You Can’t Afford Not to Invest in These Areas | Where to Invest in Your Business
So you’ve finally taken the giant leap of faith to start your business. Congrats - It is an exciting journey that comes with many rewards! This is only the beginning of paving out the career and lifestyle you’ve been aspiring to achieve.
Beginning a business, although exciting & rewarding, can be filled with risks, especially financially. To balance the proper investments with profiting in your business, it’s important to know where to invest to gain the most benefit in the long run. Although it can be intimidating, I have broken down the top 4 areas to invest your money when you’re in the starting process.
Here are the four areas I recommend every entrepreneur invest in consistently:
High-Quality Branding
Efficient Systems
Diversified Teams
Consistent Self-Care
Invest in Branding
To begin, branding is essential to appealing to the right audience and setting your business up for long-term growth. It’s all about how your business strategically places content, the type of content you share, the format of the content, and the application to increase engagement and further move your business into the right market. I always suggest beginning with a personalized brand strategy that addresses your brand’s foundation such as your mission, vision, core values, ideal client, and key competitors. It should outline your brand’s mood and what typography, and color palette represents your brand. After this, it’s time to invest in a logo and a proper website, establish an online presence, and invest in other brand assets that will place your brand in the right audiences.
Invest in Systems
At this point, it’s time to invest in software applications and processes to help you implement your strategy and apply your assets in a seamless fashion. These systems play a crucial role in ensuring smooth and efficient operations, as well as maintaining excellent client relationships. Implementing operational systems allows for better resource allocation, streamlined workflows, and increased productivity, taking much of the load off of yourself. It also enables you to minimize errors, reduce costs, and optimize your own decision-making processes. Additionally, having well-designed client processes allows for consistent and exceptional customer experiences, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty. Try to not overcomplicate the process by purchasing software that is too fanciful and can slow down your client and internal processes when operating your business. Our favorites at Brand Soigne are Calendly to set appointments, MailChimp for email campaigns, Squarespace to set up payments, or online meeting platforms such as Google Meet to increase face-to-face interactions.
Invest in Teams
Burnout is real - Especially when trying to build a brand from the ground up! You may be too focused on building the brand image of the business that the actual service of the business may be falling short, or vice versa. Rather than spread your efforts thin and perform below average in too many operations, focus your attention on being the CEO and leave behind your fear of hiring additional staff to support yourself. This may include, for instance, an accountant to properly organize your tax information and keep you on track of personal billings or a virtual assistant to manage client relations and organize your tasks. More than just lightening your workload, hiring a team brings invaluable diversity to your business. Each member of your team has their unique talents, experiences, and perspectives, and by embracing this diversity, you create an environment rich with ideas and innovation. Your team members can bring fresh insights to problem-solving, challenge the status quo, and introduce new strategies that propel your business forward. So, entrepreneurs, don't let the fear of hiring a team hold you back. Embrace the possibilities and benefits that come with creating a capable and reliable team. Remember, true success lies not in doing everything yourself, but in building a team that can work together to achieve greatness.
Invest in Yourself
Too many times entrepreneurs fall into the trap of prioritizing all of the expenditures into the business and feel guilty about giving back to themselves, especially at the start of a new business. Never forget the person behind the brand and prioritize your personal growth not only as a business owner. This will refresh you and give you more energy and creativity when serving your clients. Investing in yourself can include treating yourself to a relaxing trip, taking a course to learn a new skill, or investing in an extended vacation to be with loved ones. Making time for yourself as a CEO will make you stronger and allow you to serve your clients in a more efficient way, now that you are well taken care of and feel less strained with the start of a new business. This will seem contradictory, but the brand can survive without you, but it needs YOU. So build self-care into your business operations just as you would accounting or
Hopefully, you can use these tips to apply to the next stages of your business model and help to replicate results that will make you feel that your business is running in its best shape!
Ready to Collaborate on Creating the Brand of Your Dreams?
At Brand Soigne, we take pride in helping you build the brand of your dreams through our strategic planning and high-quality design approach. Through in-depth research and analysis, we craft tailor-made strategies that align with your business goals and target audience. More importantly, we work with YOU the entrepreneur to build your confidence and help you become THAT CEO!
