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One of the most ubiquitous problems amongst entrepreneurs, front-end developers, graphic designers, back-end coders, SaaS dev's, app creators, etc...
It's a strange phenomenon, but I get it and to some degree or another have fallen prey to its jaws too. We'll spend countless hours creating an amazing product of some sort for the sole purpose of making money, but when it comes time to get it out there earning, we won't spend money. I think there's several reasons for this:
Money is a metaphor for value. It's green karma. Let's not get into the problems with money... just remember that that's what it's supposed to be. It's a meta-object. It is the blood that flows through societies veins. It is a means of exchange, all condensed down to this ephemeral thing that's becoming even more 'magical.' Soon there won't even be cash, it'll be completely abstract. That's the first clue that money can't be treated like other objects.
I noticed that there are two types of people when it comes to money in their daily lives. Some people think of money in terms of net worth and assets, and some think of it in terms of cash flow.
- The Net Worthers want to see their numbers growing and have safety nets and padding in their accounts.
- The Cash Flowers live up to their means, promising out monthly as much as comes in, and they weather emergencies with credit cards, and rebalance the equation to break even again later.
I think in daily life it's better to be a Net Worther. But in business we need to be thinking more like Cash Flowers.
Here's the mathematical reason:
Say you spend $1,000 on content and promotion of one piece, and that can result in an additional $5 in cash flow daily. That's $150 a month, multiplied by the 30x liquidation multiple = $4,500. So, not even counting the cash flow that you can keep to break even on that deal or reinvest before you sell, that's basically an immediate $3,500 profit on the valuation alone.
Which is to say it's completely ridiculous not to be reinvesting. You're literally transmuting $1,000 cash into $3,500 cash once you sell, not counting the cash flow you'll collect in the mean time.
Part of the problem comes from being Net Worthers in our daily lives and trying to shake that off to see things as a Cash Flower in business. It's much more sexy to see an extra $1,000 in the bank account than to see $1,000 less and waiting 200 days at the extra $5 per day to break even on that investment. You definitely can't go too balls to the wall with investment unless you're sitting on cash or can raise funding or will take a loan. Which is why we boot strap so much.
But the reality is: We need to reinvest as much as we can.
Without being stupid about it, especially in a scenario where we KNOW we have an asset that can increase in cash flow with a cash injection, it's really stupid not to do it if you're game is to ultimately liquidate (which should be most of us).
___________________________
I hate knowing there are next-level ideas out there that get executed and rot away because the owner wouldn't invest in marketing. It might be because they're scared of loss and judgement, don't have money and won't let go of equity to bring on a partner, won't take funding because 'what if', and all the other reasons.
Not only are there people that should be millionaires and billionaires even, but they live in squalor and low self-esteem and resentment. It's sad for them to not have what they could have, but it's even more sad that there's so much value that every member of human society could have reaped if only we knew the product existed and could have given our cash in order to consume it.
Save money. Work in the trenches. But as soon as you have a consistent income, you need to partition off a chunk of it for a marketing budget. And never stop reinvesting once you do. Consistency is the key and it's like putting a brick on your accelerator. It might be 0 to 60 in 2 years, but eventually you'll hit 60, and there's no brakes until you sell the whole car.
Most are Afraid to Invest MONEY.
It's a strange phenomenon, but I get it and to some degree or another have fallen prey to its jaws too. We'll spend countless hours creating an amazing product of some sort for the sole purpose of making money, but when it comes time to get it out there earning, we won't spend money. I think there's several reasons for this:
- It seems backwards to our caveman brains, spending money when you're trying to make it.
- We fear judgement of the product, failure of the product, loss of assets and income...
Money is a metaphor for value. It's green karma. Let's not get into the problems with money... just remember that that's what it's supposed to be. It's a meta-object. It is the blood that flows through societies veins. It is a means of exchange, all condensed down to this ephemeral thing that's becoming even more 'magical.' Soon there won't even be cash, it'll be completely abstract. That's the first clue that money can't be treated like other objects.
I noticed that there are two types of people when it comes to money in their daily lives. Some people think of money in terms of net worth and assets, and some think of it in terms of cash flow.
- The Net Worthers want to see their numbers growing and have safety nets and padding in their accounts.
- The Cash Flowers live up to their means, promising out monthly as much as comes in, and they weather emergencies with credit cards, and rebalance the equation to break even again later.
I think in daily life it's better to be a Net Worther. But in business we need to be thinking more like Cash Flowers.
Here's the mathematical reason:
- Cash --> Cash Flow --> Cash
Say you spend $1,000 on content and promotion of one piece, and that can result in an additional $5 in cash flow daily. That's $150 a month, multiplied by the 30x liquidation multiple = $4,500. So, not even counting the cash flow that you can keep to break even on that deal or reinvest before you sell, that's basically an immediate $3,500 profit on the valuation alone.
Which is to say it's completely ridiculous not to be reinvesting. You're literally transmuting $1,000 cash into $3,500 cash once you sell, not counting the cash flow you'll collect in the mean time.
Part of the problem comes from being Net Worthers in our daily lives and trying to shake that off to see things as a Cash Flower in business. It's much more sexy to see an extra $1,000 in the bank account than to see $1,000 less and waiting 200 days at the extra $5 per day to break even on that investment. You definitely can't go too balls to the wall with investment unless you're sitting on cash or can raise funding or will take a loan. Which is why we boot strap so much.
But the reality is: We need to reinvest as much as we can.
Without being stupid about it, especially in a scenario where we KNOW we have an asset that can increase in cash flow with a cash injection, it's really stupid not to do it if you're game is to ultimately liquidate (which should be most of us).
___________________________
I hate knowing there are next-level ideas out there that get executed and rot away because the owner wouldn't invest in marketing. It might be because they're scared of loss and judgement, don't have money and won't let go of equity to bring on a partner, won't take funding because 'what if', and all the other reasons.
Not only are there people that should be millionaires and billionaires even, but they live in squalor and low self-esteem and resentment. It's sad for them to not have what they could have, but it's even more sad that there's so much value that every member of human society could have reaped if only we knew the product existed and could have given our cash in order to consume it.
Save money. Work in the trenches. But as soon as you have a consistent income, you need to partition off a chunk of it for a marketing budget. And never stop reinvesting once you do. Consistency is the key and it's like putting a brick on your accelerator. It might be 0 to 60 in 2 years, but eventually you'll hit 60, and there's no brakes until you sell the whole car.
