In Search of a Good Idea

(Unfortunately the article doesn't include a diagram, so I'll point you to one: http://www.ccfplus.com/wp-content/uploads/plc.png)

The cycle can be applied to products, industries, and even individual companies. It seems like you're at just about the maturity stage of the cycle, meaning that growth has slowed and new customers won't be coming as quickly.

I'm not sure I can help specifically, but many product life cycle graphs also include an 'innovation' stage, which occurs either at maturity or decline, and essentially restarts the growth stage. (http://blog.cestudios.ca/images/innovation-product-life-cyc....)

If you think that this cycle applies in your situation, then it's time to innovate. I think moving to Europe is a good idea. It's basically the same product to a new branch of customers. Eventually the new geographic segment well will dry up, and you'll have to look at other ways to innovate. What new products does your existing market base want? Do you have a decent grasp of who your typical customers are? Would they be willing to use a subscription-based app (good source of recurring revenue)?

Another angle to investigate is sponsorship by certain parks and trails. Would the local parks and rec office be willing to promote community hikes through your website and iPhone app? A great thing you have going for you is location-awareness. You know that users who are searching for trails in a specific area either are or plan to be there sometime soon. As they are searching, future events could show up on the maps. Where is most of your web traffic coming from? You could even promote hiking safety or kids hiking events, depending on your audience.

I congratulate you on your success so far - In fact, I envy you. You've found a way to combine two things that you enjoy and turn it in to a business. Keep up the good work. Good luck!

They probably already pay to have paper maps produced - you could provide a web based interface for them to update & maintain their maps. Town, state & regional tourism authorities are other markets.

You might need a Lite version of your app which only includes the info they pay to include (and you could offer branded versions specific to each agency)

Anyway, I think that now you have consumer buy-in, you need to look to sell to businesses to increase your profits to the point you are looking for. The sales cycle to sell to businesses is a lot longer, but fortunately the fact that you already have consumer users will help with your sales.

And what do they think you should do?

Current customers are often an excellent resource for your business planning. Have you found out what sets their hair of fire?

1) The psychographics for hikers and environmentalists have a bit of overlap. I think if you could provide some kind of geographically aware donation platform through the phone and the site you could do well, or at least good. Maps and location are compelling ways to get disparate related pieces of information into one view. In this case it would be threats to a given piece of land, and organizations working to protect that same land. I would imagine folks might be feeling a bit more charitable after experiencing nature's majesty first hand.

2) Good country walks, not quite hikes more like a couple hours in the woods with the dogs, are hard to find without a good deal of local knowledge. This would mean a lot of research into small land trusts.

3) Based on the massive number of catalogues I get from companies catering to, uh, "sportsmen" there are a huge number of gadget obsessed hunters and fishermen out there (or at least aspirational hunters and fishermen) with money to spend. Find a way to reach them.

Godspeed sir.