My 3 Biggest Business Investments/Expenses in 2024
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Episode Summary:
I bring home more money than most 7-figure business earners you're seeing in the online space. I know this bc they are my peers. And no judgment to them- but I NEED to bring home a lot because I'm a single mama.
Even if you don't need to bring home more than 6 figures, I think this is an important conversation because too many women are not bringing HOME enough money.
In this episode, I'm sharing the 3 biggest things I spend money on right now- in detail. And it might surprise you, but TRULY it works.
Where I’m currently allocating money and resources:
My support: coach/team va/obm/bookkeeper/accountant/personal assistant
My visibility: team on social, fb ads, podcast
My systems: ActiveCampaign, Bonjoro, Basecamp, Google
Bonus: My personal support and pleasure (nanny, dancing)
Episode Resources:
My Program in a Day Template will give you a step-by-step system to create your next online group program or course in as little as 24 hours.
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Anna (00:06):
Welcome to the Heart-Centered Entrepreneur podcast. I want you to be rich. Yes, I want abundant financial success for your business, but I don't just care about your business making money. I care about you too. I want you to be rich and happiness and the impact you make in your relationships and in how you give back. I'm Anna. I built my six figure business as a side hustle while I was pregnant with my daughter in 2016. Now I've helped dozens of women do the same. I'm here to help you build a profitable heart-centered, fully booked business with the latest tips on sales and visibility with proven mindset hacks and sneak peeks behind the scenes with what's working right now in the online space and in my business ready to make more money with heart. Let's go.
Anna (00:50):
Hi friends. I'm so excited to chat with you today on a fresh episode of the podcast and something I've never shared with you before, I don't think, and that is the three biggest investments I make in my business. I know that I often ask you ladies to invest in your business, whether it's with me as your coach or something else, but I was like, I run, wanna share more about like the thousands of dollars I spend in my business. And it was bizarre when I first did this. I remember spending my first $300 on a session with a coach and I was like, I cannot believe I'm paying $300 for one hour of time, which is wild 'cause now I make like a thousand dollars an hour. But at the time it was a wild concept to me and it took a lot of thinking and I'm so glad that she was patient with me and was willing to be there for my questions because she didn't judge me for that, right?
Anna (01:35):
She, she was patient with me. I just did a post in the Facebook group recently about how we need to normalize buyers having questions and normalize it being okay for someone to say, I need to think about an investment. I need to pray about an investment. I need to sleep on an investment. I need to talk to my partner about the investment. There's nothing wrong with that. And your response was so palpable. There were so many comments and to me that's kind of sad, right? Like, but it's true. Like we live in an online space where you may have had an interaction that was less than ideal when it came to someone being icky pressuring you into selling. And what I think that does is I think that puts heart center entrepreneurs on the opposite end and it makes them not sell at all, right?
Anna (02:16):
Not face objections at all. I am the last person to pressure someone to buy from me, but you bet your booty, if someone says, I need to talk to my partner, I'll be like, awesome, that's great. How are you feeling about the conversation? Is there anything I can support you around as you have that conversation? Are they supportive of your business? Right? And I think what heart center entrepreneurs do is they're like, okay, no problem. And then they shut up, right? Or you know, this is not the right time for me. I am happy to say like, okay, tell me more. Like why is now not the right time? What is the best time for you? Not because I'm trying to change their mind, but because I'm trying to coach them and help them truly make sure that they're making a decision that best serves them, right?
Anna (02:54):
And as a coach, I'm gonna show up as a coach before someone pays me money and after they pay me money and my job before someone pays me money is to truly coach them to their best and highest decision, whether that's working with me or not, right? Anyway, okay, that was a tangent. But today I'm talking about how I invest my three biggest expenses in my business. How I spend thousands and thousands dollars of dollars every month is, is interesting 'cause I've been talking to my kids about business lately about like what it costs to run a business. You know, because I've been you know, in the middle of this getting coach launch, as you ladies enroll, I write your names on a little note card and I put it on my kitchen table and I just yesterday started crying just seeing like all the names honestly and all the courage and bravery it takes to say yes to a program when you are a newbie coach.
Anna (03:40):
I get that. That's so brave and I'm so excited. We've already had the highest enrollment this round than we've had yet and I'm just so excited. But anyway, you know, people pay me around a thousand dollars more or less depending on when you enroll for this program. And so one of my kids was like, mom, is every one of those note cards a thousand dollars? And I was like, yeah. And they were like counting it up and doing the math and they're like, oh my goodness. I'm like, yeah, yes, it's a lot of money. But you know what? It also, I have expenses when I run my business, right? And so many women forget this at the start of their business. They're like, oh, I feel so bad to charge a thousand dollars for work, someone working with me for three months, right? But they forget that a thousand dollars is not going straight in your pocket like an employer, right?
Anna (04:20):
30% of that you're saving for taxes, right? Another 20% of that you are investing in team or whatever, right? I'll share a bit more about that. But it's just remembering it's safe for you to charge premium prices because that's just the price of what it costs your business. It's not necessarily what you're taking home, right? So anyway, I'm already trying to normalize that with my kids, right? Like businesses have expenses, okay? So I'll make this short and sweet because at my kids' school this week, I don't know who is in charge of planning all the events, but number one, it's lunch on the lawn, which means I bring my kids lunch during school, which is great, I love it. But my kids are in two different grades. So I'm doing that today and I'm doing it tomorrow. And then the next day is grandparent day.
Anna (05:01):
I don't know if the grandparents can make it 'cause they're working, but I'm making it 'cause she's singing a song, right? And then the day after that it's the family camp out. Okay? So I'm just basically gonna live at the school all week, which is why I do this. And thank God it's lunch week because honestly during lunch week, I actually have more time than ever because I clear my calendar a little bit. I work about half days just so I can have the energy for it. Which by the way, if you hate launching, I actually love a launch week. It's like my easiest week in business, right? I'm gonna keep this short and sweet, but she says five minutes in, here's the three main things I invest my money in right now. It might be a little different based on where you're at in your business.
Anna (05:37):
Maybe you're not a multi-six-figure business owner yet, but hopefully this is helpful for you so you can really practically see what I am spending money in on and what I don't spend money on. I also realize in this category I don't include taxes, but I'm super into paying my taxes. I always pay those on time. So obviously that's a big business expense too. Okay, I'm just gonna say them first and then I'll go into detail. Number one, I invest in support Number two, I invest in visibility. Number three, I invest in systems. And then I have a bonus one for you, I'll share that in a second. So number one, and really I think these three pillars are something useful no matter where you're at in business to think through this, I always invest in my support first. My first, I mean actually that's not true.
Anna (06:20):
My, well my first thing I ever spent in my business was paying a college student to do my laundry because honestly as a busy woman, like that was how I was procrastinating number one by doing my laundry and it just was weighing on my mind. So that was my very, very first business investment. My investment after that was paying for a coach. I again did, did, did like small bits at the start because I was trying to like, you know, build at a place that felt doable for me. But my coach was my first investment and it always is. And I don't care what people say, I will always have a business coach. I don't think you always need one potentially. But for me personally, especially as a single mom, especially as a busy woman, my coach is like an extension of my brain, right?
Anna (07:03):
My coach is like helps me make decisions faster, helps me stay on track, helps me stay accountable, helps me feel excited. Like it's like life. I don't have a life partner right now so I wouldn't know. But I can imagine when you have a line life partner, it's just nicer to do life together, right? My amazing nanny right now, she came a little bit early last week and she helped me I some laundry had building up and she just helped me like tidy my room and my laundry and I just looked at her and I said, thank you. Like life is so much better and easier when we do it together. And so yes, my business coach gives me strategy and tips and advice, but you know what also she does, she like keeps me company. And at the top of business, the bigger you grow your business, it can get lonely, right?
Anna (07:45):
Because think about it, when you have a team, you're making some decisions and things that you can't always share with your audience. I'm not gonna share with you guys when I have to let a team member go in my business, like stuff like that, right? But my coach is always there for me at the top. And I think so often as like independent women, we feel like we have to do things alone. Especially maybe if you were in a season of your life where you had to survive something. And for me, like my coach is just there so that I never have to do anything in my business alone. And it is so supportive and I'm so grateful for her. I've had seasons of working with her and more and less, but she's really always in my corner. Other support things I pay for are my team, my virtual assistant, my OBM.
Anna (08:27):
I'm a big fan of having a small but mighty team. And my team, they're just amazing you guys. They are just amazing. And I think like when we hire a team, like yes, we wanna hire for skillset, but for me I've had a lot of success. Like also hiring for work ethic. Just someone that's willing to like work hard of course that has boundaries and people that really care. Like my team makes me cry all the time because of how much they have my back. And honestly as a single mom where a lot of my life and business is like in flux and can sometimes ch change having other women working in my business with me and for me is everything. The fact that like if one of my kids get sick or if I need to change something up, they're like, I got you.
Anna (09:10):
Like that feeling. I remember my most recent team member, like it was our first few weeks of working together and we were about to hang up the zoom call we were doing planning and she said to me, is there anything else I can do to support you? And I know that that sounds basic and I know that that sounds, but I started crying because number one, access service is my love language. <Laugh>, what's your guys' love language? But it just felt like she truly does have my back. And I don't like we tell ourself the story like I have to do this alone and we really, really don't. And I was hesitant to hire a team. Like early on in my business, I really struggled with team probably for the first two years I hired like eight different people. And honestly it probably was a me problem and I had a hard time letting go of control and I had a hard time with trusting people and I was like, is this really even gonna save me time?
Anna (09:59):
Because like I'm having to like train them to do it and I could do it faster, I could do it better. Like just so much stuff around it. But you know, at the end of the day you have to have team. If you're gonna grow your business and still love your job because there are some parts of your j like, you're not gonna be able to run the whole business by yourself. It would be like, I'm gonna open an ice cream shop, but I'm gonna do everything myself. I'm gonna be cleaning the bathrooms and serving the ice cream and running the, no, no, you're not. You're just not. Also included in my team is my bookkeeper and accountant. I wish I hired a bookkeeper earlier, to be honest. I bullied myself into, you know, I even had a bookkeeper that I fired at one point because I was like, I feel I, I was feeling like I needed to figure my money out.
Anna (10:41):
I didn't feel, even though I was making money, I didn't feel in control of my money. I shared this in my book so I fired my bookkeeper 'cause I was like, maybe I need to more be more in it with my money. That was not the answer. The answer was creating a savings account by the way, <laugh>. But you know, I really think at the end of the day, of course we need to be aware of our money. I still sit with my bookkeeper every month and look at my transactions. I'm still very in charge of my money, but I don't need to do the tax stuff as far as knowing what transactions go in which tax category. I don't need to be categorizing everything. I can review what he categorizes, right? I have an accountant that I'm obsessed with. I'm obsessed with. If ever I get a notice in the mail from the IRS like I did this weekend, I take a picture of that and I send it off to him and then he solves my problems for me.
Anna (11:28):
Right? I just think it's such a big block for women is making more money. 'cause We're afraid of more money. Managing more money and like hire people to help you manage the money, right? Okay. Number two, I invest heavily in my visibility. So this means paying my team to support me so I can show up on social media, paying my team to support me so I can have a podcast, right? Facebook ads. I've lately started dabbling in paying money for Facebook ads for paid traffic. And I've been having so much fun, I'm still learning, but honestly it's been so fun. But whatever that means for you, some of my clients get a lot of clients through in-person stuff through conferences, professional associations and conferences depending on your industry and or speaking. But thinking through that as an expense, right? That it's okay for you to spend $2,000 on a conference if you're gonna get a $10,000 client from it, right?
Anna (12:20):
Being willing to invest and pay money for marketing and visibility, especially as you grow, especially as you grow. And the next one is systems. I'm a big fan of systems and software. Being your team at the start of your business, I really suggest going bare bones and not overdoing the software because you really don't know what you need. But after you have a six figure business, you've gotta start using software. Like what are you doing, right? You've gotta start using software. So I spend money on active campaign for email, Bonjour for reaching out to potential clients. Basecamp for client communication. Slack, though that's free. Asana, Google suite. Just I will give Google all my money. Like I, you guys know I love Google Drive. And so I really feel like after a certain point you've gotta start using your systems and automation. You've gotta start using team, you've gotta start using MiniChat.
Anna (13:10):
Like it's really, you're like, oh, I don't wanna spend $50 a month. Like that's like a team member that's working for you, right? Okay, I'm gonna do a bonus one and then I'll wrap this up. So this isn't necessarily a business expense, but I invest a lot of money in my personal support and in my personal pleasure, a lot of money. I did a reel the other day that said like basically the long and the short of it is like guys have no problem spending thousands of dollars on golfing, on hunting. And really what is the purpose of that? Nothing except for pleasure and joy. Men get this, right? But suddenly as a woman, the example I gave is like if you have a hobby of scrapbooking, you feel like you can't scrapbook unless you like have 20 Joanne's coupons and you wait for a sale.
Anna (13:57):
Like no go spend $500 scrapbooking. I don't care. Go spend $2,000 on a purse, right? Like, it's not necessarily my thing, but like if I had a client the other day and she bought a really nice purse and I was just, I just cried and I was so happy for her because that purse was for her pleasure and for her happiness. And I think as heart-centered women like, yes, let's show up and be generous online. Yes, let's show up for our clients. Yes, let's give back and give our money, but it's okay for us to enjoy our money too, right? For example, I spent a lot of money on my kids just paid for fencing lessons and basketball and swim and who knows what else, right? And yet how often as women do we spend money on our own hobbies. It really took me a while to be okay with spending hundreds of dollars every month on, on my hobby, learning to dance, right?
Anna (14:45):
On dance lessons <laugh> as an adult. And whether it's riding horses or whether it is whatever it is you'd like to do for fun, it's safe for you to invest your time, your money on energy, on things that bring you pleasure. Even if it for me, my brain automatically tries to make it business, right? I think I told you guys, I was into embroidery for a while and then I started selling embroidery kits. I don't know why, why did I need to sell embroidery or Chris at the Christmas fair? Like I couldn't just enjoy embroidery, I had to make it a business, right? It's safe for you to spend your time and your money and energy on you and things that bring you pleasure and also support. I just recently, you know, went through some health cha challenges. So I didn't have a nanny for a little while.
Anna (15:27):
It was good timing. Our nanny quit 'cause she had to move and I didn't rehire one because I was going through some health challenges anyway, but as I recovered, I rehired a nanny. It's been such a blessing. She helps us out about three days a week. I also pay for school aftercare so I don't have to rush right away and like wait in the pickup line, all of that, right? But I spent a lot of money on my personal support, whether that's with childcare, whether that's with my hubby, and I don't feel guilty about it. I think about it as a business expense. And I don't mean this in the way of like you probably would pay for childcare whether you had a business or not. So you don't need to be like guilting yourself into that. But I know that when I feel fully supported in my life, when I feel cared for, like it's so much easier for me to make money, right?
Anna (16:10):
I think for a lot of women at the, at the beginning of business, it's more important to hire a babysitter than it is to hire a virtual assistant, right? Because think about it, if you had one hour a day that you know your kids were happy and safe and taken care of and you could just like bust your booty for one hour and record a podcast or whatever it is, record some reels, right? And then when you got back to hanging out with your kids, you'd be able to be more present with them. Like that's the game changer. I remember when I started in my business, I think I hired a nanny for like six hours at the start, six hours a week. So like basically nothing, right? But for me that was a game changer because it really felt like I could focus when my kids were away and taken care of, and then I could be more present with them and feel less guilty when I hung out with them.
Anna (16:53):
And so I just wanna encourage you, I think there's so much hyp in the online space about like, you know, spending money on like, you know, $50,000 masterminds and like, not that there's anything wrong with that, but just honestly like it's not for me. You know what I mean? Like maybe it will be someday, but for me, I'd rather have a really nice car. Like I, the I, I make multi six figures, but I'm not making a million dollars a year yet. But really the lifestyle I live, I cash out in my business more than a lot of women in the online space that are making a million dollars a year. It's true. It's true. If you looked at my business that's multi six figures and you looked at many of my peers that are making a million dollars a year, I cash out, I take home more money than most of those women.
Anna (17:37):
And the reason is because I'm so mindful of my expenses because I don't hop from program to program and coach to coach, right? Like I stay with one coach. I'm mindful about that. I allow myself, yes, invest in your business, but like I also invest in my life. I bought my Tesla, I bought my house, right? Like I really see my personal expenses and my happiness as a business investment. Honestly, when I bought this house, I was like, yes, of course I want a house. But also I think it's gonna help the business grow because I'm not renting from someone. I have this stability and my business thrives when I have stability and it's safe for me to spend my money on things that make me happy and stable, right? That's an investment. It's safe for me to spend $40,000 on a Tesla instead of $40,000 on a business mastermind, right?
Anna (18:24):
Where I don't even know the mentor or whatever. And again, I'm not knocking a business mastermind that costs $40,000. Maybe I'll invest in that someday. I don't know. But what I'm saying is you feel like there's, there's so much guilt for women around spending money around our pleasure. Like of course 40 K for a mastermind because that's a business expense. Oh, 40 K for a luxury car. That's excessive, right? No. Oh, $400 a month for your kids' hobbies, that's fine. $400 a month for your hobby adult dance lessons. That's excessive, right? And I just think it's reshifting how we look at money as women and as entrepreneurs and reminding yourself it's safe for me to spend money on my personal support, on my pleasure, and that's a business expense and that's gonna make me money at the end of the day. Ah, okay. I have like a thousand things more to say, but let's wrap it up at that.
Anna (19:11):
And I would love to hear from you when you think about these three categories, your support, your visibility, your systems, bonus points for your pleasure, happiness, your personal support, what do you want to be spending money on in the next year? Because I really feel like those three or four categories are gonna help you find the biggest payoff and success the fastest. That's what I spend the most money in my business in right now when I invest and hopefully for you, even though it's scary, I always say like invest from a scary sided place, right? We don't wanna spend so much money that we're feeling like it's paralyzing us or contractive, but we do wanna spend money in a way that feels a little scary. Whenever I invest in like visibility or systems or support, I always feels like I'm doing it a little too soon, right?
Anna (19:55):
It feels like, ah, like I know that I'm gonna need the support in like two months, but I don't feel like I can quite afford it yet, but it feels like a calculated risk and it's safe to risk on myself. It's safe to bet on myself, right? I would love to hear from you in those three areas. What are you wanting to spend your money on so that you can make more money? It's safe for you to invest right? In a day job. It doesn't really go this way, but in a business when you put in your time, money, and energy, it compounds and comes back multifold. Okay? As always, thank you for joining me. So grateful for you and hope you have a beautiful rest of the week. Thanks for hanging out today. Please hit that subscribe button so you can make sure to stay updated anytime a new episode drops. And I would love for you to join me in my free Facebook community. It's called The Heart-Centered Entrepreneur. We discuss the podcast episodes. I regularly go live and do free trainings, and you may even meet your newest biz bestie, so you can join at heartcenteredcommunity.com It's absolutely free and I cannot wait to see you in there.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.