five, maybe 10 years ago? You were the new kid on the block, the exciting, innovative business, the one that was going to shake things up for your competitors.

Where are you now? Are you still energetic and nimble? Are you still creating new stuff and consternation for your competitors? Are you still a young-at-heart business?

Or have you slowed down a bit, become a little complacent, settled into the status quo and, even – dare I say it – become a little middle aged?

In the course of my work I’ve spoken to many businesses and very few have admitted to becoming middle aged. That in itself doesn’t surprise me. First up, no one wants to think their business has become a bit humdrum and secondly, it’s easy to miss it. A business just doesn’t have the same ageing indicators as their owners – birthdays, grey hair, wrinkles.

But it’s very important for a business to realise it’s getting middle aged, because it’s a sign that it’s getting stale.

So how do you do it? Essentially you want to hold a mirror up to the business, but until that’s invented, the following technique works pretty well.

Ask three questions of the business:

• What percentage of your revenue comes from product and services that you didn’t have eight years ago?
• What percentage of your revenue comes from product and services that you didn’t have four years ago?
• What three significant changes have you made to the way that business operates behind the scenes (for example technology and processes)?

The questions are simple but revealing. You will quickly know whether your business is moving forward or stuck in the past.

If your business is feeling a little middle aged, kick start innovation in your business. And if you are a young business – what are you going to do to ensure that the ageing process doesn’t happen to you?

Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses: Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business”  and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).