4 reasons why you should NOT invest in your business

I am a big advocate for investing in your business, which you’ll know if you’ve listened to the podcast for a while now. However, there are some times in your business journey when I really do not think it is a good idea or a good reason to invest in your business and in this episode, I’m going to share what the 4 reasons you should not invest in your business are.

Hello and welcome to The Clare Wood Podcast where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes, and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood. I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving and global impact.

Today’s episode of the podcast was recorded live as part of one of my Instagram lives, which I host every Tuesday, which is called Money Talk with Clare Wood. I recognise the sound quality might not be as good as what you’re used to. However, I’ve been moving house the last couple of weeks, which is a whole podcast episode in itself. I can’t wait to tell you about it, but I’m now living at my dream location by the beach. And I really didn’t want to miss putting out a fresh episode this week, which is why for the second week in a row, I have used content from my Instagram live. But moving forward, I will be recording podcast episodes, especially for you. So bear with me. This episode is still packed with content and I look forward to chatting to you again next week. Today I am chatting to you about reasons not to invest in your business.

Now, a lot of business owners talk about why you should invest in your business, including myself, but today I want to talk about some reasons why you shouldn’t invest in your business. And I really want to dive into some of the mistakes that I see people make when they are investing in their business, so that you don’t make these mistake yourself. Now, the caveat, of course, if you do want to grow in your business, if you do want to get different outcomes, you do need to invest, but these are reasons why you shouldn’t do it and shouldn’t do it right now.

Paving your own path rather than jumping on a craze

The first reason that I believe that you should not invest in your business at this point in time is because someone that you follow has suddenly become hugely successful and you are just jumping on the craze because you think everyone else is doing it. Now, of course, it makes sense to invest with and work with people that are successful business owners themselves. I’m not saying don’t do that, however, sometimes I see people jumping on a craze because everyone else is doing it. And I have to admit I’ve been guilty of this as well. And sometimes there are people that you follow, their content doesn’t resonate, the way that they share their messages doesn’t resonate, but you think everyone else is working with this person right now, I don’t want to miss out. You go into scarcity, you go into lack, and you think I’m going to buy their course or I’m going to hire that person because you think that because they’ve made a lot of money, that they can make you a lot of money.

And like I said, of course, being in the energy of successful people can help elevate you, but make sure that you are choosing mentors to work with. Not just because they’ve created success themselves, but because they’ve helped to create success in other people. I know for me, I find it far more inspiring watching the transformation stories of someone’s clients or people that have been through their course or program than witnessing someone else’s success. So just food for thought there. If you are looking to invest, whether it’s with a coach, a course or a program, check in what their results are saying, and check in that you are not just jumping on a craze. Check in that you are working with someone because their energy really does expand you.

A couple of things that I do want to check in there. Just because someone’s made a lot of money themselves, it doesn’t mean firstly, that what they are teaching is the skill gap that you need to fill. Again, I know I’ve been guilty of this, I followed someone and thought, oh, I need to do this. But really it wasn’t actually an area of my business that I needed to invest in at all. And the other thing that you really need to check in, is someone a good teacher, and does the way that they share content resonate with you? So something to wrap all of that up is it’s really checking in. Is this what I need right now? And is this the right person to support me to get the transformation? And I’m talking about, specifically for this one, investing with a coach, a course, or a program.

Avoiding the trap of thinking an investment will solve ALL your business problems

The second reason why I believe you should not invest is because you think the thing you are investing in is going to solve all of your problems. You think if I hire this team member, all the problems in my business will go away. If I move to my brand new office space, my life will be perfect. If I hire this coach, I will overnight become a millionaire. Sometimes we can place the investment on a pedestal, and I truly don’t believe that that is a healthy place to be investing from. And I’m speaking from experience here. And let me share an example. My first course I ever launched, I had 24 people join and that’s was an amazing first launch of my course. And so for the next round, I decided that I wanted to have 50 people come and join him. So I thought I’m going to go bigger, better. And so I hired a copywriter to create me an amazing sales page. And I spent a hell of a lot of money on Facebook ads. I spent thousands of dollars. So I invested $8,000 into my course launch. Now that makes sense. I’d had a successful first course launch. I thought, I definitely want to go bigger and better for this next launch. But I was doing it from a real place of lack. I was doing it from a place of, this has to work. So I spent, truthfully, that was nearly all of the money I had in my business at that point in time to try and create an outcome. And because I was doing it from the wrong space, because I was spending way more money than I felt comfortable with, I ended up being in a place of real resentment, anger, frustration. I was angry at myself for investing so much money. I was angry at my audience. This sounds so ridiculous, but I was like, “Why is this not resonating”? I’ve got all these ads running, surely people will be jumping in. And you can see the energetics behind the investment was completely wrong. And I see this sometimes where people go and hire a new team member and they think this person’s going to come in and solve all of their problems. But perhaps the new team member isn’t a good fit. Perhaps the new team member comes in and the systems are so antiquated and misaligned that even the best team member couldn’t bring the business into a thriving state.

So when you are investing, make sure that you are investing from the right place, from the right energetic state and that you aren’t expecting this investment, whether it’s in Facebook ads, whether it’s in a coach, whether it’s in a cause, whether it’s in a team member, whether it’s in an office space, whatever it’s in, make sure that you’re doing it from the right intent. Make sure that you’re doing it from the right reasons, rather than this thing has to solve all my problems. I’ve gone all in and if this doesn’t work, I don’t know what will. The truth is, investments are never guaranteed in business. That’s just the truth. You can work with a fantastic coach who has helped other people have amazing transformations and it might not work for you at this point in time. You can hire the most fantastic team member and you might not see the growth uplift that you had necessarily expected.

So when you’re investing, you do need to bear in mind that things don’t always go to plan and ask yourself, if this didn’t go to plan, how would I feel about it? I know these days when I make investments in my business, there’s such a different energy behind it. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, imagine if this worked, how cool would that be”? And so what I talk about is you’re investing from a place of expansion rather than a place of lack. Investing from a place of lack is if this doesn’t work, then I’ll be really cross. I’ll be resentful towards this coach that I’ve spent money on. I’ll be resentful towards that silly team member that didn’t work out, whatever it might be. So see how there’s such a different energetic shift. So when you are investing, don’t invest if you are doing it from a place of, “Oh my gosh, this has to work”.

There is such a difference between feeling stretched by an investment, but having the right energy behind it. And an example of this is, my coach that I hired, that I’m working with at the moment, I remember that when I first saw the amount of the investment, I was like, “Ooh, gosh, that’s a lot”. But everything about it felt so exciting and expansive to me. And I knew that even if I didn’t make any more money in the time of working with her, that I would just be so grateful to be in her energy for that period of time. Are you seeing what a difference there is in the choice of them.

Looking at your finances before investing

So the next reason not to invest in your business. A lot of people disagree with me here, but I’m going to share my two cents anyway. Don’t invest if you can’t afford it. And this is really closely connected with the point that I made just before. I’ve seen some coaches, particularly selling on stage, who are like, “If you want a change in your life, you come up with the money. Go and get a credit card, mortgage your house”. And perhaps for you, that feels right. And I’m not actually poo pooing that as an idea necessarily. I know some people who have done that and had radical changes in their life. They’ve gone all in. But my advice, personally, is don’t invest if you can’t afford it. There’s a massive difference between being stretched like, “Ooh gosh, that feels a bit uncomfortable to spend so much money to hire the new team member, join the course”, whatever it might be as compared to “This makes me feel sick because I literally don’t know that I can afford my bills if I invest this way”. And it’s connected to the energy behind it that I said in the last point I personally say to people, “Don’t invest if you don’t have the money for it”. And that doesn’t mean you need to have the whole, for example, I’ve definitely invested in a website and not had the cash all sitting in a bank account at a point in time. But I did know that over the period of time, I’m like, I know that I can comfortably afford those payments as and when they fall due. And similarly, I’ve invested in a mastermind and I knew that my business was going to grow throughout the time. But that’s very, very different to committing to something where you literally cannot afford it, and you know that you were going to feel stressed and sick by it. When you’re hiring new team members, it will feel uncomfortable, but I really encourage people to do it when your business is at a place where your cash flow can afford it, because otherwise there’s going to be a lot of pressure on that relationship there. I really believe that when you invest beyond your means, you can end up feeling resentful. And I just don’t think that’s a great way to be investing.

Releasing the pressure to invest right now

And then the fourth and final reason why I think you should not invest in your business right now is because you feel pressured to do so. Have you ever had the experience where you’ve gone and got a quote done for something, and then all of sudden you feel like, “Oh my gosh, I have to go ahead with it”. Or maybe you’ve had a discovery call with a coach or someone about working with them, and you suddenly feel extremely pressured in this situation. And perhaps you’ve stepped back and you’ve thought, “No, this isn’t right for me now”. And you are really getting pressured into moving forward. I do not believe that is the right place to be investing from. You should never feel pressured to make a decision that doesn’t feel right for you. A discovery call is not a commitment. Getting a quote is not a commitment. And I’ve actually had someone who prepared a quote for me and then got really quite aggressive about how much time they’d wasted when I said I decided not to go ahead. And if anything, that made me go, “Whoa, the fact that you are pressuring me so much really makes me feel like I’ve made the right decision here”.

Now, if you do chat to someone, if you do go and get a quote, if you do do a discovery call, of course someone is going to follow you up. They’re going to say, “Hey, are you going to go ahead”? “Hey, can I build your website for you”? Maybe you’ve interviewed someone for a job and they say, “Hey, are you going to hire me”? “Hey, had a great chat with you. I’d love to know, are you going to bring me on board?” That’s very different, you being pressured into a situation. Of course, it’s reasonable that someone can follow you up and check in, “Hey, would you like to go ahead”? If you were feeling like someone’s like, if you don’t make this decision, then these are the consequences or they’re really making you feel bad about it then perhaps it’s not the right time or the right way to make that decision. Just my thoughts on that topic. So like I said at the start, this isn’t an anti-investment chat at all. I truly believe that you need to invest to get massive changes in your business. And I really do believe that investing does feel uncomfortable.And I’ve said this again and again, but if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, chances are you’re going to keep getting the same outcome. And when we do lean into a bigger investment for the first time, it does feel really uncomfortable. My gosh, I remember feeling so terrified the first time I hired my first permanent team member or the first time I jumped into a mastermind and it was a big chunk of my profit. It felt scary, but these are some of the best decisions I’ve made in my business. So I’m not saying don’t invest, but I am saying that when you do invest, make sure that you’re doing it from the right place.

So let me just recap on the four times I believe you should not invest in your business.

1. Don’t invest just because the person that you want to work with is really successful. Just because a Facebook ads manager is running a multimillion dollar business themselves doesn’t mean that you’ll become a multimillionaire from working with them. Really think about what is the right thing for you, the skill sets that you were missing and how this person makes you feel. Does this coaches style of teaching resonate with you? Is this team member exciting you so much to bring them on board? Really think into the energy behind the investment.
2. Don’t invest when you think that someone or something is going to solve all of your problems. The truth is when we invest, there are no guarantees. So when you are making an investment, make sure that you aren’t doing it thinking that the said team member offers course, coach, whatever it might be is going to solve all your problems. The truth is, you are accountable for your own outcomes and yes, tools, system, support, coaches, mentors, all of those things can help support you to get the transformation that you want. But make sure that you aren’t putting all of the pressure into that one thing and thinking that it’s going to make everything fall into place.
3. Do not invest if you can’t afford it. If you are going to feel sick every time a payment comes out, it’s probably not a great energetic way to be going into an investment. The percentage that different people are happy to invest will vary. Some people are happy to go a lot more all in than other people, but make sure that you really do have the capacity to afford the investment over time.
4. Don’t invest because you feel pressured into making a decision. Just because someone’s done a quote for you, just because you’ve had a discovery call with someone, just because someone’s your mate, it doesn’t mean that you have to pay them and work with them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. If you do have any questions about investing in your business, about the timing of it, please feel free to reach out to me. I’m always happy to answer any questions in this space. Thank you so much for tuning in today and look forward to chatting to you again soon.

Thanks so much for listening. If you love this episode, please share it with your audience. And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @clare_wood_coach. And also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week, and I look forward to talking to you again next week.