I see this more in the case of a business is not failing, but it's only slowly growing. I've met quite a few entrepreneurs who keep their business slowly growin

I see this more in the case of a business is not failing, but it's only slowly growing. I've met quite a few entrepreneurs who keep their business slowly growing for the 5 or so years perhaps move from them to a couple of employees and then around year 5/6/7 go into hyper growth and have 20 employees by year end. I think this happens particularity in business that has a personal element to do business. It takes time to get credibility, reputation and hone your business pitch.