Ever wondered why your business isn’t flowing as smoothly as you’d like? Could it be the fear of investing that’s holding you back? In this riveting dialogue, we explore the significance of investing in your business, the blocks that often keep us stuck and the paradigm shifts necessary to overcome them. We expose the realities of running a successful business and break down the monthly expenses involved.
Investing in your enterprise doesn’t end with money; it’s about investing in yourself too. It’s about creating and nurturing a business that aligns with your personality and passion, a business that flows. We lay bare the details of my own journey as an entrepreneur, offering insights into what you might need to budget for if you’re just starting out. We delve into the specifics of the various monthly expenses that go into running a six-figure business and how to manage them effectively.
But we don’t stop there. It’s not just about the numbers, it’s about the mindset too. We also introduce you to a quick, two-minute quiz designed to reveal your flow business personality type, helping you understand your business at a deeper level. By understanding your own business personality type, you can align your business to your strengths and passions more effectively. Tune in and let’s conquer the fear of investment together. Your journey to building a business you love starts here.
âYou canât build a business without the infrastructure in place and the knowledge to make it happen.â – Shawn Mynar
âAnything you spend money on to make that business run, to make it profitable, all of that is an investment. It is there so you can make more money, to get a return on your investment.â – Shawn Mynar
âYou are worthy, capable and deserving of that business but you have to show yourself that and the way to do that is by investing in yourself.â – Shawn Mynar
âBelieve it or not making financial investments are the catalyst for that growth to really make it happen.â – Shawn Mynar
âInvestments are here to make you more money and they will when you take that action, have that energetic shift with that transaction.â – Shawn Mynar
+++
Are you building YOUR flow business? Find out here >>> TAKE THE QUIZ!
Ready for a business with less hustle, more flow? Create your own signature program >>> WATCH THE FREE MASTERCLASS!
Chat with me on Instagram >>> @SHAWNMYNAR
Get the latest scoop >>>SHAWNMYNAR.COM
+++
Enjoying the show? Be sure to SUBSCRIBE + leave a REVIEW and tell me why!
I appreciate your support. đ
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Speaker 1: 0:12
Hey, hey there, friends, Welcome back to the Flow Business Podcast. I’m Shawn, your host, and this is your place to build a business that flows with you, your personality, your energy, your life and what matters most to you. Today, we’re talking money and, more specifically, about the money you are putting into your business and how to know what to spend money on, what to invest in in order to get that flow business that you desire. And here’s why we’re talking about this right now in this whole evolution of building your flow business, because I personally see a lot of fear and blocks around this topic Stuckness, resistance, all the things that we’ve been kind of talking about and building on in the last few episodes those things that keep you from having the business that you want. I am literally seeing on a regular basis, people not starting their business or continuing their business because of $100. And I know that when you’re not making any money, $100 is a lot. I get that and I’ve been there and I’m not diminishing that experience in any way. But also, you have decided, you have had the vision, you have had the idea to have your own business or to want your own business. That’s why you’re here. I’m assuming you want to work for yourself. You want to make more money or have a more uncapped income potential than being in a job or in a profession that only pays you a certain amount. That is appealing to you. You want to help people, you want to do what you love, you want to follow your passion All of those things, those main reasons why you and most people really want to have their own business, want to do their own thing. We’ve talked about this in the past few episodes of finding out those reasons for you, those triggers, those dials that are important to you and keeping those at the forefront of your business. So, knowing that you are in this place where you have had this vision or this idea of the business that you want, and being in that place where this is something that you are working to achieve, can you think of one business that doesn’t have to invest money into it before it can make money? I mean, I can’t. As far as I know, that doesn’t exist. Any business has to invest, make investments in the startup of their business, in equipment, in staff, like all of these things. I mean so many businesses in this world, so many types of businesses, have startup costs that are huge, like taking out loans and just in putting all of their savings or life savings into their business, and that is a very real thing. That is what it takes oftentimes for these businesses out there like think about coffee shops and bakeries and restaurants and even like salons and just all of these types of businesses the amount of startup costs involved to get going. You can’t build a business without the infrastructure in place and the knowledge to make it happen. So you need infrastructure, like in the case of a bakery. You need a place to rent for your bakery, you need equipment, you need an oven, you need a mixer, you need staff to help you, you need a register, you want all these things that you need to get this business going. And then, of course, you have to know how to actually create a bakery type business, which I feel like is a lot more involved than a lot of us know. Unless you are in that industry and know the ins and outs same with, like a restaurant, a coffee shop, like, I feel like there’s more to the story. There’s a lot that you need to know behind the scenes before you even try to get involved in that type of business. So you have to find the knowledge and often invest in learning those skills, learning what’s involved to make your business successful. So getting to the point where you have the infrastructure, you have the tools, you have the equipment, you have everything you need, plus the knowledge to build a successful business often isn’t going to come for free. I can’t really think of any instance where that would be free, even like a lemonade stand that your kids are doing, you have to go buy the lemonade in order to have the lemonade stand right. So every business, from the time you’re five years old on, takes these investments, these initial investments and ongoing investments. And yet I see a lot of coaches and practitioners I talk to a lot of them, who are scared, who have a block against making those investments. And obviously you can guess what happens when there is that block, when there is that resistance is that it really can’t happen or it can’t happen in the way that you envision it happening. And, of course, I wanna go back to this metaphor I’ve been using for the past few episodes now that I will continue to use because I think it’s so great of the river and you being in the raft flowing down the river, and that’s really a metaphor for your business and how it should feel and how it can go and where we want to get to with your flow business and what that means to you. But being scared to invest in yourself and your business is like this big boulder in the middle of that river or in the middle of your flow business. Your raft is gonna get stuck against that big boulder and it’s gonna stay there forever. You’re not going to be able to move past that boulder and continue down the river, continue flowing until you can learn how to reframe that situation that way that you’re feeling about the money that you’re putting into your business and start seeing it in a new light and really seeing it for what it really is. And that’s what I wanna talk about today, because when you do that, that’s when things really start to move for you, when you can get out of the way of that boulder, move beyond it and continue the flow and not even have to worry about those future boulders that may come up in terms of your blocks around investing in yourself and your business. They’re not even a thing. You’re gonna keep flowing down the river, no problem, okay. So why is this Like? Why is this such an important thing for you to grasp and have kind of a change of heart around or a shift in mindset around. First of all, because you actually will have the right tools you need to make your business happen. You’re not trying to piecemeal together a bunch of free access to things that don’t really work that well, aren’t really a great experience for you, take a bunch of time, definitely aren’t a good experience for your audience. I see that a lot. I see a lot of piecemealing, free stuff, free access to things and trying to make it work and it’s a challenge and it’s hard and it’s not a good experience for anyone involved. It doesn’t feel like that either and so that’s kind of a barrier to the business that you actually want. You’re actually making your business harder than it needs to be by trying to get these free things all to work together. So you’ll actually get the right tools that you need to make your business work, to make it professional, to make it a good experience, to take less time and energy from you, which I know is a big reason for a lot of us to have our own businesses. So that’s the first big deal big thing that comes out of your shift in mindset around investing in yourself. And secondly and this is a big, big one this is what happened to me. When you’ve invested in yourself, you’ve put energy behind your work, behind your ideas and your business, and that energy brings about a new energy in you. It literally shifts your vibration, your frequency, your energy and it makes this kind of like a gotta make it happen a more determined type energy. It lights a fire in you, I think, because you just invested in yourself. So you’re gonna make it work, you’re gonna do what it takes to make a return on that investment which, like I said, brings about this more like determined type of energy behind your business and often it makes things happen a lot faster, really gets the wheels turning a lot quicker in your business when you have made those investments. Like I said, this happened to me back in 2016, I think. When I first decided to create my own program before I was making any money on my program or even knew if it was going to be a thing, be successful, make a profit, anything like that I invested in Kajabi as my program hosting platform. I know a lot of you guys are using Kajabi now too. It’s something I recommend. I’ve been there since 2016, so a while now, but at the time that was a lot of money for me. Like I mentioned, when people aren’t doing things, aren’t starting their business or aren’t continuing their business, because of $100, I get it. That’s where I was at that point. It was a lot, it was a big deal, it was a big decision for me to make. But as soon as I made that decision and I bet on myself and my desire for the kind of business that I was building and the kind of business I wanted, I made that payment and it lit a big old fire in me to get that program out into the world and have it be a success. I feel like If I hadn’t done that, if I had kind of waited to make that investment, I could have easily spent like six months, 12 months, hemming and hawing over my program, putting it on the back burner, bringing it back up and changing things, then putting it away again, talking myself out of it, trying to make it perfect. All of these things we do to procrastinate. And making that investment, that initial thing, that was a big deal. At the time I was willing to do whatever it took to make my ROI, my return on investment I wanted. I didn’t want to pay for something that I was. It was like a sunk cost. That wasn’t an option for me. So I made the investment and you know, a couple months later my program was out and it was a success. And you know, thank goodness for Kajabi. It’s something that I am forever grateful for, forever grateful that I took that leap and made that big investment, because now it’s like gosh. The return on investment has just been insane all of these years, still by far the best investment I’ve made in my business. But anyway, all of this to say, if you ever need motivation to move your business needle, spend some money on it. It’s amazing what that can do. And if you find yourself procrastinating, spend some money on it and watch yourself unprocrastinate. Real quick. And that’s really, I guess the whole point of this episode is to start having you think in that mentality because, as I’ve said, I’ve seen a lot of resistance to spending money on your business. One of the biggest questions I get from people who are interested in joining the Signature Program Bundle is like how much will it cost to run my program? What costs are involved? Are there any other costs I need to know about Cost, cost, cost and let’s break that down a little bit. First things first. Most of the money you spend to build your business is not a cost, most of it. I’m not gonna say all of it, because I’m sure there are situations where you’re not getting a return on what you’re spending, but for most of the money you’re spending it’s an investment. The definition of an investment is the action or process of investing money for profit or material gain. And guess what? You are building a for-profit business, so that means anything you spend money on to make that business run, to learn how or what to do to make it profitable, even to make it easier or less time consuming for you. All of that is an investment. It is there so you can make more money to get a return on your investment. So that’s a little mindset shift for you to work on and consider right there. Are you thinking about it in terms of costs and, like I mentioned, like sunk costs, things you won’t ever get back, they’re just out there, gone, you’ll never see it again or are you thinking about the money you’re spending on your business as an investment and something that is going to bring you two times, 10 times, 100 times return? That is a mindset thing. Now let’s talk specifically about having an online business, because happens to be my specialty and I know that’s also what a lot of you are doing or want to do. And this would look like, you know, having online courses, programs, workshops, taking clients one-on-one and seeing them virtually anything like that where you know you’re using the interwebs to run your business. And if that is you, you’re in luck, because having an online business is one of the least expensive businesses to start. I don’t really know what the right word is Cheapest, not the right word. It takes the least amount of investment initial investments to start by a lot, so I thought that is a way to demonstrate this. I’d break down what I currently spend per month in fixed expenses for my business. So I think of these as like operating expenses in a way. I’ve had an online business for eight years now. I’ve kept my business set up pretty simple throughout those entire eight years. I really spend money on the necessities, and so that’s what I believe these are at the stage of business I’m in right now. So here’s a breakdown. These are all in US dollars and most of these I actually pay per year, so I pay for the whole year at once and you get a discount when you do that. So that’s why some of these numbers are a little strange, because I did divide them into months just so we have some consistency here. So here we go. I paid $22 a month for podcast hosting, plus an AI service that does the show notes and transcripts for each episode. I pay $49 a month for automated webinar hosting service. I pay $15.75 a month for Zoom, $15.30 a month for quiz hosting, $9.95 a month for Canva Pro, $15.30 a month for bookkeeping software, $85.68 a month for email list hosting, $25 a month for website hosting and $166 a month for program hosting on Kajabi. Now I know that seems like a lot. It equals $404 a month, which is $4,848 a year. Those are my operating expenses to run a six figure a year business. I mean. Not many business owners in other industries can say that that’s a very high profit margin. Not very many expenses because there’s no massive rent bill. I work from home in my home office. I actually get a tax credit for that. There’s no major equipment needed. Yes, I have a computer. I have a microphone. It’s real simple stuff that I bought years ago and are still working well for me. There’s no inventory, that I need no payroll. Yes, I have a contractor, but really simple, really basic stuff. Now, yes, I do make more investments throughout the year, specifically in advertising, my own continuing education and mentorship, but those I feel like are variable. They’re not essential to the operation of my business. I can not include them if I ever don’t need it or don’t want it or I’m having some sort of financial crisis. So I’m not including them in this list. These are just the things that really keep my business moving and humming and, quite honestly, easy for me. Very simple, so $400 a month. Think about that. If you have a program that is $500 and one person buys it per month, you’re still making a profit. How nice is that? If just one person buys a $500 program and you have all of this stuff, you would still make a profit. Now let me go back through this list actually because I want to show what would actually be needed or required or a good idea for someone who’s just starting out or you know not as not eight years down the road. Ok, so $22 a month for podcast hosting and AI. If you don’t have a podcast, don’t need that If you do have a podcast, but you can do your show notes and transcripts yourself, or don’t want transcripts, can do your show notes yourself. That would drop down to $12 a month with Buzzsprout. $49 a month for automated webinar hosting service Most likely if you’re just starting out you probably don’t have an automated webinar. Don’t need that. $15.75 a month for Zoom Probably going to need that because if you’re meeting with clients or you are having a program where you do host live calls, you’re going to need more than whatever it gives you for free, which I think is 20 minutes or 30 minutes, something like that. You’re going to need to have access to longer times on Zoom. So $15.75 a month for that. So count that in. $15.30 a month for quiz hosting If you don’t have a quiz, don’t need that. $9.95 a month for Canva Pro I love Canva Pro. I think it’s well worth $10 a month, but you don’t need it. They give you plenty that you can do and start with for free, so you can cut that out at the beginning. $15.30 a month for bookkeeping Don’t need this. I think there are free. I hope there are still free bookkeeping softwares that you can use. If not, maybe you can do it yourself to get started and then you wouldn’t need that $85.68 a month for email list hosting. This is based on what at least the one that I use, which is ConvertKit is based on how many subscribers you have. If you’re just starting out or you’re a little smaller, then that $85 won’t be the case. You’ll work up to that over the years. So I think you’d maybe start at $25 a month at most. So keep that. You’re going to definitely want an email list. Keep that in there. $25 a month, we’ll say $25 a month for website hosting. This is different, I think, across the board. But if you don’t have a website to start, that’s okay. If you’re just going to use landing pages a lot of times your email list hosting platform will have landing pages that you can use, or your program hosting platform definitely will. You can use those instead if you don’t have a website up yet, but if you already do or will quickly after starting, then yes, there will be some expense to that. $25 a month-ish I don’t know, I’m not sure what other hosting platforms are out there. This is just what I pay, but let’s assume it’s somewhere around there and then $166 a month for a program hosting platform. Now this is me paying for a high level of Kajabi, and Kajabi’s an all-in-one platform, so it includes website and it includes email list. So if you’re going to do Kajabi, you wouldn’t have those expenses, but let’s say you’re using some other program hosting platform. Or if you are not going to do programs and workshops and courses but you’re going to do one-on-one client work instead, you’re still going to need a place to host that part of your business. There’s a client portal management type system. There’s a lot of those out there these days too. I believe that price range is more in the like $50 to $75 a month type price range. But really it’s like if you’re using Kajabi and you don’t have to pay for website or email list hosting versus a different platform and then paying for separate website hosting and paying for different email list hosting, it all ends up being the same. So for this example, let’s just say we’re going to err on the side of more, just so we have all of our bases covered. Let’s just say $100 a month for some sort of program hosting or online business hosting or client portal type platform, just to make it easy. So $100 a month there, and then we’ll keep the $25 a month for website hosting and keep the $25 a month for email list hosting. But again, those could all be rolled into your program hosting platform, but still we have $100 a month, $25 for your website. We have, say, $25 for your email list to start. Everything else is going to be free, besides $15.75 a month for Zoom. So let’s call that like $170 a month to operate your entire online business. Think about that. That is really cool. And if we again, if we go back to having a program that’s $500 and you get one person to buy it per month, that’s still a huge profit. That’s like $325 a profit every single month from one person buying one thing. That is a really high return on investment, a really high profit margin. Honestly, a successful business by all means. Now, of course, you are going to have more than one person buy your stuff. You are going to have potentially more paid offers besides one program that’s $500. And even if you don’t, you still can have this super profitable business and a nice, easy business too, which is great. But just really consider how awesome of a business you are building that has such a low financial barrier to entry and how profitable it can be, like that big profit margin, that big return on investments that, quite honestly, most business owners cannot say. It takes a lot more to get started for a lot of other businesses and I can tell you, every time any of these payments come out of my account, I feel nothing but gratitude for allowing me to have this simple, profitable business. These things all save me so much time. They make everything so much easier. They create a good experience for me and my clients. So, very grateful for every single one of these things. Okay, so here’s where we’re going to start reframing the investments you make in your business. Let’s go back to that vision that you created of your flow business back in the past few episodes and if you haven’t listened to those, really important that you go back and do so after this episode, because it’s just going to help formulate exactly what you want your business to do, for you to look like, for you to feel, for you. It’s such an important first step to creating the business that you actually want. So make sure you go back to those past two episodes 200 and 201 to do that work. Okay, so go back to that vision that you created of your flow business how it looks, how it feels, what kind of income are you bringing in? What kind of business do you have or what kind of business is it? What kind of clients do you work with, what are your paid offers and how do you work with those clients? These are all questions that you should already know the answer to. If you did the work back in those episodes, that comes really naturally and comes really easily. You can get that vision of what you’re working towards up in your mind that flow business and what that looks like specifically for you, as specific as you can possibly get, and how it feels and how it moves and how it grows and all of that stuff. So these questions I just asked you should have a pretty easy answer to that. So get to that version of you and your business. Now. What would that version of you say yes to? What are the requirements to get to that version of your business? What will you need? What will your clients need? What will they expect out of you and out of your business and out of your work? What will they expect from their experience with you? Invest in that. If that version of you would say yes to making that investment to make your business more profitable, to make it easier, to make it flow better, to give a better experience to your clients. If that version of you says yes, then this version of you needs to say yes to that is how you will get to that version of you and your business. So, anytime you are up against this block or this fear of spending money on your business, that is your barometer. That is how you will decide If that future version of you that’s living in your flow business and doing it would say yes, would incorporate that into their business, would need that for that type of business, then say yes now, and that is what will get you there. You can’t wait until you’re there to get that. You need that now to get there. And, like I said, when you make that investment, your energy shifts, your vibration changes. You step into that version of you now and that is what will drive you forward. And I want to say one more thing, just in my cheerleader type space that I love to be in. You are worthy, capable and deserving of that business. But you have to show yourself that and the way to do that is by investing in yourself, proving it to yourself, proving that you believe in yourself and, believe it or not, making financial investments are the catalyst for that change, for that growth to really make it happen and to be used as motivation, as drive to get there, to end your procrastination, to end your over thinking. It is amazing what happens when you say yes to investing in yourself and use that as proof that you are capable, that you are deserving that, you will make it happen. So there is a lot of energetic expression behind that transaction. So think about that. It’s not just money coming out of your bank account that you’ll never see again. What is it really doing, what is the real purpose and what is the real return on investment? And, as I showed you, I’m eight years down the road with an online specific business. I’m spending $400 a month Like that’s a drop in the bucket, when you can have a successful business helping other people. What an enormous benefit, an enormous payout to believing in yourself and to doing it. So I’m not telling you to spend tens of thousands of dollars. Please don’t. You don’t need that to have the business that you want, but you do need to make some strategic investments now to get where you want to go and please don’t be afraid of that. Please use that as the drive that maybe you need to get there. And also, please, please, please, don’t use these investments or your unwillingness to make those investments as an excuse to not have your business as like this thing of like oh well, I can’t do that, so I guess this dream just can’t happen. That’s an excuse and it doesn’t have to be that way. Remember, these are investments. They are here to make you more money and they will, when you take that action, have that energetic shift with that transaction. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now. I hope you all understand that I’m not saying spend all your money and go into debt and take out a loan that you can never pay back. I hope you can see that that’s not the point of this episode. I’m also not telling you to buy things that don’t feel in alignment just because someone promises that they could make you more money and they have all these like fake testimonials to show for it. That’s also not what I’m saying. You all have the ability, the innate ability, to understand what is best for you to invest in for your business, based on what that future business looks like, based on who that future version of you is, and just using that inner knowing to guide these decisions and getting kind of your mind out of it to the best of your ability. I know, with money it’s like the mind really wants to go crazy because of all of our stories around money, and if you have stories I have lots of episodes about money blocks in the past Scroll back, you’ll see them. Download those and start working on your money blocks. All right, and with that I will wrap up with just one simple, easy request If you would be so kind to let me know that you are out there, that you are listening, that these episodes are enjoyable and meaningful for you. You can do that by leaving a review on Apple or a rating on Spotify. Wherever you listen, you can just send me a DM and let me know you’re out there listening. Whatever you can do, it means so much to me to know that I’m not just talking to myself, that you are out there listening. It really means the world to me. So thank you all so much and until next time, take care. Hey, wait up before you go. Do you want to know the biggest reason why your business may not flow? Because it’s not in alignment with your personality type. Building the right business for you means knowing your strengths, weaknesses, energetic expression and what’s most important to you, so you can build your business accordingly. Before you spend one more minute working on your business, let’s make sure it’s the right business for you. I’ve created a fun two minute quiz to discover your flow business personality type. With the results of this quiz, you’ll know exactly what to prioritize in your business so you can feel confident, knowing you’re building a business you love. Head over to shawnmynar.com/quiz right now to find out your flow business personality type and once you find that out, hop over to Instagram and let me know what you discover. Again, that’s shawnmynar.com/quiz. As always, the link is in the show notes.
0 Comments