What’s a popular phrase we have all heard? I’ll go first: You have to spend money to make money. Since I was a child, I have always found ways to create income. I would work for family members, tutor my neighbors, and apply for summer jobs. I was allergic to being broke; it made me sick. I felt that I needed to do everything in my power to make sure that I created the life that I wanted to have for myself. My mom and aunt would tease me because for someone who worked so hard, I had a phobia of spending money. I was the type of person who would go to the mall and only buy one thing because the exchange at the cash register gave me heart palpitations. In the back of my mind, I knew I was not frugal by nature, but this was just the best way to manage our struggle. As I got older, I understood the importance of seed time and harvest, and I would like to focus on this for anyone internally battling with releasing.
There are principles that I call “facts of life” which means that they are inescapable. It does not matter how you name or describe these principles because at the end of the day they have existed before we were born and will continue far after we leave. Some may say that the principle of spending money to make money just gives people an excuse to fuel their prodigal habits. It’s true that a millionaire can go bankrupt (google “lottery winners who lost it all” if you don’t believe me). However, it is undeniable that when you plant with wisdom, you will reap a plentiful harvest.
The scary thing about sowing, investing, spending money, etc. is that your returns are not always immediate. When I first started Prisca International Inc., I knew that I had to invest in myself even though I did not have any clients to supplement my income. At my corporate job, they supplied me with all the necessary equipment that I needed to do my job. I would be a fool not to provide myself with the same perks. I had to purchase a work computer, hire a web developer for my website, book photoshoots for my headshots, and the list goes on. However, I was not worried about the upfront expenses that I was incurring. I thought about that little girl who would probably be freaking out with anxiety if she could see me now, but her older self was telling her to “RELAX– This is all a part of the process!” My website is the liaison between me and my clients. My computer is my lifeline in business, and I am currently tapping away on its keyboard to write my fourth blog. My photoshoots are my physical statement that if you look good, you do good, and people need to put a face to the name that they are being told to trust. Every single expense had a purpose, and one day I will be able to tie everything back to positive income.
One of my goals with every client that I work with is to find a way to automate a standard process. The benefit of automation is saving time that could be plugged into another task. Here are three ways that I have personally automated or sped-up tasks in my life. I challenge you to find one task in the month of September that you will invest a little bit of money in to make your life a lot easier (of course considering your budget).
- Instacart
- I recently got married in February, and before then, I was living with my family so grocery shopping was never really my thing. I shopped for the house sometimes, but my mom was big on keeping everything stocked, so it was a huge shock to be moving into an apartment with my husband and taking on this role. For the first few months, I would spend several hours in the grocery store. Now, this may just be a “me” thing, but I treat grocery shopping like clothes shopping, and I get caught up in everything. I could go into the grocery store for tomatoes and end up leaving with a full cart. I did the free trial of Instacart for a month, and after an enjoyable experience, I convinced my husband to purchase the membership for $99/year to get our groceries delivered. The discounted and sometimes non-existent service fees are negligible, and tipping your shopper is the nice thing to do since they are saving you so much time. Some people enjoy grocery shopping and find it therapeutic, but I found myself being able to reallocate that time into working, writing, cooking, etc. which has been amazing.
- I recently got married in February, and before then, I was living with my family so grocery shopping was never really my thing. I shopped for the house sometimes, but my mom was big on keeping everything stocked, so it was a huge shock to be moving into an apartment with my husband and taking on this role. For the first few months, I would spend several hours in the grocery store. Now, this may just be a “me” thing, but I treat grocery shopping like clothes shopping, and I get caught up in everything. I could go into the grocery store for tomatoes and end up leaving with a full cart. I did the free trial of Instacart for a month, and after an enjoyable experience, I convinced my husband to purchase the membership for $99/year to get our groceries delivered. The discounted and sometimes non-existent service fees are negligible, and tipping your shopper is the nice thing to do since they are saving you so much time. Some people enjoy grocery shopping and find it therapeutic, but I found myself being able to reallocate that time into working, writing, cooking, etc. which has been amazing.
- MAC Wagon
- If you need any convincing, please give me until the end of this paragraph. The brand of the wagon may not matter, but I can only speak on my personal experience with the MAC wagon. After multiple trips in our elevator, long walks to the trash chute, and a few moves later, the benefit of having a wagon is unmatched. We store our wagon in our closet, and it saves us so much time and physical energy. For about $100 (prices change seasonally), we have a tool that can carry up to 150 lbs. When we were reorganizing our guest closet, we decided to use the wagon to help us transport some of our boxes to storage. What could have easily been a full day’s work actually ended up taking us about an hour (including load time). Imagine having to carry huge boxes down long hallways and parking garages, and then imagine not having to imagine that because you spent some money on a tool that would share in that work.
- If you need any convincing, please give me until the end of this paragraph. The brand of the wagon may not matter, but I can only speak on my personal experience with the MAC wagon. After multiple trips in our elevator, long walks to the trash chute, and a few moves later, the benefit of having a wagon is unmatched. We store our wagon in our closet, and it saves us so much time and physical energy. For about $100 (prices change seasonally), we have a tool that can carry up to 150 lbs. When we were reorganizing our guest closet, we decided to use the wagon to help us transport some of our boxes to storage. What could have easily been a full day’s work actually ended up taking us about an hour (including load time). Imagine having to carry huge boxes down long hallways and parking garages, and then imagine not having to imagine that because you spent some money on a tool that would share in that work.
- Anker 20W USB C Charger
- Yay, so the tech nerd in me can share a cool tip! Since I am already being honest here, I can openly admit that I am always on my phone. I have gotten a lot better at restricting my screen time, especially if I am wasting it on tasks that are not making me money. However, it is a running joke in my household that my phone is always dead or dying. I invested less than $20 on this Anker fast charger (charging cable not included), and it is life changing. I cannot even count how many times I fall asleep without plugging in my phone, but with this charger, I can use the fifteen minutes I have to spare in the mornings to get my phone charged extremely fast. My husband already got me to purchase him one as well because he would end up using mine whenever he was in a time crunch. P.S. they have some nice colors too. I got the white one months ago (probably just the cheaper one at the time), but now they have colors like mint green and lavender!
If you weigh the pros and cons, and it makes sense financially, please try to find ways that you can invest a little bit of money into yourself to make your life easier. Sometimes we get so caught up in this belief that “I can do it myself”, but what if someone or something could do it for you and save you the time and energy?
As you will notice, none of these items are directly business related because those gems are offered to clients. If you are interested in learning how to automate processes in your business, book a complimentary consultation with me so that we can review your current processes and create a plan together.