When you first start your business, your initial investments are usually the bare essentials to get you up and running. But once you’ve been in business a while, how do you make a decision on what investments to make for your business?
Once you start to become more experienced as a business owner, you will begin to see what you need to move your business forward to help it grow whether this is software and programmes to streamline processes or services that can be provided by another person with a different skillset to yourself. On occasions, you may not even realise that there are programmes or people who can support you. Speaking to other business owners often highlights services that they provide or use themselves, that may be of interest to you as well.
When I started my business, I did it all myself. I created a logo for myself and set up my website. At the time, I didn’t have the money to invest in a professional to do these things for me, and I had the time initially to DIY it. In retrospect, it showed. It was only as my business developed, and I worked on the impression I wanted to give to potential clients, that I realised the logo and website I had created were a little unprofessional.
A graphic designer was able to take my ideas and create a professional logo and business cards I was proud to give out. My web designer was able to create a professional website in a fraction of the time it was taking me to make basic amendments to the pages I already had.
These two examples cover the reasons why you might consider investing in your business:
- There’s something you don’t know how to do
- There’s something you don’t like doing
- There’s something that you can do yourself, but someone else can do it quicker/better
For me, the graphic designer was able to create a logo that far exceeded anything I could produce and design business cards that represented my business well. My web designer can make changes to my website quickly and has saved me hours trying to work things out, Googling ‘how-to’ and getting progressively grumpier at my incompetence.
There are a lot of ways you can invest in your business, but overall the key factors you need to consider for any of them are :
- Does it add value to your business?
- Does this allow you to better use your time elsewhere?
- Does this allow you to better use your skills elsewhere?
- Does this progress your business or remove something from your to-do list?
If your investment ticks one (or even better, more than one) of these boxes, it could be worth the investment.
There’s a whole host of possibilities to invest in your business, but here are a few ideas of things I’ve used or considered.
- Equipment, laptop etc
- Coaching
- Mentoring
- Training/Courses
- Personal Development
- VA/admin support
- Social media support
- Marketing
- Website
- Graphic designer
- Copywriter
- Accounts software
- Industry-specific software
Can you add to the list?
What has been the most worthwhile investment you have made in your business?
