5 Investments I’ve Made in My Business this Year

One thing that I get asked about all the time is how to know what to and when to invest in your business. The funny thing about owning your own business is it can only operate on what you’re willing to invest in it. And no. This doesn’t only mean money. Although having money to invest in it certainly helps, there are other ways to invest in your business that, in my opinion, are just as important. Time, energy, and your overall well-being as the CEO matter greatly as well. 

What Should an Entrepreneur Invest in?

Before I jump into the investments I’ve made in my own business this year, I want to preface it by saying… I haven’t always been able to make these types of investments in my business. There was a time when all I could invest was my time, energy, and learning from free resources on the internet. You do the best you can at the given time with the intention of growing and learning as you go. There’s always a place to start and grow from that will feel comfortable to you.

Growing My Team

I’ve had many assistants over the years because for me; I know my zone of genius is in creating content and not in admin tasks. Now, this in no way means I think I’m above doing admin tasks. I’ve certainly done my fair share of back-end work in my business. I firmly believe that I have to know how to do it in case a situation arises that I need to and because as CEO of my business, I have to create the systems that work for me and teach them to others. 

TIP: I highly encourage you to develop your systems first, learn them, test them, perfect them, and be able to teach them to new team members.

Hiring someone and expecting them to teach you how they do it for other clients or for themselves is more of a coach or a service provider. Be sure you know what you want or need so you have the right expectations on cost.

For example, an hourly assistant is going to do the tasks you give them to do the way you ask them to do it while a management agency or specific service provider is going to charge you a premium for a service they provide based on a system they’ve developed and use for their own clients.  

Both have their place and I utilize both in my business. You just have to know what you want or need and have the right expectations going in. 

Team TCC consists of:

1. Graphic Designers: I have two. They are sisters and they are the bomb.com. I’ve been working with them for years and love them dearly. If you’ve seen a graphic on my blog or on LTK – it’s 100% likely that these two beauties made it! 
2. Pinterest and SEO Manager: This role is new this year as I’ve hired an agency to take over this part of my business. Pinterest has become our number one traffic source to my blog and I felt like it was time to delegate this to an expert. I have little to no expertise in Pinterest or SEO strategy (nor do I want to focus my energy on learning this) so I felt that an agency was the way to go here. 
3. Photographer and Videographer: Having high-quality content is important to me and while some of my content is shot on an iPhone with my 13-year-old daughter behind the lens, I use a professional photographer for brand work and or video work when needed! It is an expense I’m happy to pay because he is phenomenal. If you’ve ever seen my photos on IG and think… Who takes these pictures?? It’s probably him. 

It’s important to note here that all of these people work as contractors in my business. Some I pay hourly and some on retainer. This is what works for me right now and I have no plans to hire anyone full-time at this point although it is a possibility in the future. 

I joined a Mastermind: I’ve been investing in masterminds for as long as I’ve been an entrepreneur. For me, it’s about being in the energy of other creative women doing really big things in the world. I don’t join them to learn how to run my business, although those types of masterminds are available and out there, I personally join masterminds to put myself in the presence of people doing great things. That’s it. Ever heard the phrase, you are who you hang out with. That’s the idea. I strive to continually put myself in circles with badass women doing badass things in business. 

This year I have the luxury of being in the “Screw The Rules Mastermind with Katrina Ruth!” 

Podcast Equipment: That’s right! You heard it here first! I’m launching a podcast and am so freaking excited about it! I’ve been wanting to do this for years and while I didn’t know how it would look or come to fruition, it finally all came together for me as a Podcast! Project Influence™ the Podcast will be launching in March and I can’t wait to hear what you think! 

Products and Services I Use for my Business

I use a lot of different programs to organize my business and while you can certainly use free things like spreadsheets or good ole fashioned pen and paper – these are what work for me and I find worth the expense! 

1. Asana: This service is our TCC home base and I really don’t think I could live without it. Lol. It houses everything from my content calendar, revenue tracker, expense sheets, and timesheets for my contractors, to my brand directory and password vault for all the things. In short. It’s the key to my business and it keeps everything running smoothly. Myself and each of my team members have a profile so we can all work seamlessly together. 
2. Lightroom: product for photo editing and storing my presets
3. Canva Pro: So my graphics team can make amazing graphics! Also houses all of my brand assets (colors, fonts, logos, etc.)
4. Grammarly: I love this service because I write a lot of copy and apparently hate commas! Lol. 
5. Tailwind: For my Pinterest manager to do her Pinterest magic!