When you are first starting out your business, it’s not like you’re necessarily swimming in cash. Therefore it’s really hard to take advice on investing in your business and investing in yourself, when you barely have any cash to start off with. So if you find yourself in this position, you can use some of the strategies I’m going to share today.

Get a part time job

If you’re reading this post, you’re probably someone who’s starting up your business full time, that is, you don’t have another job on the side or any income coming in. The first recommendation that I have for you is to get a part time job. Now, I know that this might sound like a shocker to you, especially since majority of us start our business to not work for anyone else. However, what I learned in my experience of leaving my nine to five without a backup plan, and trying to start my business from scratch, is that not having cash flow coming in can really affect your abilities to make good decisions in business.

Let me explain. If you have chosen to start your own business from scratch, you’d probably be having some money saved up, and you’d think that you would be okay. However, slowly but surely when you see your bank account draining every single day, it would begin to make you very uncomfortable, and that discomfort would translate to you making poor decisions in business. You would constantly end up cheaping out on essential services that you need for your business to grow.

Not only that, you would also end up operating your business in fear. That’s definitely not the mindset that you want to go into when you’re trying to build your empire. If you’re trying to build your business out of fear, then you’re always going to add unnecessary stress on yourself. That’s why, in order to protect your mental health and wellbeing, I highly recommend that you get a part time job which is super simple, and doesn’t take too much of your mental energy in order for you to get a steady paycheck coming in. That would really help you to not stress so much about money and see your bank account dwindle. It would give you a lot of peace of mind, so that you can operate more confidently in your business. It is highly recommended to drop your ego and go for this. You have to take that sacrifice and get a part time job to support yourself as you’re growing your business.

Now I do understand that everyone’s financial and life situation is different. You might have kids to feed, a mortgage to pay, and therefore it’s not that easy to just get a minimum wage part time job. That’s why if you are someone who already has a full time job, and you can’t necessarily quit and go all in on your business, then at least use a portion of the paycheck that you receive from your company to invest back into your business. Treat that company that you work for currently as your biggest investor. The bottom line is that there are sacrifices that you need to make in order to run your business. It’s not just peaches and rainbows.

Be as resourceful as you can be

Moving onto the next piece of advice that I have for you is to first ask yourself, ‘Can I do this myself?’ Some people, when they’re just starting off, get too excited on doing branding, photography, logo design, and a fancy website right from the start, and end up spending too much money by hiring someone to do all these things. In reality, there are plenty of other things that that money can be better used for, other than pretty logos and pretty branding.

You see, when you’re first starting out, you don’t really have proof of concept of what you’re building and what’s actually going to stick. Who’s to say that a year later, you might completely change your business direction, or you might not get any traction in your business and therefore you’re going to have to make a big pivot? More importantly, you probably don’t even have an audience yet that’s going to give you feedback on your positioning, on your niche, on your personal brand and all of that. You don’t really know yourself yet. That’s why, I highly do not recommend that you invest in pretty branding or on someone to develop your website, until you actually have proof of concept for your business.

So when it comes to making investments in your business, really be honest with yourself. Are you truly being the most resourceful that you can be? If there’s something that you can’t do, for example, legally incorporating your business, that is definitely something that is worth investing in. But if it’s something that you can probably do yourself, like creating your own website or designing your own logo, then it’s not the best decision to hire someone else to do it for you.

Invest in things that can generate income for you

The next question that you want to ask yourself when you’re on the fence of whether or not you should invest is, ‘Does this have the potential to generate future income for me?’ If the answer is no to that question, then don’t buy it. This is the question that would stop you from going crazy with online shopping, buying new clothes, buying new shoes, or buying new makeup.

On the flip side, when you are considering to buy courses or hire a mentor, you would ask yourself the same question, and the answer would likely be yes. For instance, if you buy a Facebook ads course, you would probably learn how to do Facebook ads, and by having this new skill, you have the potential to generate more income that you didn’t have before. These are definitely considerations that you want to make within your business to make sure that you are truly making the most out of your money.

Invest in things that save you time

The third question that you want to ask yourself when you’re thinking of investing in your business is, ‘Will this save me more time?’ What you need to realize, especially as you grow in your business, is that your time becomes more and more valuable. If you are able to invest in things that are going to save you time, and make your life way easier and way more efficient, then it is probably something worth investing in. For example, when you hire a mentor, it can seem like a hefty investment in the long run, but you are actually saving yourself so much of time. If you don’t take professional advice on your business idea and strategy, you would probably not have that necessary clarity and that necessary action step to move forward in your business. That’s why investments like these are usually well worth it.

Something as simple as software can also save you a lot of time as well. Some softwares can really help you save a lot of headache in the short term as well as long term.

See your personal expenses as a percentage

Moving on to the next tip that I have for you when it comes to saving money, and managing money within your business, is to see your expenses as a percentage of your revenue. What you need to realize is just because you have money, it doesn’t mean you have to spend it. It’s always best to allocate a certain percentage of your income or revenue to spend on your personal accessories or luxuries, while keeping the rest to reinvest into your business.

Seek out for experts

The next tip that I have for you when it comes to managing your money is to make sure you are seeking out experts. Now, if you are at the very beginning of starting your business, and you don’t necessarily have the capital yet to invest in hiring experts, at least what you can do is to make sure you are self educating. You can self educate yourself by regularly visiting forums and chatting with other entrepreneurs. Building up your network around other business owners would give you valuable insights on the little but crucial things that you need to know to make your business thrive. For example, how do you pay yourself? What is the most tax efficient way to operate your business? What can you expense or not expense? What platforms or merchants can you use that have the least transaction fees? There are so many such little things, which only people who are experienced in running a business can tell you about.

Wishing you all the best in your new business venture. You rock!