The Lazy Investment Plan To Grow An Empire
The Lazy Investment Plan To Grow An Empire
Small, easy investments you can make today to grow wealth within your startup.
Photo by Lenin Estrada
Investment is a critical part of becoming a wealthy person — putting some investment down now and letting it marinate so that it exponentially grows in value later is a no-brainer. If you have the money, investing is something you’re going to want to do.
This same truth applies to startup investments — there are a couple of investments that your business can benefit greatly from if and only if you start investing now so that it has time to grow in value.
We all have limited time and resources in a day to add more things to our plate (if these aren’t on your plate already), so I’ve laid out 3 lazy things that you can invest in today that will continuously pay out in benefits later on.
Just like any investment opportunity, the ROI will be a toss-up and can’t be nailed down to a specific number, but it will look something like:
A steady stream of recurring sales.
Building a pipeline of sales leads in the background without additional effort.
A pool of potential customers who are lining up to buy as soon as you have product/service for sale.
A loyal, returning customer base (which means lower marketing and sales costs for the business over time).
Provocative Content
I’m not talking about content in the vein of “this article talks about the importance of XYZ, check it out and let us know what you think about it below in the comments.” — I’m talking about custom content that sparks intrigue, possible debate, and lets people know what your voice sounds like.
If you take 1-2 hours every week to create custom content and you do it consistently every week, you will start to see sales trickle in.
The trick is that your content has to be provocative in some form or fashion — your content has to be so on-the-nose and engaging that it encourages your audience to connect with and reshare your content. This is the type of content that opens the comment flood gates — it’s just too good to not engage with it.
You won’t hit this stride the first time you attempt it — it’ll take a lot of practice and continuous constructive criticism before you get your content to a prime place.
You’ll know that you’ve hit the provocative territory once your audience starts commenting and DMing you about how great your content is and how much it resonates with them.
Now, I know that for many of you, provocative content may not be a hurdle, and the challenge lies in having enough ideas to fill up a whole calendar month. Those in this space usually spend multiple hours on this task because they’re constantly hunting for new ideas, unsuccessfully. If you can’t think of enough content to fill up your calendar, it’s an indicator that your core strategy is not completely developed.
If you’re in this place, go back to square one — hire a coach (like me) or enroll in a program (like mine) to solidify a sturdy foundation that’ll steward your content plan for the rest of the year. If you don’t have a strategic plan, you won’t have content.
Investment amount: 1-2 hours / week. If you haven’t figured out how to create provocative content, work with a coach or enroll in a program that’ll help you establish that foundation.
Emails That Stand Out Amongst 10,000 Ads
Most Americans are now exposed to 4,000-10,000 ads a day. This means that your brand doesn’t stand a chance in someone’s memory unless your audience is purposely seeking you out, or you’re landing in their inboxes every week with open worthy content.
Because of the sheer volume of content we’re exposed to on a daily basis, your brand needs to be strategic about staying top of mind amongst its audience. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is by going all-in on email marketing.
Email marketing still holds the crown as marketing ROI king — it generates a 3,800% ROI, which is more effective than most social media platforms. Email marketing is one of the most effective investments you can make to directly impact your sales numbers.
You can’t just willy nilly draft up an email and send it once a week though — you need to create provocative content that’s worth paying attention to. We all more or less detest getting bombarded by emails, so you need to focus on creating emails that people won’t want to delete. If your emails are:
Not exclusive, and available on your social channels, your audience has a reason to unsubscribe from your emails. (You can repurpose content from your emails onto your social media, just make sure there’s a delay so your subscribers have first access.)
If you send a dull, unexcitable recap email, your audience has a reason to unsubscribe from your emails.
If you don’t provide value to your audience and only use your emails as an announcement tool, your audience has a reason to unsubscribe from your emails.
Investment amount: 1 thoughtful email a week, usually takes about 1-3 hours long to create depending on the content.
Treat Your Audience Like Regulars
Have you ever been a regular at a bar or a coffee shop and had the staff there immediately know your drink and your name? I bet it felt pretty good to be showered with that type of attention, and it probably contributed to why you kept coming back. It feels good to be seen.
Bars, restaurants, coffee shops that do this usually foster an audience who are loyal to them — this is the type of audience who will donate to your Indiegogo campaign when you ask the community for help during COVID-19, this is the type of audience who stages a protest when a huge commercial project is forcing you out of your space.
Regulars are more than just regulars, they are a shield that gives your business immortality.
For only a couple of minutes a day, you can create “regulars” for your business too through your social channels. All it takes is the thoughtfulness of remembering certain regulars who show up on your social channels, direct messaging regulars with notes of appreciation, and giving them the digital version of a “hey, nice to see you, how’s your day going?” every time they walk into your bar.
Investment amount: A few minutes - 1 hour / day. This is the easiest task on this list that can be completed during a lunch break or while you’re waiting in line for your lunch order. Doing this consistently over time will create a strong community of regulars.
Want to turn your startup chase into a victory lap? Get my Friday morning emails: The Crux.