Before you start investing your time and money in something, it’s important to be able to evaluate whether the investment will yield returns or not. Sometimes the investment may not be worth your time and money, which could result in lost time, lost money, and lost credibility—all of which are difficult to recover from. These three ways can help you evaluate the investment of time and money before moving forward with something new.
1) Does this have a high ROI?
As a business owner, you will constantly be trying to determine if what you’re doing is worth your time. Will this new client give you more money than they cost? Can I delegate this task, or will I just have another thing that someone else could be doing instead? When you’re putting time into something, always make sure it has a high ROI. If not, it’s probably not worth your time. In other words, evaluate each decision based on whether or not it’s going to bring in more revenue than the investment of time and energy required.
For example, many people would say that taking a phone call from an unhappy customer is worthwhile because it might lead to future sales and customer loyalty. However, if you are spending 20 minutes per day answering emails while others are working on tasks with a higher ROI, then the company as a whole may not see as much growth as desired. Therefore, in order to get a full picture of what should happen for the business, it is important for all employees to do their fair share so that everyone can work on their highest ROI project. Think about who is responsible for tasks: Another way to decide how valuable a task will be is to think about who owns the responsibility. Often times we think someone else should take care of it, but in reality, no one cares about something as much as those who are responsible. So why delegate? The only person who knows how you feel about the project is you! If there isn’t someone at work assigned to complete this kind of task, then you might want to assign it yourself.
2) Will I need to reinvest the money?
Ultimately, the potential investor will need to decide if they are willing to reinvest money into your business. This is one aspect of investment that has more control than anything else. The second step would be to evaluate whether you are an entrepreneur or a solopreneur. As a solopreneur, it’s up to you as you will be running all aspects of your company, so there is no question about whether someone from outside your company could do it better. You are accountable for success or failure–so this may not be an option for some people with smaller budgets or who lack experience. If you are an entrepreneur, then the best way to determine how much time and money should be invested in developing your product is through market research: gathering data on consumers’ needs and wants, understanding competitors’ offerings, identifying gaps in their products, etc.
From here, investors can make decisions on how much money to put into the project–and what form it might take (e.g., equity or debt). Lastly, both entrepreneurs and solopreneurs must keep in mind whether they have a long-term vision for their business; if they don’t see themselves in 10 years without significant changes, then investing might not be worthwhile because of startup risks (which we’ll cover later). In general, every investor will want to know if they’re going to get paid back in full over a short period of time before making any investments. A last piece of advice is always to ask yourself would I invest my own money?
A good starting point would be conducting at least 3 weeks’ worth of market research to determine how much investment is needed. Remember, a positive ROI=investment!
3) Is there customer support?
Providing customer support is a necessary component of any successful business. Customers want to feel like their satisfaction matters, so it’s important that you make an effort to reply in a timely fashion. But even if your customer base isn’t large enough for formal customer service hours, there are other ways you can show your commitment. Always be sure that you’re available when customers contact you, either by email or social media inbox messages. If people feel like they’re getting brushed off, they may go looking elsewhere or leave bad reviews on your site. Customers are more likely to come back if they know there is someone willing and waiting to help them with whatever problem they encounter.
In addition to being accessible, provide technical assistance: Technical assistance doesn’t just mean installing programs and fixing software. Provide solutions for your client’s needs whether it’s project-specific (e.g., installation) or general (e.g., setting up a phone). It doesn’t matter how basic the solution is – providing solutions will keep people coming back to your company because they know you care about them as an individual not just as sales prospects.
Finally, stay educated on industry trends: One way to grow your company without spending any money is through learning new technologies and techniques which then allow you to offer better services than competitors who don’t update themselves often enough!