“It’s the cost of doing business.”

One of my mentors said this to me a few years ago and it really resonated.

9/10 business owners come from the ‘Del Boy School of Commerce’. They don’t want to admit it. They certainly don’t think of themselves like that, but when it comes down to it the evidence stacks up against them.

Think about the proof

1. They maximise profit by squeezing their costs.
2. They negotiate on price, both for sale and purchases.
3. They don’t invest in themselves.

And why does this matter?

1. If you continuously squeeze your costs, you run the risk of strangling the very thing that makes you money.
2. If you always negotiate on price, you run the risk of damaging the perceived value of what you sell and you never build relationships with suppliers.
3. If you don’t invest in yourself, you’re standing still, you’re not improving. Standing still in business is going backwards.

And worse still, this is how we’re taught to do business. Minimise costs, (try to) maximise profit, rinse and repeat. True entrepreneurs understand about return-on-investment.

For most business owners their main point of contact, their business mentor (if you will), is their accountant.

This presents a major problem.

An accountant’s job is to be risk-averse and to highlight the costs in a business.

Most accountants will refer to investments as costs. That isn’t a slight on accountants. That’s their job.

The problem for the business owner is, that if their only mentor is their accountant, then they are influenced by caution, by cost cutting, and potentially by not investing in themselves.

At Codebreak, we talk to our clients about the lifetime value of a customer. The reason we do this is because it speeds up the conversation towards what someone would be willing to spend to acquire that customer.

Essentially, as my mentor asks, “What is the cost of doing business in your industry?”

It is a quick way to figure out your sales and marketing budget. If you want to gain £3million of business next year, how much are you willing to spend to gain it?

Which brings me back to my original point. As the business owner, you’re the company’s leader, the visionary, the driving force. You should be investing in yourself.

I mentioned my mentor. In fact, I have three mentors/coaches. One that specialises in direct response marketing, one that specialises in business strategy and taking a seven-figure business to eight figures and beyond, and one that specialises in the technical elements of business and mindset.

A significant investment.

But the return is huge!

The company has grown at a speed we previously thought impossible prior to our mentors.

We have made contacts with businesses that otherwise would have been outside our reach.

I’ve learnt more in the last two years than in the rest of my life combined.

Our marketing spend is 10x what it once was and yet we are more profitable than ever.

We have a support networking of like-minded peers that we can reach out to whenever we want.

Our mental resilience and hunger for more has gone through the roof.

Ditch the ‘Del Boy School of Commerce’. Invest in your business and invest in yourself.

If you won’t back yourself, nobody will.

Book a Discovery Call with us today. We can look at where your budget will be a smart investment and where in the past it has purely been a cost.

Stay hungry!