4 SMART INVESTMENTS TO MAKE FOR YOUR BUSINESS

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  4 Smart Business Investments You should Be Making

Being a solo-preneur can be rewarding and fulfilling, as well as, frustrating and exhausting at times! There comes a time in your business where you have to invest in to help it grow.

You should take pride in the fact that you’ve bootstrapped your business from the ground up, tackling every task that comes your way. You spent a lot of time building your website, mastered social media (until the next algorithm change comes along), learned how to edit and upload videos to YouTube, figured out how to format your email newsletter along with setting up sequences, and even gotten your shopping cart figured out and in place!

You may have chosen to, or felt you needed to bootstrap your business so you could keep your expenses down. That is totally understandable, especially if you are starting this business as a side hustle to supplement your income.

But, it’s easy to get into a rut of not investing enough money in your business when you are bootstrapping it. The term bootstrapping essentially means that you don’t get a loan and you use money out of pocket to get the business started.

Constantly bootstrapping your business comes with a price though. Many small business owners are working too many hours, suffering from burnout and experiencing frustration—not because they’re not good at what they do, but simply because they’re unwilling to truly invest in their business.

They’re letting a scarcity mindset prevent them from taking the steps—and making the investments—that will have a massive impact on their business. And maybe you are, too.

The best thing you can do though, especially when bootstrapping, is to put all the money back into your business as soon as possible and get systems in place that will help you grow your business and increase your profits faster.

Here are 4 actions you can take to begin investing in your business:

#1 Outsourcing

One of the best investments you can make in your business is to outsource some of your work.

At this point you might be screaming, “I can’t afford it!!!” (careful, watch your words ~ they are powerful creators). But the fact is, if you’re a serious business owner, you can’t afford not to outsource.

Remember, when you outsource, you are buying someone else’s skill set to add to yours. If you’re terrible at writing blogs, you can still be a blogger if you pay someone else to write for you. Conversely, you can get someone else to do your books, do your taxes, or even clean your house if it gives you more time to do whatever it is that you do to make money.

The time you free up by not doing those mundane, everyday tasks is time you’ll spend more profitably, by:

• Creating courses.
• Creating eBooks and digital products.
• Email marketing
• Creating new coaching programs.
• Upping your content marketing game.
• Recording video and audio content.
• Connecting with your audience through email and blogging.
• Working with clients either one on one or in a group setting.
• Or just enjoying your life!

Outsourcing should be looked at as an investment and never an expense. In fact, if you find you’re not getting a return on your outsourcing investment, take a hard look at what you’re outsourcing and to whom, because there is likely plenty of room for improvement.

Download my Free Outsourcing Workbook Here

A Few Ways You Can Outsource

Hire a Virtual Assistant who can manage many aspects of your business including:

• Answer and direct phone calls
• Organize correspondence and answer emails
• Prepare and organize databases and reports
• Handle confidential employer and client information
• Take notes or transcribe meetings
• Arrange employer’s calendar
• Schedule meetings and make the arrangements for spaces and conference rooms
• Arrange payments for vendors, travel, and sales expenses
• Create purchase orders and track and manage payments
• Present excellent customer-service skills to customers and clients
• Manage filing systems, update records, and organize documentation
• Prepare and create PowerPoint presentations and materials as needed; research materials and sources for presentations
• Website maintenance
• And so much more

Hire a Social Media Manager who will free up soooo much of your time by:

• Planning and strategize your Social Media Platforms
• Developing brand awareness and online reputation
• Content management (including website)
• SEO (search engine optimization) and generation of inbound traffic
• Cultivation of leads and sales
• Reputation management

 Hire a Pinterest Manager whose responsibilities include: 

• Set up your account for business
• Perform Pinterest Audits
• Schedule Content
• Designing Pins
• Promoted Pins
• Blog Management
• Schedule pins

There are many other ways to delegate some of the work that will free up your time to do the things that you do best, therefore, enabling your business to become profitable.

#2 Automated Systems to Scale Your Business

It’s time to set up some automation once you reach the point and accept the fact that you simply cannot do it all yourself.

Most online business owners start out using low-cost tools with limited features. For example, you might be using PayPal exclusively for product sales, and manually adding buyers to your mailing list each time you receive a payment. Or you are relying on a free, but very limited email marketing platform. While that’s an acceptable solution when time is easier to come by than money, you’ll quickly outgrow it. The problem is, too many entrepreneurs fail to recognize the benefits of true automation.

Not only is trying to “make do” with a pieced-together system costing you sales, but it costs actual dollars, too. You (or your VA) will spend extra time simply getting it all to work, rather than letting the tools do the heavy lifting.

As your business grows, it becomes painfully obvious that trying to do everything and relying on outdated systems is only going to lead to:

• Frustration (when critical tasks don’t get done and deadlines are missed)
• Burn out (when you’re working yet another 12-hour day)
• Overwhelm (when your to-do list is longer at the end of the day than it was at the beginning)

There are many ways to combat this business-growth hurdle, but one of the best is automation. Imagine a completely hands-off system that works for you even when you’re hiking on a remote mountain or lounging at a luxury spa.

But here’s an even better reason to automate your business ~ it lets you scale your business. Think about it, the less manual work you have to do, them more time you have to do the money-making tasks such as networking, marketing, and client support.

So, what can you automate? Almost everything, but start with:

Paid Traffic

Chasing organic traffic is an exercise in frustration. You’ll spend all your time creating content for your blog, other people’s blogs, YouTube, social media, and other web properties. All that content creation leaves you little time to actually work with the clients you’re trying to attract.

Instead, invest in some quality paid traffic, and get off the endless content creation train. You’ll be glad you did.

Email Funnels

What happens when a new subscriber joins your mailing list or someone buys a product? Do they just sit in waiting on your list until you have time to send an email?

While broadcast emails have their place—especially in time-sensitive promotions—be sure to also set up an autoresponder series to:

• Welcome new subscribers and help them find their way around your site (and your offers)
• Nurture buyers so they know they’re in the right place
• Make additional offers based on what someone has already purchased or shown an interest in

And the best thing? Once your autoresponder is set up, it will continue to work even when you’re not.

I use ConvertKit for my Email Funnels. I had used another email platform early on in my business, but I found it to be very limited in that it didn’t enable me to have multiple ongoing campaigns, etc.

ConvertKit offers:

• Email design
• Multiple forms
• Multiple Landing Pages
• Multiple Sequences
• Automations

It’s pretty much set it and forget it.

To learn more about ConvertKit, Click Here.

Premade Templates

Another way to make your email marketing easier, (especially, if you’re like me and spend way too much time just staring at a blank screen instead of writing my emails) is to purchase email templates. All you have to do is personalize them.

There are a number of sources for these. Research to find the ones that match your brand and personality.

You can also purchase templates for:

• Lead Magnets
• EBooks
• Pinterest Pins
• Instagram images

PLR Content

If you’re not a big fan of writing blog posts, or you just don’t have the time to do it, consider investing in some quality PLR or Private Label Rights, Pre-Made Content. PLR is a type of right or license attached to content such as articles that you purchase. You are legally allowed to edit and publish the article as your own, using your own name as the author. While you can use it word for word, I suggest you take the time to edit and rebrand it to fit your personality.

A good source of PLR content is Piggy Makes Bank. To learn more about it, Click Here.

Social Media Scheduling

Social Media is THE online advertising for your business, but it can be a major time suck!

Consistency and interaction are the keys to social media success, but that shouldn’t require you to have to log in to Facebook just to post a link to your latest blog or YouTube video. Automate your posting schedule and save yourself hours each month. Also, by doing this, you won’t have to worry about missing an update.

Tailwind is a great scheduling tool for both Pinterest and Instagram. You can also link your Instagram post to your Facebook Business page so they post at the same time. I’d be lost without it!

To learn more about Tailwind, Click here.

Calendar Management

If you have clients, partners, a team, or are often asked for interviews, then an automated calendar is a must. Rather than endless back-and-forth emails trying to find a mutually available time slot, simply send your calendar link and let your client, project manager, JV partner or anyone else choose a time that works for them. Your appointment will automatically appear on your calendar, and you’ll even get reminders (if your calendar supports that).

There are dozens of options for automating every aspect of your small business. As you grow, you’ll find new and better tools to make everything run more smoothly. For now, though, implementing these four ideas alone will save you hours of time every month.

I also use Calendly for scheduling meetings with online clients anytime night or day.

To learn more about Calendly, click here.

#3 Coaching

It is possible to build your business solely on your own. You can pay attention to what others are doing and try to implement their systems. You can read books and blogs and maybe invest in a few carefully chosen training programs.

But there will come a time when your growth will flat line, and you’ll struggle to reach that next level. That’s when it’s time to invest in coaching. And yes, even coaches have (and need) coaches. A coach can help you see past your own blind spots, work through the blocks that are holding you back, and build a business you love—on your own terms.

#4 Business Planner and Journal

With all that is required to run your business, you need to make a plan and stick to it. The only way to do it all efficiently is to invest in a good Business Planner and Journal. Preferably one that includes pages for writing your ideas and scheduling blog posts, social media, tracking income and expenses, etc.

Check out my Business Planner For Online Businesses Here.

Remember…

Don’t be afraid to invest in your business. Wise investments such as planning, coaching, automation, and outsourcing will pay for themselves many times over.

My Favorite Tools To Run My Business:

BlueHost ~ Webhosting for my blog

Divi Theme ~ Website theme – easy front end loading and editing

ConvertKit ~ Email Marketing

Creative Market ~ Stock images and more    

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