Another week, another business owner telling me they need capital so they can… hire an accountant… wait what!?
I wish I was kidding.
Here’s what keeps happening: Business owners say they need capital to grow. Then they immediately want to spend it on things that won’t make them a single dollar.
Here’s what DOESN’T grow your business:
1. Using investment money to pay down debt
This is housekeeping. Important? Sure. Growth? Nope. You’re just cleaning up yesterday’s mess with tomorrow’s money.
2. Rebuilding your website because it “looks old”
Your customers don’t care about your fancy new homepage animation. They care if you solve their problem. That “ugly” site converting at 60%? Leave it alone and go find more traffic.
3. Perfect branding and culture consultants
If you’ve read even ONE Lencioni book, your culture is fine. You don’t need 30 more “culture” conversations. Your core values don’t need another revision. Your pipeline does.
The question no one seems to be asking themselves:
Why would anyone fund something that won’t grow anything?
There’s a reason books like Ready Fire Aim spend half their pages essentially saying “just go do sales.” Because business owners would rather perfect their mission statement, redesign their logo, make sure they have the “right team”… than make another sales call.
Here’s what DOES grow your business:
Every dollar goes to ONE of these:
- Get more customers
- Get customers to spend more per transaction
- Get customers to buy more often
- Remove the bottlenecks stopping leads from becoming customers
That’s it. That’s the whole list.
Good enough is good enough. Perfect is the enemy of profit.
Stop polishing what already works. Go sell something.
Which of these hits closest to home for you?