006. How to Decide When It's Time to Invest in Your Business

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business like a woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello my friends, and welcome to episode six, how to invest in your business. And this is super fresh in my mind because I just got back from my mastermind meeting in Phoenix a few days ago and I have a lot of thoughts about investing and making this decision to invest. And I wanted to share them with you because I think that had I known or really thought through what I'm going to share with you today, many, many years ago, I think my trajectory of my business would have been totally different because I was never taught and never really learned, like, how to invest in my business. We are given investment advice, you know, to invest in stocks and bonds for retirement and college plans and all of that. But investing in ourselves and in our business is not really taught. And especially for us as women, it's so important because we are so much less likely to invest in our businesses and, and in ourselves. And we're much slower to invest than men is what the statistics show. And we're much less likely to take the risk and find out how we can raise money and invest in ourselves and in our businesses. And so I wanted to talk about this today to help you hopefully not do what I did, which was not start investing in myself and in my business for the first, you know, until my business was like 10 years old. So I recommend investing a lot sooner and a lot more aggressively. I am not an investment advisor. Let me say, the insurance folks and the lawyers would love to hear me say that. Right? So I am a business coach and sharing my personal journey and not giving professional investment advice. And of course, you know, you should always check with your professional investment advisor before making investments. But I'm talking to you today about putting time and money into, to yourself and your business in order to develop your, your business and to grow your business. And so, like I said, this came up for me a lot around investing in the mastermind that I'm a part of. And it was such an amazing meeting that I just got back from. I mean, I just have to say, as an aside, the meetings and the coaching and the masterminding is all amazing, but I get even more value, I think, from just being in the presence of these amazing women. They are all CEOs and we all are parents and partners and Sisters and daughters. And so it's amazing to see so much amazing, so much intelligence and also women with balance in their lives able to be. Have the different roles and not just be, you know, driving themselves into the ground with their business. So. But I just love that. It's very inspiring to me anyhow. So if I have to be truthful about investing in myself and in my business, it is. Has not been easy for me. I think, like I've said in the past, and I don't even know if I said it earlier in this podcast, but for the first 10 years of my business, I basically diyed my business. I did not invest much. I would go to, you know, you know, a conference here or there, or maybe buy a little course here or there, but there wasn't really any thought or intention around it. It was mainly from a place of lack, like, what am I lacking that I need to be learning or, you know, looking to sources outside of me to help me grow my business. And so what, what has changed for me over the last five years is learning that, number one, the way to think about investing in yourself and your business is that every dollar that you spend in your business needs to produce a return. And so that's everything. I consider that from the cup of coffee that I buy when I meet up with, with someone for a coffee chat, all the way to, you know, the, the office supplies that I buy, the computer, all the way to making big investments in coaching and in masterminds, it all needs to produce a return, right? It is an investment. And so it's not spending money, it's investing money. And so I want to make sure, and I take full responsibility myself for creating a return on all of those investments. And since I took that frame of mind, it has completely changed the way I think about money in my business and investing and where I put my money. And so going back to this mastermind, I really did agonize over whether to make this investment. And for a long time. So we had to make the commitment and the decision back in August. And so around that time, I was talking with one of my colleagues who is an amazingly intelligent financial coach, money coach, and she asked me, she said, melissa, how much revenue growth have you had in your business over the last year? And I had no idea. So I had to go look it up. And when I did, because over the last years, really when I started coaching with this coach and this mastermind, and so she said, well, how much, you know, revenue growth have you had over that period of time? And So I went and I looked and turns out I had 48% revenue growth rate over the period of time that I started coaching or getting coached. And she said, well, you know, 48% growth rate plus I had made my money back. I don't know, at least I think the first time I invested I probably made five times my money back, maybe six times my money back, the second time, maybe three times my money back. So I, I definitely made my money back on each round. But then she said to me, 48% revenue growth rate, that's an investment that as an investor you would take that all day long. And that really changed my thinking about investing. I thought, well, yeah, I mean, I can't invest that amount of money in Apple stock, for example, or IBM and expect a 48, 49 or 48% growth rate or return on that investment. And so, you know, she's like, of course at 48%, like that's just a no brainer. Of course you're going to invest in yourself all day long if that's the kind of returns that you can create for yourself. And the fun thing is to think about, yeah, you know, maybe I would take that money and go invest in IBM or you know, some blue chip Dow Jones industrial stock, right? But I have no control over whether I get that return on that money. However, if I invest that in my business, I have complete control over whether I get that return on that investment. And so that's also a change in the way I thought about it is that I have the option, I have the control, the responsibility for creating that return. And so that was the first pivotal moment for me in making this decision. So I thought, well of course, you know, like I'm going to make that investment all day long. And just like our brains do, mine kept going back and forth about this decision. Even though I had already made the decision and committed to going, I still kind of was going back and forth in my mind. And it all kind of came to a head a couple weeks before it was time to go to the mastermind meeting because I was, my brain was just really torturing me over this. I kept going back and forth and back and forth and I realized that I, that I had this thought that I didn't have enough money. Like I don't, I can't afford this, I don't have enough money for this and I shouldn't be doing it right. And then when I actually went and looked, I discovered that that was not true. I had the money and, but I was feeling and it was because I hadn't been meeting some of my revenue goals. And so I was frustrated about that, and my mind was telling me I wasn't making enough money. And so from that place of lack, I went back to this decision of whether I should be part of this mastermind or not. And when I did that, then it just created that. I reverted back, I think, to that feeling of confusion over whether it was the right decision or not. And so, first, it's never a good idea to be making decisions about the future of yourself and your business based on lack and what you're lacking. So that's a good point. But even more important than that, I knew that I had enough money. So that was not true. And so I realized what was actually going on, that if I thought, okay, if money is no object, what is the real issue here? And that's when it really hit me. There. There were thoughts and feelings that went way beyond the issue of money. And I see this so often with women in business and making decisions about investing in themselves and their business is when we strip away all the money thoughts about money. Because that's only a surface issue. It's just a mask, right? And because the truth is, if you want to find money, if you need to get your hands on money, especially as a business, you can. There's plenty of financing out there, and money never has to be an issue. So if money is not the issue, if money is no object, then what's the real issue? When I asked myself that, I realized that there was fear there. Really, what it was driven by was fear. Fear that I'm not going to be able to get the results I want. Fear that if I'm going all in on myself and my business, am I good enough? Am I good enough to create the results I want to create? What if I can't? What if I won't be able to work enough or do it right or whatever? It's all those. And we all have those thoughts, right? And so that's just how they were coming up. But they were manifesting as me questioning my investment and thinking I don't have enough money or that it costs too much. And so anytime you feel those or hear those thoughts coming up, I just invite you to really question them. Because if money were no object, what would you do? And so that's. Too often we dismiss ideas and plans and things that we want to do for our business and investing because we think that costs too much. And I know for me, that kind of comes from my childhood from my family of origin, that was something that we heard a lot, that whatever it is, costs too much. Right? But. And in a family and personal finances, that is one consideration. But in your business, I think that we have to have a different way of thinking about money and investing. And like I said earlier, that any dollar that we spend in our business should create a return for us. And so we're always spending money in order to make more money in the future. And so that is always the way to be thinking about investing is if I spend this dollar, how can I make $2 in return? Right? And so there's two different ways or two different parts of making an investment decision. I believe in investing in yourself and your business. And number one of them, number one is this question of if money were no object, what would I decide? Because if you believe that you can, that it is possible to create a return on every dollar that you spend in your business, then money is no object, right? And money is always available to us. So that doesn't have to be a consideration. And I know maybe that sounds a little crazy, but it really is true. So the second, actually, I have three. The second consideration is to set your standard for investing. So your time, both your time and your money, right? Anytime you're investing your time, whether it's in learning something or taking a meeting or, you know, driving an hour to a networking meeting or whatever it is, make sure that you have a return planned for that time and the money that you're spending. And what is the standard for you in your business? In my business, I expect myself to create at least a 2,200% return on my investment. So I 2x every dollar that I invest. And so far, since I've created this standard and decided that this is the standard for me and my business, I've been able to achieve this. And so I'm really proud of that. And so it just takes making the decision, because what, what that does is you decide that that's the standard that you want for your business, then you also can decide that you are responsible for creating those results. And there's so much freedom in that because you're not at the effect of the circumstances around you and around your business. If you are taking responsibility for creating your results, you also are creating your return. So then the question becomes, how are you going to make that happen? So I know for me, in making the investment in this mastermind, I was struggling in my belief that I could create a 2x at least 2x return on that investment. And that's where I was hesitant. And I thought it was about the money, but really it was about the fear and the belief. And you know, I was struggling in my belief. And so that's what I really needed to work on because the money was there. And so for you, just ask yourself, how will you make that happen? And so in this instance, for me, it's all about showing up to the mastermind. And we have weekly meetings, so showing up to the meetings, doing the work, getting coached, getting to know my colleagues and applying what I learn. And when I show up and I do the work because I do believe, believe that my coach has all the tools, has everything, and I have everything I need in order to 2x my investment, to double my investment. I have all the faith and confidence that she can help me do that. And then I just have to get to work on my belief that I can create that which I know I can. I mean, I have already this year created more than double of what the investment was in this mastermind. So why could I not do that in the next six months? Right. And so I wanted to just present this, these thoughts to you around investing because this is not something that we learn in business school in this way, the way that I've presented it to you today. We're not learning it like this from our personal financial and wealth advisors. And I think it's so important for us as women to be willing to invest in ourselves and our businesses to take that leap of faith, to believe that we can create a return. Because I know that you can. I believe in you and I believe, believe it because I've seen my clients do it, I've done it myself. I see my clients create returns on their investments all day long. And so I know it's possible for you. And I want you to take that leap of faith in order to grow and to experience the all that you're capable of experiencing. And you know, I think a lot of us in service businesses, we think, well, we can, we don't have to invest in, you know, we don't have to like buy a building or rent a space or buy inventory like folks in product based businesses do. So we can do it on the cheap. And yes, that is true, it is completely true. But it also is the path to a lot of loneliness and a lot of slow, slow growth and figuring, trying to figure things out yourself, which is really tough. And I did that for the first 10 years in my business. I did not invest the way I do now. And my growth was definitely a product of that, I did not grow quickly at all. Thankfully, I was able to create consistent five figure mid five figure revenue. But that was at the expense of experiencing all that I'm capable of. Right? So which is, you know, the other part of investing is so fun. It's like, okay, let me see how much I can create. I'll invest this and let's see what comes out of it. And the good news is I can create that return and it's so fun. So that's what I have for you today, my friends. And if you have any issues or want to chat about investing and making these kinds of decisions, definitely schedule a consult with me. I would be happy to talk over all this with you and answer any questions. And I hope you have a fabulous rest of your week and I will talk to you again next time. Goodbye. If you like this podcast and want to take this work deeper, I invite you to coach with me one on one. It all starts with a conversation. Let's get on a call together and I'd love to learn more about you and your business and together we can identify what is standing in the way of creating the business and life you envision. And then we'll create a plan to get you there. So visit my website@melissamkellog.com and find a spot on my calendar. I look forward to seeing you.