The upside of being an Entrepreneur is that we live a life most only dream of, the downside is that we have to make decisions and choices most people never need to think about.

When you are starting or growing your business you need to decide where to invest your capital to get maximum return.  A business’s capital is time, energy and money.

One of the most profitable shifts you can make with your business is to look at how you view time, energy and money.  You can always make more money, it is a totally renewal resource. Time and energy are in limited supply and once spent can never be recouped.

So how can you get maximum bang for your business buck?

Investing Time and Energy

When you are starting out your main asset will be time and energy, want to get the highest return, look at spending it by

• Investing your energy in product/offer creation.  You need to have something to sell before you can make money.
• Completing market research, the more feedback you can gather on your offer the quicker you can nail it and get it profitable.
• Investing time in becoming visible so clients can find you, online and offline.

Investing Money

When you are ready or need to invest dollars, it’s critical that you invest to get the highest possible return.  Investing in the wrong order can sink your business, investing correctly can generate huge results

1.  Invest in what you don’t know you don’t know… nope that is not a typo or stutter

Invest in Knowledge
The best investment you can make in your business is yourself. Seek out training in areas you don’t have expertise in.  Don’t go out and buy a $25,000 coaching or sales package! Start where you are at and get the basics down first.  Fancy or advanced anything won’t help until the base is built.

Invest in Mentors and Coaches
Couple the knowledge you have acquired with some coaching or mentoring, a great coach/mentor can take you and your business places that you can’t get alone.  Be clear about what you need and hire for skill and delivery.

Invest in Professional Services
Unless you are a lawyer don’t try to become one, save the time spent Googling and just hire someone to do it for you.

Invest in Market Research
You don’t want to get $10K in and find out you are selling the wrong stuff, market test your offer before opening your checkbook. After you have invested time in validating your concept invest some money in market research to get the nuances of your offer locked in. 

2.  Invest in What You Know You Don’t Know

This is that “stuff” you know you need but would spend hours on YouTube trying to figure it out.  Your time is valuable, easier to spend the money and get it done for you.  Clearly identify what you need, be totally sure you really need it (an off line businesses online presence is not critical to revenue generation) and then find the best cost fit to get it done.

Your time is better spent creating and enhancing your offers than it is in learning how to be a website developer or graphic designer, spend your time on getting clear on what you need and then hire the skill set to get the job done.

3.  Invest in Better, Faster, Cheaper

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean it’s worth your time to do it.  Outsource the work that can be done quicker, easier or better by someone else.  A mature business knows that success is all about leveraging and utilizing the right resources.

Day to day admin, writing sales copy and creation of on-going content will need your input but not your effort to complete the actual work.  Your team is your second best internal business asset. Your best internal business asset is YOU so create and leverage a team that will support that.

Begin to build a powerhouse team to support your operational functions (what is required to keep the lights on) and free you up to focus on key money making activities and make room to create new opportunities.

Investing wisely and with focus will allow your business to flourish in unbelievable ways that will let you scale and grow with ease and confidence.