Once upon a time, there was a tradition in business. It said that you should always keep the very first dollar you ever made, the one from your first ever sale. You may even see these dollar bills – or perhaps a check – framed by cash registers on or office walls. However, as fun as it may be to keep that dollar and to look at it from time to time to see how far you’ve come, a far better idea is to invest it. Here are some of the best ways to invest your company’s first profits that will hopefully see you become extremely successful indeed.
Improving Your Business
If you want to run and sustain a successful business, you will need to continue to improve it and update it. Reinvesting your first profits into the business and using the funds to buy better equipment, for example, could be the perfect plan. If you want to do this, however, make sure that there is a sound strategy behind spending the money. Look at the opportunity from an objective point of view, as if you were an independent investor. Would you want to put your money into your company? Can you see your investment returning a profit? Or would you just be reinvesting because you don’t know what else to do with your profits? Think about whether that money would be able to help you streamline your business processes or improve the customer experience. Perhaps it would go towards adapting and improving the general infrastructure or buying machinery or a new truck. Whatever it is, there needs to be a reason behind it. As long as your idea allows you to increase your profits and expand your business, you should invest.
For Marketing
Marketing of your company is generally always going to be a wise investment, as long as the marketing is done well. Great marketing can happen on a tiny budget, and marketing campaigns with a huge amount of money behind them can fail massively. This is usually because not enough research has been carried out before launching into the marketing aspect of the company. Carrying out proper market research before you begin marketing is essential. You will be able to discover who your target market is and tailor your marketing efforts towards them. You should also take the opportunity to do market research on your competitors. Find out how they market their items, what prices they sell at, how they treat their customers and anything else you can discover about them. The more information you have, the easier it will be to create an advertising campaign that shows how much better you are than they are, which is how successful campaigns come about. If you really don’t know where to start and there is enough money to do so, why not outsource your marketing to an agency?
Grow Your Team
In some cases, the business itself will be in great shape, and not need any investment in marketing or infrastructure. In fact, it might be because these things are already so good that you are at a point where you can invest in your team instead. Having a better workforce in your company means that your business can become more profitable with much less input from you. If you have a team you can rely on, you can work much more on the business rather than in the business, and that makes a big difference not only to how you and your company are perceived, but to how you feel about the business too. If you are able to grow it and not worry about the minutiae because you have hired the right team to take care of the little things (and some of the bigger things, come to that) for you, then you will be much more productive. Not only can you hire more team members (or make your first hire, if you are a very new startup) but you can also invest more into the team itself. You can start to include better benefits packages, for example, allowing for more holiday time or gym membership, or free lunches. It depends on how you want to reward your team, and how much money you have to play with, of course. However, doing all of this can help to boost your team’s morale, and make them feel a great sense of loyalty towards you. Your business will grow because those working within it want it to grow.
Grow Yourself
Investing in yourself as a business owner is just as important as investing in any other aspect of your business. The more you know, the more you can put into your company in terms of expertise and new ideas. There are likely to be some aspects of owning and running a company that you lack skills in, so concentrate on them. For example, you may be able to come up with excellent ideas and implement them, but you may not be so adept at dealing with people face to face, or you may not understand quite how to lead a team. These are things that can be learned through training and workshops, so investing in buying yourself a space on a course that will help you is a wise idea.
Grow Others
If you already have enough of a sound investment in your company, your team always works well, and you are an experienced entrepreneur, then you might consider investing your money into other businesses. There are always people looking for startup capital, and if you take your time to investigate more about the company you are potentially going to invest in, then you could make a good return on your initial investment. There are many different ways to invest, and places too. You might like the idea of investing abroad; thebusinessyear.com recommends Ras Al Khaimah, for example. The important thing to do is to make sure you know what you are investing in, and what return you should realize. It’s best to have an expert go through any proposals to ensure that everything is as it should be.
Could You Coach?
Another way to enhance other people’s businesses, and add another revenue stream to your own, is to start coaching those who need a little help. You could choose from any number of different specialisms including business management, law, how to manage a team, how to start a business, how to grow a business, and much more. You can use the profits from your company to invest in this new branch. In order to be successful in coaching, you need to have a proven track record, so that those coming to you for help can see exactly how you went about becoming successful. If you have the experience, the knowledge, and the will to help others, coaching can be a fantastic way to invest your profits.
Outsourcing
No one loves every single part of their business. There are always some tasks that fall to the bottom of the to-do list, even if they happen to be important ones. If you have the cash, then why not look at outsourcing the things that you don’t like doing? This doesn’t necessarily mean hiring people full time. You can use freelancers or part-time workers who can help you when you need it. A bookkeeper, for example, might only be required for one day a month. A content writer could update your blog once a week. You can hire these experts on an ‘as and when’ basis, and they can do the tasks that you don’t enjoy. This will free up your time to work in other parts of the business, and it will make going to work a lot more enjoyable if you don’t have to contend with the things you don’t like.
Your Online Presence
Another place to invest that profit that you made is in your online presence. If you don’t already have a website, now is the time to create one. If you do, now is the time to audit it (or have someone else audit it) and ensure that it is working for you, bringing in potential customers and persuading them to buy from you rather than your competitors. You will need to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) in order to get your website on the first page (and ideally near the top) of Google, for example. This is another time when outsourcing can be a good idea, because SEO is a specialized skill that can really boost your sales. As far as returns on investment go, engaging an expert to work on your SEO can offer some of the best. It’s not just your website that gives you an online presence, though; your social media accounts will do the same. Make sure that you have signed up to at least one account, and that you maintain it. Again, outsourcing this can be a good idea as, if you want to do it right, it can be a big job.
