During the established stage, the company has standard operating procedures, a regular customer base, and a reliable source of financing. Improvement and productivity is the goal, rather than just staying afloat. This is the life cycle phase of most 'mature' companies, such as Coca-Cola and Honda, for example. The business no longer has to struggle for either customers or credit.

At the expansion stage, a critical shift has occurred. In some ways, the business is 'back where it started' when it decides it needs to expand. Now it must regroup, and reconceive of its business model in a new and more ambitious fashion. Such was the case when the successful Internet search engine company Google first 'went public' and sold shares to the public. The company shifted from a highly successful enterprise to a dominating international behemoth soon afterwards.

In the final, sadder phases of business development, there is the 'decline' phase where the market changes and the company is overwhelmed by the competition. The company loses its vision or its ability to finance itself. This was...

There was less money to publish a wide array of magazines, more people were cutting back on their magazine subscriptions, to save money, and the presence of the Internet had made paid subscriptions obsolete in many people's eyes. The publishing firm Conde Nast thus had to kill many magazine brands, including Gourmet, one of the oldest magazines on food in the world, and the solvency of the magazine and publishing industry seems to be on shaky ground in general.
The final stage, or death, marks the dissolution of the company. Circuit City, for example, could not withstand the competition in its market from Best Buy, which was widely regarded to have superior products and service. At this point, the company folds, or it may be resurrected through consolidation or reorganization, as occurred with GM after it entered bankruptcy under the watchful hand of the government.

References

Zahorsky, Darrell. (2010). Find your business life cycle. Retrieved March 19, 2010 at http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/marketing/a/a040603.htm