“Do this!”
“Try that!”
“Buy from me!”
There’s a lot of information floating around out there about how to be successful. Having created two businesses ourselves and having coached hundreds of creative entrepreneurs, we know the overwhelm that exists and can potentially paralyze you from moving forward and, ultimately, stop you from living the life you’ve imagined for yourself. So, we wanted to bring you some cold, hard advice about being successful.
Over the years, we’ve invested in ourselves BIG TIME by going to conferences, hiring our own business coach and surrounding ourselves with and giving as much value as possible to other successful entrepreneurs. We’ve met and learned from some incredible people along the way. Some of the advice below comes from these people. Some of it comes from other leaders that we admire and know you do/will, too.
We asked Daymond John and a handful of other successful entrepreneurs the same question…
If you only had $1,000 to invest in your business, what would you do with that money?
Here is what they said…
“I would take a very small portion of it and test it. Also, I would try to find how can that money serve me to create a strategic relationship with someone else. Strategic relationships are much more valuable than hard cash.” // Daymond John, Shark Tank
“Creating relationships…gifts, coffee, time with our vendors and couples.” // Krystel Tien, Couture Events
“If I were to have $1,000 to invest in my business right now it would be put right into Facebook ads to acquire new leads and customers and turn that $1,000 into $2,000 (or more). However, if I was just starting out with my business and unsure what to do, I’d invest it in education and training…while investing in training or coaching can be scary, it can be the quickest way for you to get a return on your money and invaluable to get on the right track with your business at the onset and making money quicker than you would otherwise on your own.” // Cole Humphus, Cole’s Classroom
“Education. I would invest that entire chunk back into my business through educational webinars / courses, amazing business books, a mastermind group and/or mentoring sessions. Education is like hitting the fast-forward button in your business because it allows you to learn from the mistakes of others, while strategizing for the future.” // Natalie Franke, The Rising Tide Society
“I think we would have to go with branding and marketing. Representing who you are through your logo and brand is so key to giving your business a jumpstart in the right direction.” // Heather Balliet, Amorology
“Invest in yourself.” // Sean McCabe, Hand lettering by Sean Wes
“I would put it towards hosting a high level and high value networking mixer. That money could be spent on appetizers and often times with a food minimum you can get private high class restaurant space on an off night. I would spend my time inviting the right people, so that it became a high value networking meeting for top performers. By adding so much value with a networking event like that to my ideal target audience of influencers this would give me the relational capital to take my business to the next level. With the right relationships you can do anything you put your mind to!” // Nick Unsworth, Life on Fire
“If I only had $1,000 to invest into So Worth Loving, I would put it towards inventory that I know I could get a return in. That way, I could double it.” // Eryn Eddy Erickson, So Worth Loving
“I’d invest in more training for our artisan partners. Education is the greatest investment anyone can make and it’s one that perpetuates and has the power to create real and lasting change. It’s a guarantee return every single time.” // Carly Burson, Tribe Alive
“Asana. It’s changed how we work at The Everygirl.” // Alaina Kaczmarski, The Everygirl
“At the risk of sounding self-serving, if I was just starting I would invest in myself by grabbing Speak-to-Sell so that I started off strong knowing how to articulate what I do in words that are meaningful to my ideal client and give them what they need to say yes to themselves and work with me! Yes, I’m biased!! But this is really what I did first and would do again!” // Lisa Sasevich
“TRAVEL! Going to conferences or traveling to connect with my fellow creative colleagues is the best investment I’ve ever made in my business.” // Kathleen Shannon, Being Boss
“I would likely save that money as a little nest egg for the next new hire that we plan to bring on. I learned through trial and error, that the more you try to do everything by yourself, the quicker you burn out and fail. Also the more time you spend on tasks that do not directly support your specific talents, the less time you have to nurture and enhance those special gifts. Contrary to popular belief, entrepreneurs do not always have to be a jane or jack of all trades. The sooner you can allow yourself to ask for help from others who are actually better at something than you, the better. You will be able to better serve your clients because you have learned to delegate the tasks that do not need your individual attention and having a bit of extra cash on hand certainly makes that transition easier on your bottom line.” // Jessica Howell, Social Studio Shop
“Spend it on your community! Building a business is all about building a network that supports each other through it all. Investing in those that invest in you is never a bad idea.” // Christina Farrow, Aisle Planner
Some underlying themes from the top dogs: Education & coaching; investing in yourself and strategic relationships; and outsourcing and delegating.
We couldn’t agree more.
