My best business investments

Today I’m talking about some of the best investments I’ve made in my business. This is a question I get all the time, but usually it’s disguised as, “how have you done it? What is it that I need to do? What am I missing?”

I have given it to you in three stages:

Starting out in my clinic

Gaining traction

Wanting to get to the next level

But first, a disclaimer! What I spend money on in my business is not necessarily what you should spend money on in your business. So I’m not saying you have to invest in exactly the same things as I do.

But I do want to share this, because a lot of people want to make more take home income, get more time back and not feel tied to their business.

I also don’t think there is ONE thing either, but I do know there have been some critical ONE things over the time I have been in business so far.

Starting out….

One of these might surprise you!

In the very early stages of my business, I was like anyone else and a bit clueless – serving everyone and anyone, and not having a really good understanding of what I was doing in terms of running a business, but trying to figure it out fast!

Here are three things that were great investments for me at that stage.

A business coach

Working with a business coach is an obvious one, but it was invaluable for me at the start of my business, mostly for accountability and support reasons.

I spent all my time just seeing clients in the early days because figuring out the numbers, marketing, sales, team, systems was frankly way over my head, and so I just didn’t really do it for a while!

I needed someone who was more experienced and could tell me what to do because I simply didn’t know, or I was spending way too long trying to figure it out!

You simply need someone who can help you take action, who can help you figure out what to do and troubleshoot as you go.

For me, the right business coach was my best investment because I needed to take action to not just have a job and get a business!

Now, my next investment might surprise you because you might think it’s got nothing to do with business, but that’s not true.

Invest in a cleaner

Hiring a cleaner at the start of my business meant I had a choice… a choice as to spend that time working on the business and making more than £18 per hour (or whatever they cost!), or taking some valuable time off!

The thing is, even at the start of your business when you’re not earning a lot of money, I think something like hiring a cleaner is an inexpensive way to declutter some of that crap in your life and create a nice environment for you to be creative and take action.

But it’s also highly symbolic because it means that you go into your business with that mindset of, “It’s too expensive for me to clean my own house. I need to focus on income-producing activities.”

If you’re doing things like cleaning your own toilet, no one is paying you for that. You need to be out there getting your first client.

Hiring a cleaner is hugely important and symbolic, so if you haven’t done it yet, maybe you need to get to it. It was such a symbolic investment in the success of my business.

Invest in your money mindset

Upgrading your relationship with money, clearing your blocks and being surrounded by other entrepreneurs working on their mindset will give you the belief and inspiration to keep going.

Having a supportive mentor and community will give you somewhere to share your wins, fears and importantly to talk honestly about money.

Every clinic owner I talk to has money ‘issues’, I think it’s an industry driven thing! Which is another reason we are hugely underpaid for what we do!

Invest in marketing

Do not try to do google ads by yourself!

Do not get a company who has never worked with clinics/health and wellness businesses.

Do not invest in Facebook ads expert before you have invested in google ads

Do not pay a social media manager to post daily and try and get more likes!

Find a company who has a track record, who have worked with this industry, who run their business by tracking metrics and understand the bottom line is – you want bookings of high quality leads (not clicks, likes or follows!)

The next stage – gaining traction

When I started to have some regular clients, and started to actually make a bit of money, here’s what I invested in that made a huge difference in my business:

Invest in a bookkeeper

Honestly I was so scared about investing in a bookkeeper. I looked at the money it was going to cost me every single month and I thought, “How am I ever going to make that money back?”

What a negative self-belief right?

But I realised that:

1. doing my own books (or procrastinating it) was stressing me out
2. no one was paying me for it
3. it was mental clutter that was a distraction

Let’s look at the symbolic mindset around NOT hiring a bookkeeper.

If you think you’re never going to make the money back from any hire, you’re just telling the Universe that you don’t have a lot of faith that you’re going to make any more money.

When I first upgraded and invested in a bookkeeper, I suddenly felt like I had a Real Business. Having someone see my financials every month was actually really motivating because suddenly someone else could “see” my success. I couldn’t hide from the fact that I wasn’t making the money I wanted to.

My first bookkeeper was with me from when I wasn’t earning much money to my first six-figure year. She helped me put together simple systems for managing my money.

Getting monthly reports was motivating too! Money loves clarity and keeping an eye on the bottom line inspires you to make more.

YES YOU COULD DO IT YOURSELF but I don’t think you should. (Even if you love it and again, find it therapeutic). It’s not an income producing activity and it’s not a hobby.

Plus it will make it easier at tax time too.

Invest in an VA

I hate admin, I am rubbish at it, it’s boring, it takes me ages… sound familiar?

Hiring someone to help me, felt like I was really in business. I had a “team”.

I started to outsource some of those tasks that I wasn’t good at, or things that took all my time (emails, bookings etc).

You could start with a small amount of hours a week! It actually helped me take more action in my business, because I had someone to be accountable to, plus (like the bookkeeper), it added to my overheads which made me even more focused on income producing activities.

Invest in a work phone (that lives at work!)

Boundaries – if you don’t put them in place quickly, you create a monster! A big hairy beasty one!

This was such a game changer for me!

What to invest in post-six figures?

What did I invest in when my income started to soar past six figures?

Invest in people

Think who not how!

To scale you need people! Investing in your leadership skills is vital for a healthy, successful, thriving company (one that people want to work for!)

I could make a full blog on this section alone, but by now I hope you are ready to make the next investment, whatever that right and next one is for you!

Katie x