Here at His & Hers Magazine, we’re happy that we attract quite a lot of fellow independent business owners as readers (waves at said readers!) As many of you will know, we love sharing your business success stories and watching your companies grow.
However, we appreciate that building a business isn’t without its challenges. Some of the issues that do tend to get talked about often include the pressure and loneliness of getting a fledgling business off the ground, the juggling required to manage your cashflow, and the joys of preparing for tax deadlines!
One of the challenges that doesn’t tend to get talked about as much is balancing the desire to turn a good profit with the necessity of investing in your business. Especially in the early days, when every penny counts, it can be hard to have the confidence and long-term vision to bite the bullet and reinvest some of your hard-earned profits back into your business. However, in order to grow, you’ll almost certainly need to reinvest a proportion of your profits into the business. A popular figure is 30% of profits, but we all need to find the figure that’s right for our own company, and realise that this figure may fluctuate over time.
Perhaps you’ve been saving up to make a down-payment on the building you work in so that one day you’ll own it outright, or perhaps, like some of the hotels, restaurants and delicatessens that His & Hers works with, you need the invest in specific equipment, such as cold rooms, supplied by Ryan-Jayberg, to keep your stock at the perfect temperature all year round.
If you know that a big investment, such as cold rooms, is just around the corner, it’s worth keeping an even closer eye than usual on your company accounts so that you know exactly how soon you’ll be able to afford to place the order. Also, if you have an accountant or bookkeeper, it could be worth enlisting their advice to ensure that they also think your proposed investment in the business is affordable. Using the above example, if you owned a restaurant and were planning to invest in a better cold storage solution, it’s also worth taking the time to work out how many more customers your team would realistically be able to serve as a result. Also, if you have employees, asking them which investments you could make to enable them to perform at their best can be a good way to make everyone in the company feel heard and you may also benefit from their insights.
We’re very proud to bring you this feature in association with MTCSS, leading cold room and cold storage solution specialists who work with a host of well respected brands. If you’re self-employed, we’d love to hear about the best and worst investments you’ve made in your business over the years. Please get in touch in the comments below or via our social media channel to share your story. You may also enjoy: Gina Tucci, A&R Manager at Big Beat Records, shares her success secrets.
