3 Initial Business Investments to Consider if You're Just Starting Out

Beatriz: Hey everybody And welcome to another episode of the be a boss coaching podcast. My name is Beatriz I'm an entrepreneur and business coach. I am the founder of be a boss coaching and in this episode, I want to talk about the three types of business investments that I would recommend for someone who is just Starting out who is for someone who is just thinking about where to start with their business, where to invest, because investing in your business is a big decision.

And, uh, I have made an investment in my business in the very beginning that I don't fully

Not that I fully regret it, um, but I wish I would have been smarter with that investment and I wish I would have put it somewhere else. So with this is where I think I would have, put my business investment in and, especially if you're like thinking about, You know thousands of dollars of investments in your business Here's where I would suggest putting those initial investments in and uh why I believe that these are These are where to begin with right as a business coach as an entrepreneur coach You know, I call myself a business coach an entrepreneur coach because I help business owners.

I coach business owners but my expertise lies in mostly coaching to clarity, coaching you in being able to uncover some of the mind blocks that you might be having around your business. And today, I'm not going to focus too much on mindset or clarity or, or, uh, Ways that you can motivate yourself, you know, I talk a lot about internal struggles, but I think this is a very concrete episode where i'm gonna focus on the types of investments that I would suggest if you're just starting out.

It's very direct and it's more of a consulting episode because it It is a lesson that I have learned and as i'm seeing a lot of Challenges that come up for new entrepreneurs and business owners a lot of it is around financing and finances and capital and if you are thinking about those areas of your business Here are the three buckets that I would invest in initially in my business.

And after you do that is where you'll be able to receive data and see how things worked out rather than investing in something that you might not be ready for I quite honestly again as a business coach and entrepreneur coach. I will always have your best interest in mind So if you are investing in a business coach or entrepreneur coach, I want you to be ready for it I want you to have done some work.

I want you to have taken some action so that you have data to work with so that you have uh experience to work with with your coach and that you've Have Understood some of the decision making that you've done and why you've went that decision and why did you do that route and That way you can optimize your Relationship and your investment in a coach if you ever decide to go that route if you ever feel like that's a route for you So let me tell you the three areas where I think you should invest in first Number one is investing in your product or service.

You cannot have a business without your product, right? Without the product that you want to sell or without a service that you want to deliver. And first, you have to figure that out. Figure out what product, what service you want to sell. Maybe it's both, but I would start with one, especially if you're having a hard time thinking of an idea or thinking of what you would like to provide to your customers.

I had a really hard time with this. I was all over the place. Eventually, I landed on coaching because as a social worker, case manager experience and background, that was naturally what I felt I was good at. And, uh, That's what I decided to do, so coaching is what I sell, right? But I wish that I would have then looked at the building out of a coaching program for example or the building out of Figuring out the systems that I need to have in place in order to deliver my coaching service so The things that I needed as a coach was not much right if especially I Decided to do this during the pandemic And during that time nobody was meeting in person business coaching was sort of Trying to figure out a way to do this online, right?

It was obviously we figured out that virtual is a very powerful tool to still connect with people. And that's my, that was my entryway into coaching is a lot of it was through virtual connections with people. And If I needed to deliver my coaching service, I needed a Program to deliver it through right?

I use google meet So what does it cost me to invest in a google meet or a zoom account? For example, most people use zoom. That's the platform or software that most people are aware of and are familiar with and I use Google meet for my coaching services. So if I need at minimum. a zoom account or a google meet account and i'm going to look into how much the priciness for for that particular software if you're building out a product let's say you're selling candles you need to figure out how much it costs you to make your candle how much does each you element of your candle costs, right?

So looking into investing into the wholesale supplies of your candle jar and the wicker and the wax, all of those things, right? So looking into the building of your product or your service. maybe you cut hair.

That's a service based business Maybe you need a chair at a studio investing in that chair. Maybe you look at your own studio or your own , Barbershop or your own space.

Okay, so That would be number one if it's It's building out the product. So what do you need to build it out? And what is all of that going to cost initially, right? So looking at that so now that's bucket number one bucket number two Is is the delivery of your service or the delivery of your product, so how are you going to get the product into your

your customer's hands. Are you gonna ship it? Are they gonna come into a store and buy it? personally, are you going to Yeah, I guess those are the only two Or maybe you go to pop ups and sell our pop ups, right? So, how are you gonna deliver your product? And if you're a Service based business. How are you? what are the systems that you need in place to be able to deliver your service? Um, so I'm thinking about my dad right now who owns a shoe repair shop. He's a service based business. There's he does shoe repair luggage repair. So it's a service based business, but people come to his brick and mortar So that brick and mortar is his delivery system.

That's where he has his materials his all of his tools his uh equipment All of his everything He runs through that shop, right? So If you need a physical space to deliver your product to deliver your system, looking into what would be the investment for that space, and if it's online, then maybe it's looking at the software that you need again, the zoom or Google meet, or, perhaps if you're doing a, if you're a, a therapist, you need a software that has HIPAA, for example.

So looking at the minimum requirements that you need to deliver your service, in compliance with the regulations and, uh, policies and laws of your state and what you're delivering. So looking at delivery. all those software. And then bucket number three to invest in is awareness. How do you want to make people aware of your business?

How, essentially it is marketing, right? But marketing encompasses a whole plethora of things. channels and ways that you can let people know of your business but then what is the initial investment that you want to Put into to make people aware of what you can provide of what your business provides It could be something as simple as business cards, right? maybe you're very skilled at networking and talking with people and making relationships and making connections. If that's something that you're really good at, lean into it and make those business cards, invest in those business cards. So that when you do. Go to conferences and networking events.

You have something that you can provide to people to remember you by invest in conferences, invest in networking events. There are free ones, but there are ones that are a couple hundred dollars that maybe last two days where you sit on panels or you sit sit and do workshops and you do you connect with people and when you invest in networking events sometimes you realize that the people that are there who have also invested in themselves those are the people that you want to be around in those are the people you want to make connections with right there's a different energy when you go to an event where it's free and people are there but when you know how people have invested in themselves to go to this event to be around other people who have invested in themselves, that can really, help you along the way.

So investing in awareness. So that could look like, like again, just networking and, and going out to different conferences and giving people your business card. And you could invest in perhaps a podcast, creating a podcast, right? That's creating awareness, you're putting out information out, but that requires that you invest in equipment, that you invest in, in software, that you invest perhaps in an editor if you're not good at editing.

So all of these things you want to think about in terms of your skills and your abilities so that you know where Invest your your initial time and energy time and money in because in the beginning, it's really about gaining that traction, gaining those first few customers and clients and doing it as resourceful as possible with what you have.

So know that you can Figure it out and that these are the the top three things to think about if you're just starting out And you're thinking about where to invest is the building of your product or service The delivery of your product or service and the awareness of your product or service How are you going to make people aware and again awareness doesn't mean or it doesn't equal to marketing.

It just means that you are investing in a particular channel that's going to help people learn about you and know about you and what you do and what your product is and what your or what your service is. Delivers. Okay, so it could be as simple as networking. Of course, you can. I would suggest trying not to invest in heavy marketing in the beginning, just because you want to get your feet wet with that aspect first.

Marketing. Can't it can be tough. But understand the different ways that you can market yourself and it doesn't have to be a whole radio or tv ad. It can be you going out and meeting people. It could be you hosting a webinar. So if you already invested in a zoom so that you can deliver your service virtually.

Perhaps do webinars so that you free webinars so that people can, uh, come to your webinar and learn about you and what you do and what you, how you approach your work. And. You're basically killing two birds with one stone. Is that the same? I don't know if that's the same. I can't remember but , you're using the same tools to not just deliver your service but to build awareness and create awareness And you want to be resourceful as possible And be able to figure things out along the way and do it at I'm not saying do it on your own in terms of like isolate yourself and don't talk to anybody Seek out community for sure, but I would say Try things on your own first when you're taking action when you're investing in something when you're taking a risk Do it Where you trust yourself?

First, and then if you still feel like you need a business coach or an entrepreneur coach or any sort of coach that can help guide you, at least you have the data and experience to let them know how and why you've made those decisions. And then you can have a better sense of what you need support in.

Rather than like I need support in everything. I don't know where to focus which actually makes it a little bit harder For your coach to really hone in on something if you haven't tried things yourself first Right. So as a business coach myself as an entrepreneur coach myself I want My clients to feel confident in their ability to figure things out and to do it on their own so that they can flex that muscle of problem solving.

And then we can come back and brainstorm together and figure things out together with enough data points and action so that we can, we have enough Experience and information to reflect on and then to tweak along the way. So I want you to do that so especially if you're in the beginning of your entrepreneurship journey and you're like, you know what I have a Full time job right now.

I can fund my own business right now And you're thinking about taking that step and starting that business Think about these three things The building of your product or service the delivery Of your product or service and the awareness and all of that is hopefully going to build together so that you can receive your first few clients and then figure out Where can you invest your next big investment in as you grow as you've taken action?

So that's what I would recommend And I hope that this helps. I hope that it gives you the the right Clarity so that you can move forward in your business And you can take action. I know with full confidence that you can do it All right amiga, thank you so much for being here for listening if you have any questions about any of what we talked about today I'd love to hear from you.

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You got this and I will see you in the next bye.