From sun up until sun down, you are likely working on your business. And that’s what it takes, right? Oftentimes, being a business owner means putting in a lot of extra hours, extra time, and certainly extra money. But one thing you should be careful of is NOT giving too much. Burnout is a real thing and ultimately could lead you away from your business goals.
There are obviously very different expectations for business ownership depending on what kind of business you run, but we want to share some important tips and pieces of advice for those of you who are starting out or perhaps fairly new to the business ownership game.
When it comes to investing in your clients, we believe that there are three places you should always invest.
3 Places to Invest In Your Clients
1. Your Best Ideas
Regardless of your business model, whether it be products, services, consulting, or something else, we hope you invest your BEST and most creative ideas into your clients, customers, and contacts. They deserve your most juicy ideas that brought you to this place of owning and running a business.
On top of that, your best ideas will often lead to the best results, meaning products that your customers love, services that give valuable solutions to other people or businesses, or simply make an inconvenience go away for someone else.
Be proud of the ideas that brought you to your current position, and continue to invest your best ideas in progressing your business forward. Your clients or customers will be so grateful you do!
2. Your Experience
You are standing (or sitting) there today with a background of experience to lean on. Use that! Let it be your guide to produce or deliver the best products or services to your clients or customers. This experience, whether it’s failed business attempts in the past or helpful relationships that taught you something, is a part of who you are. It should absolutely be interwoven into your business ideas and goals.
If you have an experience or set of experiences that taught you something or gave you a leg up to where you are now, don’t be afraid to give that experience its moment and let it be your guide in business decision making. It could be the difference maker in providing your clients with something new, fresh, or innovative that hasn’t been done before.
3. Your Personal Time
Yes, your time is valuable. And yes, you’d be willing to go above and beyond for your clients or customers because your heart is in it and you want them to love their experience with you! But you also have valuable time that shouldn’t be wasted or taken advantage of. You deserve the respect of others when it comes to your business and your hours.
You can absolutely give it your all during your committed hours and show up for those clients and customers 110%! But when your doors close or you are off the clock, remember that you wouldn’t want to be disrespectful of another business owner's personal time. Take your off hours to decompress, do a little self care, and refresh before you hit it hard again.
These three areas to invest in your clients are crucial for maintaining positive energy towards your business.
Let’s look at the flip side and cover what you should never invest in your clients or customers.
3 Things You Should Not Invest in Your Clients
1. Your Personal Time
Doesn't this look familiar? This goes exactly with the last point from above, but is worth expanding further. It should never be expected for you to work lengthy after-closing hours on behalf of a client. It should never be assumed that you would take your weekend or day off to perform a task or deliver a product for a customer. Because neither of these things are expected, don’t allow them to happen so that they accidentally become a habit.
Your personal time is just that: personal. And we hope you cherish and protect that time to benefit your overall business because you do need to take breaks sometimes.
We understand some businesses don’t have set hours or are open on weekends. Make sure to set appropriate boundaries for your “work time” so you also allow for personal time.
2. Your Personal Money
Most businesses require personal investment of money at some point or another, but for this point, we’re referring to personal money outside of business funds to support or assist a client or customer.
We understand that charitable opportunities come up and those are wonderful to be a part of when you can! We simply are suggesting that your personal money should not be intertwined with clients or customers who are in need or have a unique situation. This type of situation can become messy and uncomfortable if relationships change over time.
3. Your Mental Well-Being
We absolutely understand how taxing and exhausting business ownership can be. We even understand how your brain sometimes never turns off from thinking about your business. But we hope one area that you never invest into your business is the stability of your mental health.
The way you cope with business stresses or customers is a huge part of your happiness and the success of your business. If either of these areas are especially troublesome, we hope you seek the proper tools to help you work through them. You are already demonstrating the ultimate level of strength to embark on a journey that is filled with ups and downs, but we hope you don’t invest your well-being into your clients or customers when they will not be there at the end of the day to take care of you.
Did something here today make you pause and think about how you are running your business? We hope this was helpful in considering your mark on the work and how your business is affecting others.
We fully support all you go-getters who are taking the world by a storm and crushing it! We also hope you take care of yourself along the way!