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Whether you’ve raised thousands from venture capitalists or you’re bootstrapping your way up with very little cash to spend, as the founder of a business, it is your responsibility to use your capital in such a way as to maximize any potential gains.
If course, it’s not always easy to work out where your money is the best spend, but if you invest in the business essentials below, you can’t go far wrong:
Legal Advice
So many otherwise promising companies have sunk without a trace simply because they didn’t cover their butt’s legally.It only takes one lawsuit to undo all of your hard work, so make sure that you set aside enough cash to consult a lawyer on everything from intellectual property to business contracts. You won’t regret it.
IT Support
The 21st Century is undoubtedly the digital age, and there are few businesses which would be able to run successfully without any It infrastructure at all. That’s why investing in good IT support services is a must. The last thing you want is for your server to go down and cut your off from your customers, or your important files to be lost forever, for example.
Excellent Employees
Without good people helping you, building your vision of a successful business is nothing more than a pipe-dream. No matter how big or small your company might be, if you don’t invest in the best people for the job, you’re never going to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. You need good people to develop ideas, keep track of money and keep your customers happy; there is absolutely no getting around that once your business grows beyond a one man operation run out of your spare room.
Perks and Incentives
Like I said, employees are important, and one way to attract the best employees is by offering better perks and incentives than the competition. It may seem like an unnecessary expenditure, but if you want your business to be anything other than mediocre, you really do need to attract the best and brightest and offering good insurance coverage, continuous career development, or even just smaller perks like free lunches or doughnuts on Fridays will help you with that.
Marketing
If you’re a startup, it’s unlikely that you’re going to get anywhere without a good marketing strategy in place. If you’re the creative type, you might not need to hire a marketing company to help you come up with campaigns, but you will still need to pay to display ads in various mediums, and you shouldn’t try to avoid doing so if you want your company’s name to be on the tip of everyone’s tongues a few months from now.
Your Time
Okay, so this one is a bit different, but as the founder of a business, you can’t scrimp on your time. You are the brains and the driving force behind your business, so instead of wasting time on menial tasks like doing your laundry and getting lunch, pay someone else to do and focus on building your business. It’s a false economy to do anything else.
If you don’t scrimp on any of the above, you can be confident that you’re spending your capital well, but remember to review your spending periodically to assess what is and isn’t still giving you good value.
