Making the Most of Your Business Investments
Making the Most of Your Business Investments
- High-End Sales Expert for Unconventional Photographers and Creative Entrepreneurs.
You might already know that the end of the year is a time when a lot of people in the business world tend to invest in their businesses. It’s the last bit of time that you can have a tax write-off for the year and a prime time for making some rather large purchases. Let’s talk about making the most of your investments (your business investments in particular!).
During these past few weeks, I have had some of my clients asking me if I think this investment is good, or would this or that purchase be a good one and my answer always comes down to, what do you think you will get out of it?
Meaning, what do you think you’re going to put into it, to later get out of it? That is where the worth is.
So whether you’re looking at a business program or a new course to invest in, or whatever it is that you deem a solid investment in your business, you need to know if it’s worth it!
Something that I’ve observed over the years when it comes to making any kind of business investment is that one always tends to look at the money going out and this is where I would really advise creative business owners to stop placing their primary focus.
It really is the number one mindset gunk that many of my clients go through when they're thinking about spending a larger amount of money than say on a meal out for example, or a new outfit, or something like that.
Whenever we spend money, we have a fun little reaction in our nervous system, right? And for so many of us, money equals safety!
So whenever you’re thinking about making a large purchase, and I’m talking about say $2,000 and up or sometimes even less than $2,000, this could feel like a lot to your nervous system and you might even have a little freak-out moment! Am I right?
What happens here is your brain will automatically focus on that amount of money going out and that's as far as your brain goes. It thinks about it and basically says if I spend this money, I’m then losing this money. So, is this thing that I'm paying for, which is actually making me feel a little uncomfortable right now really worth it? And you wonder about getting that money back. This is the extent of the brain mindset gunk, if it's going out, will it come back?
What I would love to offer you here, is to reframe some of this mindset gunk when considering any of your business investments and to get past that little hurdle. The reason for this is if you can get past that hurdle, you can actually bring way more *ROI back to yourself.
*If you're new to business, ROI simply means ‘return on investment’, which could honestly mean a plethora of things.
Some people might only look at the monetary value as ROI. Some people will look at the experience as the ROI. There are all sorts of things that you can have as your internal marker for the ROI.
So if it's something like ads or something that you're paying for, usually the monetary ROI is the only thing you're looking at ie ‘If I'm spending X amount on advertisements and I'm only getting X amount back, is that a good ROI’?
This is a typical way of looking at it, which is why our brains with any investment, will think of it that way.
I am spending this! AKA, this money is leaving my bank account and I feel really weird about it, right?
You get those fun little physiology bubbles happening in your body, where your heart races a little bit, and you feel that instant dread. You might get a little sweaty and start to feel anxious and then you start to get the fun, little thoughts spiral of what if you don't make it back, or what if this one thing happens, or what if this other thing happens, or if you spend on this thing, then the world might end, right? Your nervous system just goes through all this like crazy shit.
Because of that, we just look at, okay, well, what am I going to get back? What money will I get back if I spend $2,000, can I get back $2,000?
This is where I want to challenge you to think outside of that little mindset hurdle that is there to make you feel safe, which is funny because it doesn't actually make you feel safe, does it?
It’s really there as a brain mechanism to keep you safe, so if we can get past that, then you will be able to actually get more ROI on all of your business investments.
So for instance, if instead of focusing on the money going out for the thing, try focusing on:
Future you!
Your future business!
What you’ll learn from this thing!
Who will you connect with as a direct result of purchasing this thing?
You can keep implementing what you’re learning from this thing further and further down the line so that in effect, it’s like a never-ending ROI, if you think of it that way.
The way that you will get more ROI on this stuff, making the most of your business investments matters with how you will show up with this new information.
How will you implement this new thing that you are buying?
What will that investment change for you? A change could be your mindset gunk. That's a big change, right?
The change for you could be that you are learning a new marketing strategy for your business. The change could be that you are learning a new revenue stream for your business.
Whatever it is, it will change the trajectory of your business growth and where you're going, which is the point of your business investment.
So as an example, say that you spent $2,500 in investment. In a program. We'll just use one of my own programs to get the point across. In my program, you will learn how to create and book $5,000 high-end experiences for your clients.
Let's use this first because it has a very tangible numbers thing and your brain loves to just focus on the numbers.
So, a $2,500 investment into my group coaching program to learn how to create and book $5,000 high-end experiences with your perfectly aligned clients.
In looking at this, the ROI on this is much more than ‘can I get my $2,500 back’, right? If you're only thinking of it that way, you're going to miss out on everything else that is in the program. Instead, if you try thinking of it in a bigger term, your ROI will be that firstly, you'll uncover the mindset gunk that's holding you back right now, so you can move past it and uplevel your brand.
You'll then understand how to create value-aligned offers and how to price them. In turn, you’ll attract the people your high-end creative service is perfectly matched to with an understanding of how to sell your experiences with ease, confidence, and client empowerment. What is that worth to you?
As a business investment, If you were looking at this as just an ROI of just getting back $2,500, and that was your only focus, do you see how much you would be missing out on?
If you only booked one new client, you would have two times the ROI. Besides that and the fact that if you’re booking your favorite clients at $5,000, you are then on your way to a hundred thousand dollars! That's only 20 clients a year for a hundred thousand dollars!
So that would mean that $2,500 could turn into $100,000 in just one year or less! But besides that, it's what you're learning.
What these things will bring to you forever more within your business journey!
Surely, It will make you feel lighter and happier, have more joy in your business, and more confidence in your business. Having more confidence in yourself and learning how to self-coach yourself along the way through mindset gunk is invaluable. That in and of itself is such a huge ROI, and so much bigger than the $2,500 that you're just trying to get back.
You'll feel connected to your business and proud of what you're creating for your people.
You'll feel connected to your aligned clients inspiring you to show up as your full self, the magic that is you, that your clients are just searching for.
You'll be able to take these big giant topics like marketing and sales and instead of feeling overwhelmed by them, you will know where to start and what matters about them.
You will understand how to help your clients feel good in the sales process and get rid of your mindset gunk around selling, marketing, high-end pricing, and asking for money.
The big question is, how do you get these ROIs?
It's all in how you show up as a creative business owner and what type of high-end service you want to offer out there combined with how you look at business investments.
It’s definitely not in showing up looking at just the monetary side of things. If that's all you're focusing on, you're not going to allow your nervous system the time to chill out, enabling you to actually take in information and show up as best as you can and have fun with it. This is the absolute opposite of getting the most out of your investments.
You want to show up as your full authentic, empowered self, in confidence, and not focusing on getting your money back. I say this because the amount of effort that you put into something reflects the amount of results that you're going to see come back at you as your return on the business investment.
You have these two options in life when it comes to investments: The first is where you show up 100% with an open mind, so you can grow and you ditch your shit at the door or you don't.
And you don't implement, you barely put in the effort and you assume that just by purchasing it, you will see the benefits through osmosis. Or you won't do anything after the purchase because you will just think, ‘Hmm here are all the ways that this actually won't work for me or isn't working for me’ and then you just throw in the towel.
Do you see how just these two different energetic fields that you can throw at your business investments would really change the trajectory of what you get from them?
All investments, all experiences, no matter if the ROI is what you assumed it would be at the start of buying it, is a learning experience, which is getting you to your goals either way. Even if it's an investment that at the end of the day, you may think ‘well, that wasn't as good’ or ‘it isn't what I thought it would be’ didn’t you learn a lot?
I have invested in a lot of things. Were they all the most amazing thing, that took me to the next level? No, but I learned a lot either way and I took those learnings, no matter what they were, whether it was about myself or whether it was about the industry, it doesn't matter, whatever those learnings were, I took them and kept going and worked with those things because I was better off knowing whatever that learning was.
So once you decide that you will show up a hundred percent to get the full benefits out of your business investment, you also need to be realistic with your ‘time’ and where you are in the process.
This has actually happened to me with previous clients of mine before, where they invest in their own photography or creative business, then they assume through just investing, that their business will ten times the revenue and they'll have all these clients but they're not actually giving the process time to work, or they're not giving it time for them to actually master the skills that they're learning.
They just assume that something that usually takes most people around six to twelve months should be something that's happening for them right now. Like there's just such a sense of urgency! This thing needs to be happening right now. And if it's not happening right now, then they feel dissatisfied! This is when they stop trying! They just throw in the towel!
This might be something that you really want to look at with your investments as well!
Decide what effort needs to be put into your business investments for you to actually get that thing that the investment promised to do for you and go at it with a hundred percent certainty, a hundred percent belief that you are going to get your ROI back, and then go for it!
You can decide to do that, my friend! To show up a hundred percent! To go all in! To learn everything you can. Implement it all, evolve as a person, evolve your business, and see what that will change for you!
Can you see how focusing on that instead of just focusing on your ROI in such a small little window of just ‘do I get my $2,500 back or whatever it is’ is such a big change on what will actually happen for you instead of just thinking of you losing something, it's about what can you get back right? What can you actually give to this thing to then triple the ROI that you even thought you would get in the first place if you were just looking at that one singular ROI?
So, why not really think about what you are going to be investing in for your own photography or creative business and for yourself!
Put your best effort into getting as much ROI out of it as you can, from a mindset, belief, and energy perspective!
