“Now that my business is profitable, what is the best way to reinvest the profits for growth?”
I put that question out into social media world last week to see what would come back. It’s a common problem faced by entrepreneurs, and I am no different. While it’s a wonderful problem to have, we can sometimes reach a point where there are multiple paths we could take and we don’t know which one will lead to the most success, or which one to take first.
When we start a Simple StartUp business, the challenge is to strip away all non-essentials from our idea and begin with the most basic core business we can. As we sell to the public, we tweak our business and offerings to grow in the direction of our customers’ wants and needs. But at some point, you recognize that your business is pretty stable, and you’re hitting all your customers’ major pain points. Now what?
In my case I wasn’t sure where I should deploy my profits to help grow the business. Some of the options I was mulling over were:
- A virtual assistant to reduce my own workload and allow me to focus on creative/growth projects.
- A marketing firm to help me improve my email and social media game since those are areas I’m still learning how to use most efficiently.
- A new product. Maybe another course, a membership, or book. There’s so many options.
- Hire another business guide to run more challenges during the year.
- Better technology. I could definitely use a new laptop but it’s not a number 1 priority.
- Advertising. Maybe I need to start paying for ads to increase my reach.
- Translations. I’d love to make the book and course available in Spanish, and then other major languages. I want to reach more people.
- Some classes or online courses to learn more about: sales, marketing, communicating, education, graphic design, social media use, video making… I want to learn it all!
Do you see my conundrum? Which option would help the business to grow and wouldn’t be a waste of time or money. By waste, I mean I would still see benefits, but they might not be worth the investment from a money standpoint.
When I put the question out there, I got lots of great advice and reasons to try each of the options above. Basically, they said I couldn’t really go wrong since the business was profitable and low cost to run. All the options were super low risk and worth exploring. However, the advice that caught me off guard was when I spoke to a room full of entrepreneurs on an app called Clubhouse. Their advice was to invest in finding more mentors and get a business coach before doing any of the other steps. Even these super successful and wealthy entrepreneurs all had coaches they claimed.
The reason? There is always someone who has come before you and done what you are trying to do. It may not be exactly the same, but it would be similar enough to be able to give you great advice on things to try and things to avoid. You learn what worked for them and what didn’t. You get a new set of eyes and wisdom from practice to help you streamline your way to success.
I have to say I agreed with most of what they said, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that there is so much you can learn for free from things like blogs, podcasts, YouTube, books, social media apps, and so on. A coach doesn’t have to be first thing on your list, and you can certainly get started without one. Communities of like-minded entrepreneurs can be extremely valuable and bring a ton of benefit without the cost of a coach. Will you get the same level of attention and individual advice for your business? Probably not. But you can certainly get a lot of the way there and then see if you still want more.
For me, I’m going to explore the idea of a coach and interview a couple to see what kid of value they think they can bring, and then see if I can achieve the same value through my own communities, mentors, and resources. If I can’t, then maybe it is time to invest. But if I can, then this is an investment for another time, and maybe when I reached a higher level after exploring all of my other options above.
For now, I think I’ll start investing in myself and learning a bit more. You know I love to DIY!
What have you done to grow your business after your initial growth plan was completed?
Post it in the comments below or send me an email.
