When is the right time to invest in your business?

Let me tell you a story.

Because I was you once.

I trained as a coach in September 2018. And in December 2018 I handed in my notice and stepped away from the last part-time job, reliable income I had left myself with in the music industry, the field I had committed over a decade of my working life to.

I was going to be a coach.

2019 was going to be my year.

I set myself clear financial goals and targets of how many clients I wanted to work with.

And I got to it. “I’m an intelligent person, I can figure this out myself!” I thought to myself.

I worked so hard. And I did all the things:

• I was posting and present on social media constantly

• I was writing blog posts

• I was recording helpful videos

• I was going to networking events

• I was telling people about what I did

• I was designing helpful freebie downloads

I was working so hard.

But I was struggling.

January came and went. And February and March turned into the next quarter of the year and the Easter Holidays. Suddenly the warmer weather came, May turned into June and the half way point of the year loomed.

 What had I achieved?

Some clients, yes.

Some growth in my audience, yes.

But nothing I could call sustainable. Nothing I could rely on. Nothing that was honestly replacing a salary or helping pay the bills.

I would be in tears doubting myself on a pretty much weekly basis. And when offers of work back in the music industry came, I took them. Because I just couldn’t make this coaching thing viable.

I just couldn’t make this coaching thing viable by myself.

It was reaching a crunch point. I didn’t have much money in my bank. And for all the work I was doing, that didn’t look like it was going to change significantly.

If I didn’t change, nothing was going to change.

And so I started to look around.

I needed help.

I couldn’t keep trying to figure this out on my own. It was destroying my own confidence and belief. And it was a huge burden on my husband who was supporting us both and starting to wonder when my promises to him that this would all pay off would… actually pay off.

I found two self-paced programmes that I felt answered the main problems I had at the time and I invested.

• £500 for one course as a one-off payment

• £30 p/m for one membership

I need to reiterate that at the point I invested:

• I didn’t have much money in my bank – this wasn’t cash I had ‘spare’

• I was not making reliable, sustainable income from my business (could I even call it a business?)

• I didn’t have it all figured out, I didn’t know what I was doing and I felt pretty messy and hopeless

But both these investments were game-changers.

Within months I discovered how to master my message, create content that actually converted, have proper sales conversations and got copywriting help with my website.

Most importantly with these two investments I felt like I was part of key communities filled with people who were just like me; struggling in their own ways, but also having successes too. Which made me feel hopeful that this was possible after all.

And critically of course I started to see changes and results.

I got more bookings, more enquiries, more sign-ups to my webinars, more growth to my social media and mailing lists, more opportunities to speak and share what I did.

I could finally contribute towards the bills and mortgage again. Slowly but surely. It wasn’t ‘overnight success’ (there’s no such thing). But it was all in the right direction.

Investing in myself and my business worked.

Why I’m not part of the ‘invest in yourself at all costs!’ brigade

Now I want to clarify something here: I am not advocating that you should invest in yourself at any cost. And I am most certainly not a ‘If I can do it, so can you!’ person.

Because I am fully aware we all have different starting points: different privileges, different financial situations, different family set-ups, different strengths, different mental health issues.

It’s not black and white, of course.

Also I want to stress I am not someone who is going to get you on a call and ask if you’ve got a credit card you can use, or a family member you can borrow the cash off in order to pay me.

I certainly don’t think you should be bankrupting yourself or getting into huge debt to reap the benefits of great support (read more about my values and practices here).

But I really believe that if you can find something that is a little bit stretchy, a little bit out of your comfort zone, that you think is the right fit and will give you the answers you’re looking for at this moment, you should go for it.  

Because the right time to invest in your business is any point where you feel “this isn’t working” or “I don’t know what to do.” Even if you’ve never made a dime.

Why your money mindset needs to change if you’re going to invest in yourself

 A big part of being ready to invest involves studying your money mindset.

The things that stopped me spending money to advance myself were the stories I was telling myself:

• I never have any money

• When I spend money it’s gone

• The only way to have more money is to reduce my outgoings

If, like 2019 me, you constantly think things like this, then choosing to invest in yourself is really hard.

If you believe you never have money, then guess what, you never do.

If you believe that spending money means it ‘disappears’ never to be seen again (rather than enriches and gives you something back), then spending feels terrifying.

If you believe the only way to feel more abundant is to spend less instead of earn more, then you will stay stuck.

These common money mindset blocks present as objections from my potential customers Here’s what I say:

I’ll invest when I’m a bit more set up

How will you get set up without help? What do you think is going to get you set up? Where will you start with setting up? That’s exactly the bit I’m going to guide you through!

I’ll show you what to focus on, what actually moves the needle, what’s going to waste your time so you avoid it, and I’ll support and cheer you on as you do it.

Do you want to struggle and figure it out for yourself for weeks, months and years? Or do you want and need to see results faster than you can do alone? I’m pretty sure I know the answer!

You’re not expected to know how to do this alone. It’s a lot to understand. Take the help with the set up. You’ll fast-track yourself.

I’m not sure I’m financially ready to invest

What will it take to be ‘financially ready’? What does ‘financially ready’ look like? What are you going to need to see to be at the point where you think “yup, I’m going to get that help now”?

Because the trouble is, as I hope I’ve shown you, there are very few moments in life where you have the money just sat in your bank and you feel flush to invest.

Very few of us have cash to ‘spare’. It could always go somewhere else. Or you know, just sit in our account and make us feel safe.

But if we don’t pick and commit to the things that will move us forward, we’ll stay where we are. And I know you want to move forward.

The key with what I do through my work is giving you the tools to be ‘financially ready’ for whatever you want to invest in. I show you how to get customers, how to sell yourself, how to build an audience that wants what you offer.

I don’t want to waste your time

This is the most depressing thing I hear all too often. The amount of people that say to me “I don’t want to waste your time” reflects a major mindset block:

• that you don’t feel worthy to invest in

• that people like you don’t get help like this

• that it won’t work for someone like you

My job is to provide you with all the tools I have to make your vision for a business a reality.

You are never wasting my time because this is literally what I do for a living. Help people like you find the answers they’ve been looking for, take action and build a business.

How much work you put in and what results you get are outside of my gift. But I will give you everything I possibly can to help you succeed. It’s what I’m committed to doing. You cannot be wasting my time if you invest in yourself by joining one of my programmes.

Some people have advised me to stop helping people at the start of their journey, because they’re the least prepared to invest

As I’ve gone along and got professional advice and support in my own business I have been told repeatedly that a more ‘reliable’ way to grow myself is to help people further along on their journey.

People who are just beginning often fall into the money mindset traps I’ve outlined above. They will toy with but never commit to spending money on help. They will keep waiting for the perfect time. They will stay stuck in a cycle of ‘maybe one day.’ They might join my membership but when money doesn’t come flooding in immediately they’ll cancel out because they want to reduce their outgoings and get scared it won’t work.

 On the other hand, people who are a bit more established and earning money already have a done some of the work on their money mindset. They already know they can earn something. And so they understand that if they spend, that money can come back in. They’ve got evidence. They may well have invested in things before and so they’re more in the habit and understanding that business advice can advance you.

The advice I’ve been given repeatedly is to focus on these people instead. Not the newbies.

And I do now help those people.

But I stand firm in my commitment to people like you, who are just getting started.

I have a membership with totally flexible sign-up, jammed with all my best wisdom.

And I run Turning Point Days for people just getting started that want to know all the basics in a 1:1 tailored day, so I can hold your hand and make it relevant and do-able for you.

So to close, I want to just say, I am here for you. I’m not going anywhere.

I know what it’s like, because I’ve been you.

I know it’s terrifying to change the old stories you’ve had for decades and start to trust that you are wildly capable of making all the money you want. And that if you invest, you will gain and learn and grow.

But it’s true.

You are worthy of investment. If you spend it will come back to you in expected and unexpected ways.

If you want to talk about how I can help book a call in my calendar. I would love to talk it through. I promise I’ve heard it all, no mindset block or practical problem too silly or weird. I want you to succeed.