It’s time to look at your desire to have a growing, thriving business and dig into what it will actually require. You can’t just snap your fingers and have a dream business. Overnight successes might work in the movies, but not in real life.
The topic: What are You Willing to Invest to Grow?
Why do you need to invest in your business?:
- If you don’t invest in your idea or business, it will never become a reality or grow beyond what it is today.
- There are many “wantrepreneurs” out there.
- What separates entrepreneurs from wantrepreneurs is investing in their business. You need to put time, effort, and resources into getting your idea off the ground. An hour here or there is not sufficient to create a business.
- If your business is up and running, you can kill your business if you don’t invest into it.
- Proverbs 21:20 (NIV): “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.”
- Without retained earnings, you can’t take advantage of new opportunities. Without time and effort, you can’t develop new income streams.
What do you need to invest to grow your business?:
- First, you need to invest time. Time to work on your business. This is where you develop and track how you’re doing based on your strategic plan. Look at your business development efforts and other marketing activities. Are you spending time creating your service or product offering?
- Next, you may need to invest money in your business. This could go to establishing your business, business development efforts, materials, etc.
- Make sure you aren’t just spending money though. An investment is intended to MAKE money. Some will and some won’t, but that mindset will pay off in the long run.
How do you invest to grow?:
- Decide how much time you will commit each day or week to your business. Block this time off on your calendar and decide what you will work on or accomplish during that time. Consider the Pomodoro Technique if you struggle with focusing your efforts.
- Decide how much money you will invest in your business. For a start up, this may be a set dollar amount. If you’re already in business, this will most likely be a percentage of revenue.
- Invest in yourself–we talked about this in the first show in this series. It’s a combination of investing time and resources. Is there a book you could read, a conference or training session your could attend, or a coach you should hire? Make sure you take action from what you learn.
- Always monitor your return on investment.
- If you invest time marketing through social media, what was your return?
- If you invest time and money in email marketing, what was the result?
- Re-evaluate what is working and what is not working.
Action Steps:
- Take action on your time.
- Decide how much time you will commit to your business and put it on your calendar. Just 10 hours a week is 520 hours a year…25% of a “normal” full-time job year.
- Take action on your money.
- Decide what you can invest financially into your business. If starting up – read The $100 Start-Up by Chris Guillebeau
- Focus on your ROI.
- Set a time to evaluate the return on your investment and how you will evaluate that return.
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