Karyn Paige 00:00
When we don’t want to invest money, we’re still investing something. And that’s time. If we’re not willing to invest money, that often means that it can take a little bit longer to achieve the same results. Whereas sometimes if you don’t want to invest more time in your business, that means you usually have to invest some money to make things happen a little bit faster, get a little bit more support, have a higher level experience. So if you’re like someone like me, who when I first started in my business, I wasn’t really eager to invest a lot of money, I ended up investing a lot more time trying to get the results. So that’s my personal philosophy on investing foundationally.

Sam Munoz 00:43
Welcome to making website magic where we empower women to step boldly into their web design businesses follow their intuition and claim the success they’re worthy of. I’m Sam Munoz.

Karyn Paige 00:54
And I’m Karyn page, where the tech wizards behind Sam Munoz consulting on the making website Magic School of Business. We’re two women here to talk about what it actually takes to run a web design business that’s aligned with your vision.

Sam Munoz 01:06
Spoiler alert, it probably isn’t what you think it is ready to hear about everything from refining your business vision, networking with intention and creating a magical client experience. Let’s do it. Why hello there, Karyn. Hey, Sam, I can’t wait to talk about this episode. Is that a jingle it is now. There we go. It’s done. It has been put out into the universe. Today, we’re talking about investing in your web design business. And I could not be more excited to dig into all of the stuff and the mindset and why we do it and what makes us afraid and all of those things. But uh, no. First, you wanted to read something that you saw on Instagram?

Karyn Paige 01:54
Yes. So you know, we love to shout out the folks who take the time to leave us reviews and respond to the podcast. And we’ve also been getting a lot of really great engagement on Instagram. So this one came in this comment and it says, Yes, I listened to the first episode. And it was amazing. I lost count of the number of times, I was nodding to what you guys are saying. And I made a plan to spend some time getting in touch with some older contacts when I have my next on the business Our thanks to exclamation points. Yeah. So it’s really exciting to know that not only are the podcast episodes, giving a lot of value, but also that you’re taking action and making moves in your business. So thank you so much for that comment. If you want to leave a comment, you know where to find us on Instagram, at Hello, someone yells at Karyn page, I will leave it at that because again, we’re super excited to start talking about investing in your web design business.

Sam Munoz 02:54
Yes. And speaking of taking action, I feel like that is such a good kind of theme to go into this episode with like a good mindset taking action in your business. I think we talked about that a little bit in episodes 15 and 16. Just this idea of showing up in your business being the badass woman you are, and going out here and making moves. So let’s first talk about why we’re talking about investing in your business and what it really means to invest in your business. And so we kind of broke this down into a couple of things. You’re either investing money or time in your business.

Karyn Paige 03:28
Yes. And so this is quite simply put, you’re either investing time, or you’re investing money. Now, you know, there’s definitely both and scenarios. But what I’m thinking of specifically is sometimes when we don’t want to invest money, we’re still investing something. And that’s time. And if we’re not willing to invest money, that often means that it can take a little bit longer to achieve the same results. Whereas sometimes if you don’t want to invest more time in your business, that means you usually have to invest some money to make things happen a little bit faster, get a little bit more support have a higher level experience. So if you’re like someone like me, who when I first started my business, I wasn’t really eager to invest a lot of money, I ended up investing a lot more time trying to get the results. So that’s my personal philosophy on investing foundationally

Sam Munoz 04:21
Yeah, totally. And I think that there’s a lot of different ways we invest in our business. And I think for this episode, in particular, we kind of wanted to touch on multiple different facets. And then maybe later if you guys are interested in us going deeper into any of these investment categories, let’s call it that we can totally make an entire episode on that. But basically, there are a few different areas that you might invest in your business. This might be something like operating expenses and tools, things that actually are required to make the foundations and functions of your business actually work. There could be things like continuing education and training things that make you better at your job, and then maybe something like team or something People that you can afford an offload things onto. And that might not be something that you’re ready to think about. Now, I think a lot of people jumped the gun on that. And they think that that’s the first thing they need to be investing in when those other you know, two categories are not even getting any time of day. And I think that that’s like very trendy right to invest in a team and like build a team. But you know, I will digress on that for a minute. But those are the main categories. Did I miss anything? Karyn,

Karyn Paige 05:26
I think you miss anything. But yeah, like thinking about investing in like training and continuation or continuing education. There’s also things like paying for premium software, or things that allow you to kind of experiment so that you can improve your skills and get better at what you do. So yeah, that’s tied into that for sure. So I also wanted to touch on, he said, that like investing in a team, for example, can be like really trendy and really popular to do. But it’s also important to remember that there are certain seasons of investment in your business, right? Like, there are certain investments that make sense depending on what phase you’re in. And so what you said earlier, like investing in a team, that might be a later on down the road phase, and not necessarily something that is a top priority for business investment, depending on where you’re at in the lifespan of your business,

Sam Munoz 06:13
right. So it’s important to identify where you are prior to making an investment. And we’re actually going to talk about how to make investments. But we’ll get there in a minute. But first, let’s talk about now that we’ve really distilled what we mean by investing in your business. Let’s talk about why investing is important in the first place. And I think we should start by kind of busting a myth, this online business IQ Enos, this lie, I think is what it is that you can just like open up your laptop and start making money for free. And, you know, I feel like that really lends itself to a very Freelancer mindset, you just you have no business foundations, you’re just here to do this service. And like we’ve talked about this in plenty of other episodes, like maybe make as much cash as possible as quick as possible. And there’s no foundations being created. There’s no business owner mindset being embodied. And I think that while I do believe that online business has minimal operating and startup expenses compared to something like a restaurant, I definitely think that is true. However, I do think if you want to run your business better and have a business built for longevity, like we talked about in a previous episode, that’s where we need to start making investments in the business. And that’s like the number one thing that I feel like is overarching this conversation is that there is this lie that we don’t have to invest in our businesses.

Karyn Paige 07:33
Yeah, and let’s be real, like, I feel like that myth of an online business requires zero investments, you can just open your laptop and start making money. To me when I hear that, that sounds like the gig economy, right? It sounds like side hustles. Like, I’m just doing this little thing, because I need quick cash. But what that ends up doing, like you said earlier, is it sets you up to put yourself in a role of a freelancer or like kind of like making money like gig to gig as it comes on the fly all of this sort of thing, which is a totally different outlook and mindset than someone who’s establishing a business with longevity. So I think it’s incredibly valid, that maybe that’s where we got started with that freelance, like gig economy mentality. But at a certain point, if you’re trying to shift into full time employment, you’re trying to shift into consistent work, you’re trying to shift into growing 18, maybe you’re even trying to shift into less time spent in your business, right, like more freedom and flexibility to perspective on investment is going to have to shift with you.

Sam Munoz 08:41
Oh, that’s such a good point. I love that you mentioned that I feel like that also ties back into what you said earlier about this idea of seasons and investment and kind of just being very discerning about where you are, and the kinds of things that are going to help you achieve your goals. This conversation is really making me think about Lauren cash. She is a past client of ours, we’ve been on her podcast, she owns verico. And she’s got this course called cultivate margin. And she’s her philosophy is very interesting about you know, creating margin in your life and having more time and space available. And we had this really interesting conversation her and I on Instagram one day about profits. And this idea that like sometimes we seek so much profit, right? So you know, the revenue minus the expenses, if I got that, right, we’re all in this pursuit of like, how can I make more money and keep more money that we burn ourselves out, we sacrifice the time and instead of spending money on things like investing in a team or investing in tools that will help you it’s like, you take the long way, just for more profit and like what’s the point of that?

Karyn Paige 09:47
And that reminds me of like the accounting classes I took in college where I was like, you know, taking business classes. It’s like that’s fundamentals like revenue minus expenses, right like that’s a pretty foundational prints. of business, right? Sometimes I think, again, as we’re in the online space, we are bypassing some of these traditional fundamentals. Because we are influenced by this idea of like disrupting, because tech is new. And it’s modern, you know, that’s my tech, bro. That’s my marketing, bro.

10:19
Yeah. Okay, so

Karyn Paige 10:20
yeah, it’s default. But a business is still a business at the end of the day, and businesses do require seed money. And this idea that our businesses because they exist online only don’t require any seed money is really harmful. And again, that’s part of the myth, right? So like you said, I say it takes money to make money. Any business person will tell you that, if you’re starting a business, there are startup costs, there are things that you need to invest in, literally to run the business, right, just getting comfortable with that idea, like just accepting it, and not resisting it and trying to cut all those corners, right? Like you were saying, so that you can have as much profit as possible, like, we need to really start reframing and shifting and just get like, just accept the reality the businesses require seed money,

Sam Munoz 11:14
they just do. Right? Once we start accepting that investing is important, we can start to reframe the investment in the first place and remind ourselves that investing our business is actually a joyful thing to do, right. It’s like, I know that I’m putting this money into this business, because I believe in it like, just like you give your childlike love and attention. Like it’s the same kind of thing that you do with your business, you know, you put your kid into extracurricular activities, because you’re like, I want to help them be the best person they can be. And it’s the same with our business, like we give it love, we give it attention, we give it the money that is required to take it to the next level, or continue it on the level that you’re at, to meet the goals that you have, I think another important investment, and a reason why investing is important, especially you mentioned this before, like those fundamental business foundations that we all need things like contracts, foundational documents, you know, like getting your LLC, if you want to do that setting up your business bank account, like these are things that help protect your business, help you stay rooted in solid business foundations will support a business with longevity. And I feel like when we cut those particular corners, we stifle our growth completely. Because we are out here thinking if I get any bigger, you know, I’m gonna have to worry that someone you know, might sue me or whatever. And that’s why you might do an LLC, like there’s reasons we set up our businesses and we invest in those things right off the bat,

Karyn Paige 12:35
what you said there really makes me think about, like, what ends up happening when you decide to cut those corners in the foundational fundamental elements of like starting up your business, right, and I’m thinking specifically, of maybe not getting like a business like Ei n. So for tax purposes, you can use your social security number, or you can use an Ei n, which is like your business entities version of a social security number, maybe you don’t want to do that, because that requires you to open a business license all these things when bla bla bla bla, and therefore you can’t open a business account. And maybe you don’t even want to open a business account, because you’re like, they’re gonna charge me $12 a month and maintenance fees, and I don’t want to spend that $12 a month, etc, etc. So all of a sudden, it’s like the things that you don’t want to do, because maybe they’re a hassle or they require minimal investments. I’m talking about literally like less than $100 to get these foundational documents in place. Right? So now all of your income is mixed in with your personal account. And so when it comes time to like do your taxes, or do your expense reports, all of these things, everything is just muddled together, and there’s no way to tease it out and delineate what is business and what is personal. And so there in lies, the thing we were talking about earlier is it’s an investment of time or money, it’s going to cost you more time and more frustration to separate your business finances, and you’ll get frustrated than it would to just say, okay, in order to get the business account, I need to do this, I need to do that. For me, for example, in the state of Washington, I think it was $27 to get my business license, you know what I mean? That’s less than how much I spent on sushi for myself on date night. You know what I mean? Like, it’s,

14:06
let’s put it in perspective.

Karyn Paige 14:08
But now you’re in this pickle, where come tax time, you’re super frustrated, and you’re crying because you just didn’t make this very simple investment. It’s also about thinking a little bit farther ahead than just now and how I feel about investing, you know, for example, $27 on a business license,

Sam Munoz 14:28
that’s a really, really good point. I also feel like that idea of the protection, the legalities, those foundational things cornerstones of running and starting your business contracts, etc. I feel like that also ties perfectly into this idea of professionalism in your business, you know, showing up as a professional to your clients in your business. Honestly, things like that make you feel legit, and help you gain that confidence. So you can walk into a sale right and say, This is how much it’s going to be Because I’m a professional business owner, you might literally be sitting in the corner of your apartment, recording videos and creating and designing websites, right? I’m just calling myself out here, because that’s what I’m doing. Yeah. But like, you’re still, you’re still a business owner. And you can stand in that so much better when you start making these types of investments. And I also think, you know, tying making a nice segue about professionalism, when you’re investing in things like we mentioned before, you know, continual education, experimentation, things that allow you to grow in your skill set, you also start to show up as more of a professional in that way, right? Like you have a more specialized, highly sought after unique skill set that other people don’t have that as you guys know, I always like to bring this back to this idea that you can charge more for that you can create better packages for your clients, you are a professional when you invest in your business, because again, going back to the idea of your child, like you’re showing your business, that it’s worth it,

Karyn Paige 15:59
yes. And also showing your business that it’s real, that it’s a real thing. Yeah, not like just something I was doing on the side, it’s a real business, it reminds me Actually, of what you were saying about the professionalism, right, like the kind of work that can be done, especially like in food and beverage, where you’re getting paid under the table. And that might seem appealing, because it’s like, it’s quite cash, I don’t have to report it like tax free free. But also, there’s not a lot of recourse if something goes wrong, right. So these things like investing in business licenses and protecting yourself against liability. Having privacy policies, Terms of Use also is protection for you and your business. It’s literally business insurance, you know what I mean? Like those types of things where like, this is real, I’m doing real business here, we’re making real transactions, like there’s also an element of let’s make sure everything is shipshape, and safe and protected. So I think about that. And when you were talking about professionalism, right, making it feel real, there’s also an element of efficiency that comes with investing in the tools that you need to operate your business from a very professional level, it makes things a lot simpler for you. And therefore it makes things simpler for your clients. So what I’m thinking about specifically, is what I like to refer to as frankensteining your business together, right? So for example, when I first started in business, I did not want to invest in something like dubsado, or honeybook, or one of those tools that allows you to do multiple things like you know, scheduling, contracts, client retention, and like all of these things. So what I did instead was I had a PayPal account where that’s where you could pay me, and I would send contracts through hellosign, which was free, and I would manually create emails in Gmail. So every time I was booking a client, there are three emails that they would have to receive in order to complete the process of booking the project. So not only was that an inefficient use of my time, it was also an inefficient use of their time. It was confusing, and it was like me putting a burden of responsibility on them to open all three emails to click all three links, to do all of these things. Where if I had just said, You know what, my business is worth the monthly fee of

Sam Munoz 18:26
$25 a month. Yep.

Karyn Paige 18:27
And my clients deserve a streamline experience right out of the gate at the onboarding, because that’s what they’re gonna get inside the project. Like, it was twofold. It’s partly about me, as a business owner and partly about my clients. And if everything is in service of being efficient, being tech savvy, being helpful, being kind, providing a service, let’s also think about how our clients experience fits into that,

Sam Munoz 18:57
oh, you just brought up so many things that are like giving me other thoughts about this. So the first thing that’s coming to mind when you say that, too, is like if you’re getting 3000 emails as a potential client, you’re like, first of all, is this the kind of experience that I’m going to have when I’m working with them? Are they going to be emailing me three different emails every day trying to communicate with me. Secondly, something we talk about all the time in our mentorship is this idea of lowering the barrier to entry for people. And so if someone has to fill out three different things in order to work with you and pay you money, that’s a huge barrier to entry versus click this link, sign the contract digitally in this one place, pay your invoice. Oh, by the way, you can set up automatic payments so that every payment that I need from you is pulled out automatically super easy for you as a business owner, super easy for your client very much lowering the barrier to entry. That’s a really, really big important point that you mentioned there. The other thing and this is even deeper than I thought that we were going to go here but if you We’re not going to invest in yourself, why is someone going to invest in you, if you’re not willing to invest in your This is making me think of the whole professionalism, increasing your skill set, things like that. If you’re not willing to put in the money into your own business and show your business how important it is, I’m thinking of it as like a tangible, you know, like a person, but whatever, and you’re not, and you’re not willing to invest in yourself in that way and learn better skills and learn to be more efficient. Take your business seriously put seed money into it, how can you really talk to a client and tell them you really should invest in your website? Because I know this is going to help you in your business? Oh, what kind of investments have you made? Oh, no, I haven’t made any.

Karyn Paige 20:42
Dang, you just blew my mind right there. I’m glad you took it to that deeper place that you didn’t think we were going because that is huge. That is huge. We are in the business of informing our web design clients, that it’s worthwhile for them to invest in their business by hiring us to create four figure websites or are you know, however much we’re charging. And yet, we’re over here trying to piecemeal these little like slapstick, bandaid, nickel and dime style businesses, because we’re stuck in the right now idea of of what that investment means or what that expense is, as opposed to even considering it, that it is an investment and we will see a return on it. Right?

Sam Munoz 21:29
I feel like this conversation helps us now think of so what is the return on the investment, right. That’s why we make an investment in the first place is not just an expense, it is putting money into something with the hope and the trust that we will get something back out of it, we will get some sort of return. And so I think that we really need to talk about that in terms of making investments in the first place. What is the return? And what is the importance of that?

Karyn Paige 21:53
Yes. Okay. So what that really makes me think of to is like, first and foremost is really reframing reframing this idea of like, every time I’m going to spend some money on something, is this a worthwhile investment in my business, right? So thinking about, for example, I might have to invest $15, this month, in order to hop on a discovery call with a client that actually has a team of people, you know, and usually when we’re on a zoom call, as long as there’s only two people in the room, yourself included, it’s free, right? But if I invest this $15, I could potentially make 30 $500. Is that $15 worth it?

Sam Munoz 22:36
I mean, yes, right? That’s just me. But then

Karyn Paige 22:38
also, you’re like, maybe it’s not worth it, I’m gonna take my chances, then you think about, okay, my ideal client is actually an organization. So it’s a team of people. So every time I get on a call, there’s probably going to be at least two people from the clients team there with me. So every time, I’m gonna get kicked off after 40 minutes if I stick with this free plan, but also, every time I get on the call, I have the opportunity to make 30 $500 or $5,000. So all of a sudden, you look at that investment. And you’re like, that totally makes sense. Because that makes it easier for me to make money that makes the barrier of entry lower for my clients to say yes, to me, that makes me look more professional. It gives me ease of mind, because now I’m not anxious about navigating a 45 minute conversation in 30 minutes or less, right? So you can take the time, you can show up better for your clients, you can mitigate your own anxiety, like, is that worth $15 a month? Probably. I’ve spent more than $15 a month on doughnuts. I don’t know, you know what I mean? Yeah,

Sam Munoz 23:46
I really feel like the way that you just described that in my brain. Now I’m thinking return on investment can mean so many different things, right? There’s so many different types of return. And it does depend on the type of investment but a single investment can have multiple different types of returns. So what do I mean by that? So with the example of like paying for like a premium service, or investing in yourself in education or something like that, you can have a return that looks like more time, you can have a return that looks like you make more money, you can have a return that looks like you have a more efficient professional business, you can have a return that looks like safety and comfort. Knowing that your business is legal, like we talked about earlier, you can have a return where you’re taken more seriously in your industry, because you have the skills required, you can have a return that your clients have an amazing experience, like there’s so many ways that your investment can be returned. And that’s really, really important when you’re starting to think about how to make investments in your business, which I know we want to talk about. We have like some things that you can check in with yourself about in terms of actually Okay, before you make an investment, think about these things. But we did want to have like a little caveat here with this whole idea of investing right and the return on the investment and trusting and all of that sometimes invest mints don’t work out. That is like the cost of doing business.

Karyn Paige 25:04
Yep. Sometimes you got to take the L, you know what I mean? Like, there have been a lot of investments that I’ve made in my business that didn’t lead anywhere. And I thought they were going to lead to something. And what I got out of that was a $99. Lesson,

Sam Munoz 25:20
I feel like when you start to check in with yourself, before you make an investment, that’s when you can start to minimize the risk. And that potential L, right, the potential for you to lose on an investment, by checking in with yourself ahead of time and making sure that it’s an actual aligned investment for your business for you for your growth. So let’s talk about how someone can check in with themselves before they make an investment in the first place,

Karyn Paige 25:47
you can ask yourself questions.

25:52
Literally like, is going to make my business more professional, or profitable?

Sam Munoz 25:57
That’s like, number one.

Karyn Paige 25:58
That’s number one. Right? For example, like, is investing in a tool like honeybook? Or dubsado? Going to make my business more professional? Yes,

Sam Munoz 26:08
or more profitable, right? Because again, it’s like that elevated client experience lowering the barrier to entry. So it is probably going to make your business more profitable. Yes, it’s going to cost you some money up front. But is it going to make you more profitable later on? And is it worth that expense? Probably? Another question I like to think about is, is this something I need in this season of business, and we touched on that at the top of the show, but investing in something like a team, let’s say might not be what you need right? This second, if you’re in the boat of, I’m sending out three different emails, right, and I’m sending out the contract and the invoice and all of these things separately, you might be tempted to say what I need is a virtual assistant to send out those three emails. But the truth is, what you need is a tool that will do that for you. Right? So it’s really like, what season of business Am I in? And what investment actually makes sense for where I’m at now, as well as where I want to go and how I want to grow?

Karyn Paige 27:04
Another question you can ask yourself is this investment in alignment with my business model and goals. And I can speak to this on a few different levels, right, because when I first started my business, I was actually really confused about what my business model was. So I was taking an advice from like the one to many stuff like content creators, course creators, passive business models, the kind of like, you know, the email, marketing funnel type of businesses, as well as my goals of like, what services I wanted to offer. So let me like just paint a quick little picture for you. When I first started my business, I was investing in premium email marketing providers, email service providers, right like, as opposed to using something free like MailChimp or mailer light, because I was told, if you want to take your business seriously, he needs to invest in a premium email marketing software that allows you to segment and do groups and like do link triggers and all of this stuff. Later on, I came to realize that the person who was telling me that I was getting an affiliate kickback from the premium email service provider that they were recommending to me. And also, I didn’t really need to worry about email marketing at all, because I’m in a business of one to one. And so it makes more sense for my business goals for acquiring clients to do personal relationship, building and cultivating a network. But I was distracted by this, like, you know, one to many build your email list type of model. So if if I had thought back, it could say, okay, is investing in this premium email marketing software aligned with my business model and align with my goals? No, no, it’s not,

Sam Munoz 28:37
you know, what it really stinks about that, too, is that it wasn’t even just a money investment. It was also a time investment, because you had to set all that stuff up, you had to figure out how it all worked, you had to connect it all together. And that’s like, that’s another part of the investment process too is like really making sure that you’re checking in on all factors of the investment, the time and the money, because just because you’re paying for something that’s automated, if it doesn’t align with your business model, and it really isn’t going to have the longevity for your business, it’s also sucking away the time as well

Karyn Paige 29:07
and it ended up sucking away so much more time because in order to feel like I was getting a return on investment, in that particular premium email marketing software, I started creating a bunch of content which I didn’t need to do which would validate the reason why I’m paying for this thing that I got to use I got to do content every week I have to create a freebie I have to go through the whole sales funnel process

Sam Munoz 29:29
right my email list every time yeah

Karyn Paige 29:32
and then what I ended up selling them at the end of the email marketing sales funnel wasn’t even Hey, get on a call it was sign up for this passive way that I can take care of your website through maintenance even though we’ve never met I don’t know what kind of emails like I don’t have a website you have. And then that opened up another rabbit hole where I had to invest in the payment gateway and the plugin and all that stuff to quote unquote look professional within the email marketing funnel but in no Were in there nowhere in that process in that investment of my time and my money, was I doing something that was going to be more profitable in my business, like cultivating my network with one on one connections? Right? So it wasn’t just that $27 a month investment. It was everything that came along with it. And I could have been so much better served. If I just simply ask myself, is this in alignment with my business model? And is this in alignment with my goals?

Sam Munoz 30:24
Yes. And this is making me think as always, we’re always referring to Episode Three of like, knowing what your goals are, and knowing what your dreams are making investments, you got to know what you’re trying to achieve, because you can’t understand if it is going to make it more profitable, if it’s something that you need, if it’s in alignment with your goals, if you don’t know what those goals are. Another question I like to think of when I’m making an investment is is this going to this is going back to the whole profitable thing, but like this is a very tangible question, Is this going to help me book a client with the example of zoom call, you know, premium zoom, or whatever or like, let’s take another example. At a certain point, for the longest time I was using the free calendly. And I loved it only had a discovery call link. That was all that was required. After a little while I wanted to start doing some site audits, that was like a service I was offering that was in demand by the people that actually wanted to work with me one on one. And I wanted to be able to accept their payment when they signed up for the call. And then I was like paying for calendly makes sense, because I am now going to get a return on that investment directly. So it helped me book clients. And then I started using calendly to elevate my client experience and allow for different call offers, right. So it was like if you’re a private client, there’s this private link that you have where you can book a call with me. And so it helps elevate the client experience, which of course, as always helps elevate your price. And so if it’s going to help you book a client or help improve a client experience and allow you to charge more for what you do, then it’s a worthwhile investment like loom now requires that you pay for it if you have five minutes or more of video. And if you’re creating video tutorials for your clients, like Hello, pay that $10 a month, I do my hands raised like we pay for Blum over here, because it’s an elevated client experience. And it allows us to book more clients and allows the business to be more profitable. So it’s a worth while investment, and it’s an alignment.

Karyn Paige 32:20
Another question you can ask yourself is, is this just a trendy thing? Yeah, so what I was thinking here is Instagram, Instagram is a trendy thing, any like, let’s be real, all of it. It’s all trendy. It’s all cute and beautiful, right? Going back to the idea to like the business model, the goal, etc. Right? Do you need to be investing $100 a year in Instagram scheduling tool, so that you can post more than 30 times a month? Full stop? Like that’s to me that calls another trendy category, right? Like creating content for Instagram is a trend, one of the ways to do it that you think might be efficient or saving you time is to do a scheduler so that way you can your content can get published, you know, outside of you actually doing it manually right. Now, to be fair, there are free versions of a lot of those platforms, right, that are limited to like maybe you can only post once a day, we can even we won’t. But it will be possible to digress into a sidebar of Do you really need to be posting once a day?

Sam Munoz 33:23
Where’s that time investment?

Karyn Paige 33:25
Right, right. So again, it’s like it can be really trendy, and really glamorous and appealing to be like, Oh, I’m an investment, all of these tools for something like social media marketing, which is very trendy. But if all of the marketing you’re doing on social media, all the content creation you’re doing isn’t leading back to booking your client, then is that investment worth it?

Sam Munoz 33:47
Yeah, another trendy thing that I see a lot and I feel like can lead to poor investments is you know how like, sometimes when a bigger online business owner is launching something and like everybody’s, like helping them launch and they all have their little individual bonuses, and then you start maybe feeling like FOMO, like if I don’t invest in this. And that’s like definitely marketing tactics, right? There’s a lot of scarcity marketing that happens where it’s like, you got to invest today, and you got to do this, because you won’t get this bonus, or I’m going to take this thing away forever. And the truth is, it’s all there. Like, they don’t have to take it away forever. It doesn’t matter if 1000 or 1001 people signed up, they don’t have to shut it. You know what I mean? Like, I just I don’t like any of that. But I do feel like that leads to us making investments that aren’t really in alignment, because we feel like we’re gonna miss out, or we’re, you know, everybody’s gonna have the thing and we don’t have it or we’re gonna miss the timeframe. Like there’s a lot of FOMO that happens. And I think that that leads to trendy related investments versus aligned investments that are truly coming from within from our own goals and our own values and what we actually want to be doing in our businesses. And I think it’s so so so important to just be discerning, right? So you’re not wasting your money, you’re not wasting your time, you’re really thinking about what you want in your business before you make an investment. But then also, you got to trust yourself to do that, right? You have to trust yourself and your own intuition to actually take the plunge and make the investment when you find something that truly is in alignment.

Karyn Paige 35:18
So I mean, going with the idea of like trusting yourself and investing time, invest five minutes, asking yourself, do I really know if this is the right or wrong choice, the right or wrong decision and investment to make in my business? You know, it’s like, sometimes we’re so quick to say, I don’t know. But if we spent just a little bit of time and I’m not talking like getting second procrastination mode, I’m like, just instead of in one second saying, I don’t know, maybe take 90 seconds, or 600 seconds, and ask yourself the questions we just mentioned, maybe you will know, it will come to you, right? So part of trusting yourself is giving yourself a little bit of time to let it be uncovered, to trust that you do know the answer,

Sam Munoz 36:04
right to like, process those questions and to figure it out for yourself. And to figure you know, figure out if if making an investment in any kind of any of those different categories that we talked about is actually worthwhile for your business. Something that I love to do, too, is I love to check in on our expenses and the different things that we invest in in the business and make sure that it still is in alignment season to season. But that all comes from a deep rooted trust, trusting that I can make decisions in my business as the CEO or as the owner as the you know, anything you want to call yourself in your business. Like you have to make decisions, you have to decide that something is worth your time, your money, however you’re investing, and then you have to own it, you have to own it, if it doesn’t work, and then you can own it when it does, you know what I mean? Like, you have to be able to stand in those decision making processes. And I do think that, like you said, Karyn, if we just took a minute to like slow down and reflect, we’d be able to very easily see what is right what is wrong, especially if we’ve done the inner work in our businesses to understand where we want to go with them right to understand what our values are to understand what the mission of our businesses, things like that helps make those decisions, very black and white. And you know, I know you know what is right or wrong for your business, you might be afraid to do it. You might be afraid to invest in something that is a little bit more expensive. But you know, is the thing that you’ve been needing. It might feel scary, but I know you can make that decision. I know you’re capable of doing that. Think of other areas in your life where you’ve made hard decisions and pull that energy into your business.

Karyn Paige 37:37
I love that. That’s making me smile really, really hard right now. We can do hard things we have done hard they have.

Sam Munoz 37:46
Yes, that’s right.

Karyn Paige 37:47
Like we’re sitting here today we’re talking. And when we think back on each of our own lives, we’ve done hard things. And we’re still here right now, you’re listening to this podcast, you have done hard things in your life. And you’re here today, right now. And going back to that idea of like trusting in yourself, trusting in your intuition, owning the idea that you are the CEO of your business, you can make decisions, and you can stand in them confidently right or wrong either way, and also that everything’s gonna be okay. Like that’s very empowering. And I hope hope that the next time you’re considering making an investment, the answer comes to you and it feels good and it works out