*Guest blog by Katelyn Webb, a financial business coach from Sampson12

When I decided to leave my well-paid corporate finance job to start my own business, I was extremely confident. I came from a prestigious background in financial management and worked at heavy-hitters like Google and GE Capital. 

My point in telling you this is that as budgeting and business plan preparation goes, I have undergone extensive training and scrutiny and the whole 9 yards…

So why did I EMBARRASSINGLY make all of the classic mistakes that business owners make managing their money when I started my business??

I left my job with tens of thousands of dollars saved up to launch my business and immediately focused on operations. I launched my website and services and sure I might not have expected a phone call that same day but maybe in a week? Months went by and nothing. So here I am operating my business with no customers and no audience and no clue how to reach any potential customers. 

It took me until the end of the year, when I was out of cash, to finally go back to the BASICS. The basics being what I knew in corporate finance was critical to growing my business:

Investing in paid advertising and an effective sales strategy.

You see, once it was my own money on the line, I reverted to the same pitfalls in mindset and behaviour that I see so many other business owners make. Which leads me to…

The biggest mistake business owners make when thinking about paid advertising:

They think of all expenses as the same, that spending money on anything… ever… means less money. But this isn’t true, and as a corporate finance executive, I knew that. But I ALSO decided to believe this untrue thought. Why? Because it’s easy and a simple way to look at things and I was looking at a bank account of my own money with limited funds that I didn’t want to spend.

In finance we know that different kinds of expenses have different characteristics. Meaning, some expenses are “investments” that help you to make more money in conjunction with effective business strategies. PAID ADVERTISING falls into this category.

Other expenses simply reduce your profitability. The more you spend on these expenses then yes the less money you have. Credit card processing fees go in this category.

So we know that paid advertising goes into the investment category and we can expect a return on investment. But here is what I now know that I didn’t before I left my corporate job and went out on my own. Just throwing money at paid advertising is just as naive as not investing at all!

In corporate finance, I didn’t have to spend my own money. So although I knew that paid advertising was critical, I couldn’t tell you at the time what else you needed to do to see results. But now that I have gone through the struggle with my own business, I have more insight into what generates real success.

So below are 2 strategies that are critical to obtaining success with paid advertising.

Strategy #1: Leverage the help of advertising strategists either through paid courses or getting help from them directly.

If you have $5,000 to spend on a Facebook ad, I HIGHLY HIGHLY  recommend that you spend up to $2,000 of that budget to pay a Facebook ad strategist to do the ad for you. Or spend $2,000 on a course with strong testimonials. And the remaining amount on your ad campaign. Here’s why…

Facebook is a technology company that uses complex algorithms to promote, not promote, or even ban ad accounts. This means that the process for launching your ad is not intuitive, it isn’t going to be what you want it to be or expect it to be. An expert ad strategist should know all of the nuances of the latest algorithm updates and be able to launch your ad campaign in a way that gives you the best results for your money.

I have heard many stories of people who invested in Facebook ads and did not come close to the success that they would have gotten had they gotten help from an expert.

Strategy #2: Invest in quality business coaching and training.

Now this one is a tough one because the business coaching market is unregulated. That means there are a lot of spammers, crooks, and other people who want to take your money in exchange for worthless information. I knew someone, for example, who desperately invested her last $12,000 in a coaching program to flip houses and in exchange only received $500 worth of books… and that was all.

On the other hand, there are coaches out there with the skillset and desire to help you to succeed. These coaches may be all the difference between you spending thousands of dollars and failing versus succeeding. I watched videos of dozens of coaches before I found a coach that seemed authentic, intelligent, and like she could help me. I am so thankful that I did because I underestimated the value that she would bring as she helped me turn my entire business around.

Since investing in my first coach, I have invested in several groups coaching programs which have helped me each time with growing my business. I also know that this is a commonly used strategy by many profitable business owners and corporate executives. Think about investing in a coach to help fill-in the gaps for where you are struggling with your business if you haven’t already.

Thanks for bearing with me in this article on investments to help grow your business. If you find yourself struggling every time you look at your bank statement, just know that it doesn’t have to be that way!

Reach out to me today at www.sampson12.com for any questions you may have about managing money for your business.

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