Many creative entrepreneurs struggle with investing in their own businesses—leaving some to not invest early enough, and others to never invest at all. But investing in your business matters. What is the real reason that creatives don’t invest in their business? Today I’m walking through just that!
The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Make sure you’ve hit that follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast player to get notified each week as we air new episodes!
Subscribe on Your Favorite Podcast Player
Apple Podcast App | Spotify | Amazon | Google Podcast
Connect with Sabrina
Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest
This episode is brought to you by my Sustainability Guide Freebie, where I’m walking you through 10 steps to a sustainable business. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in business for years, this guide will help you review the different facets of your business and clarify whether or not you’re set up for long-term sustainable success.
Review the Show Notes:
Investing in Your Business (:40)
Why Creatives Don’t Invest in Their Business (2:12)
Why Fear is Holding You Back (2:49)
Sabrina’s Backstory on Investing (3:53)
Staying Stuck (8:57)
Trust in Investment (9:29)
Three action Steps (11:01)
Review the Transcript:
Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gebhardt. Here I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur. while balancing business, motherhood and life, myself, along with my guests will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories because we’re willing to go there. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff to to shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Today, we’re talking about one of my favorite topics, investing in your business. This is a topic that many creative entrepreneurs struggle with. I think part of that fear is because there’s so much free stuff at our fingertips these days, it’s super easy to get caught up in the world of free downloads, free guides, mini courses, podcasts and YouTube videos, I get it, I get sucked into the interesting free stuff. And heck, I offer a bunch of that stuff too. I’m not saying there isn’t a place for free stuff. Because there absolutely is free stuff is a great place to dip your toes into new things to test the waters per se. However, free content will never replace something that you pay for. Never. Yes, you might do web design on your own. But how many hours weeks months? Will it take you to complete? And then what’s it going to look like?
Right? Yes, you might be completely self taught in your art. But how much faster? Could you have learned and grown? Had you invested in a teacher or mentor? Yes, you can do all your social media management yourself. But how many hours could you save by handing the task off to someone else? The list goes on and on. You get the point investing in your business matters. But let’s actually back up for a second. Why is it that creative entrepreneurs don’t invest in their business early? Or maybe not even at all? What’s the underlying reason? You’re probably saying does Sabrina it’s money.
After all, were creative entrepreneurs. Maybe your business is kind of new. Maybe you don’t have any money, or you’re not making any money. Or maybe you’re bleeding money because you’ve got costs of expenses and goods and all the things. But here’s the newsflash, the reason that creative entrepreneurs wait too long to invest in their business isn’t money. It’s fear. Here’s why fear is holding you back from trusting that your business is going to be successful. Fear is stopping you from knowing and believing that your business is going to be around for the long haul. Fear is getting in the way of you knowing that you are going to put your money into something and you are going to get it back. Fear is what is stopping you from investing in your business and putting money towards something that will help your business grow faster.
Fear is the reason not money. I would go so far as to say that investing in your business will actually help you grow faster. I said that before. But let me say it again. Investing in your business will help it grow faster. Period. Always. End of story. Mic drop. Okay. So let me tell you a story. Back in the beginning of my business in the very first few years, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that the fastest most obvious growth period in those first few years came when I took the leap and made big investments in my business. In one single year. I went from DIY being everything, including the booking process, self teaching everything, writing all of my own emails, doing all of my editing. Literally, it was me a one woman show. In one year I went from doing everything myself to investing in three big expensive pieces of education, hiring a professional website designer, and hiring an assistant to help me set up my first CRM, which was also an expense. And wouldn’t you know, when I finally released control of those things, when I finally stepped away from fear and interfaith, my business exploded Don’t get me wrong on paper, my business was, quote unquote successful before. Before I invested all those things.
I was booking up every slot with clients. I was booking months and months in advance. I had waitlists of people. I was getting rave reviews, I was becoming a known name in our area. But I was miserable. Because I was overworked, and underpaid and stretched too thin. Then I decided to put my money where my heart was, and I invested big, I was tired of feeling that I was tired of feeling exhausted and overwhelmed and stretched thin. I knew that I had to go for it, or I was going to run out of gas, I knew that I had to put big money toward my business. And finally trust that it was going to be around for a while. And it was, it was going to come back to me that it was going to be successful. I was willing to take that risk. And I did it. I invested every dollar I made that year back straight into my business into things that would get me farther, faster. And it worked.
I more than doubled my rates overnight, my booking process became so much smoother and more seamless. I was more organized because I had help and systems. I had a beautiful website that worked for me, I was still booking far in advance, but at such a high rate that I never thought possible. I gained confidence in the education that I paid for. And the best part is that because I now had other industry professionals as cheerleaders, I had a hype squad, and a place to take my questions and a place to take my wins, I had gained a small community that made all the difference. They helped me gain a confidence in my business that I never knew possible, all of those things became possible because I invested in my business, big time invested. I don’t mean finally signing up for the email platform,
that’s $30 a month. I don’t mean finally getting business cards. Okay, I’m talking big investments, the kind of investments that lead to big rewards, the kind of investments that make you step out of fear and trust that your business is going to make it stop thinking that you have to hoard every dollar and spend all of your time doing all the things because you couldn’t possibly give away any of your profits to make your business better, or help it grow faster.
You can’t afford education, you can’t afford those systems. You can’t afford to go to that conference, you can’t afford to be a part of that mastermind. You can’t afford to pay somebody to do your accounting, your website, your branding, you can. And you should. I don’t want you to take out a huge loan, I don’t want you to go into crazy credit card debt, what I want you to do is step out of fear and be willing to Yes, potentially take less of a paycheck at first so that you can make more of a paycheck later. The longer you hold on to the need to control everything in your business, the longer you hold on to the need to do it all yourself, the longer you stay stuck in fear that you can’t possibly invest that money because your business isn’t worth it, because you’re not worth it because it’s not going to make it because it would cause you to have to raise your rates. As long as you stay stuck in those places. Your business won’t grow.
You won’t get the freedom that you’re dreaming of. You won’t be able to charge the premium rates that you are dreaming of charging, you are going to stay stuck in the same place, which probably feels like burnout, overwhelm anxiety and stress. And maybe you’re even wondering why the heck you even decided to start this business in the first place because it’s just a real big pain in the rear. But once you are willing to say enough is enough. I trust this business. I trust myself. I need help. I need education. I need partners in this. I need people to walk alongside me and do what they do best and help take my business along for the ride. As soon as you’re willing to do that and invest big time and your business. You will see big time growth It will come back to you very quickly. So I hope that I have inspired and encouraged you today to listen to your gut. Because I’m willing to bet that your gut has been telling you that you need to invest in something for a while. I’m willing to bet that you know exactly what it is. You’re probably it’s probably been on your mind this entire episode. You’ve been hearing me talk and you’re like, oh, yeah, she’s talking about this thing. And I keep sitting on it.
Maybe it’s a conference, or a mentorship, or a mastermind group, or, again, a website designer or somebody for branding, or somebody to take photos of you, whatever it is, it’s an expensive investment. You know, you need it, and you’ve been sitting on it. I hope I have inspired you to send the email to make the phone call to book the consult, to pull the trigger. You can do this, your business is worth it. And so are you. So I’ve got three action steps for you today. Number one, think about what area of your business? Could you get the most time back if you invested? Number two, what area of your business do you really need the most help from a seasoned professional in and then three, I want you to weigh those two things against each other and decide which one you are most excited about. And then make a plan to pull the trigger.
Send the email, book, the console call, set aside a savings account to save for the things you can buy the ticket to the thing, whatever it is. weigh those two things so that you know what the smartest investment is for your business right now. And then go for it. Because you deserve it because you can do this. I cannot wait to see you succeed. Thanks for being here at this week. I cannot wait to chat with you guys next week. I’ll see you then.
Thanks so much for listening to the shoot it straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode at sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram @sabrinagebhardtphotography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review. Until next time, my friends shoot it straight.
