What is a Smart Way to Invest When You’re Just Getting Started?

Emily Thompson 0:00
Hello, and welcome to being boss. This minisode is all about how to finance a launch.

Kathleen Shannon 0:12
Today we're speaking with Kristen, who is a clubhouse member. And she has a really great question about smart ways to invest whenever you're just getting started. And she's in a unique position, but I'll let you guys hear it from her.

Kristen Rumbeck 0:27
Hi, ladies, my name is Kristen rumbek. I am a brand new storyteller, a artist and I am currently working on my latest project, which is a all natural skincare company called log on body CO and log on is all about helping people find meaningful moments in their everyday life, and especially inspiring them to be kind to themselves and others and the environment as well. So I'm at this interesting stage right now where I am ready, essentially to launch I have five products that I have honed in on, and I'm really happy with the formulas and I've been testing them on others and myself. And I'm just loving them. And I'm really excited about getting that out there. But what I'm struggling with at the moment, his finances, so I am not sure how to move forward financially with launching, and launching as soon as possible. So, you know, I, right now I'm seeing three options, and I may be missing something. So I'm not sure. So this is what I was, this is what I normally see people do. Sometimes people when they're launching a new business, they that typical story of They spent their entire savings on their business. And then I see some people do kick starters, which I have a lot of experience with online fundraising. So that sounds really fun to me. And something that I'm kind of leaning towards, because I'm all about crowdfunding and connecting with community. And then I also see obviously, investors and investor money. But that's not something that I'm, you know, really interested in. And then I also see people go into debt. So I am just at a stage where I'm not exactly sure how to move forward with funding. My products are all natural, there's no preservatives, there's nothing synthetic in any of my products. So they're essentially living products, and there is a time limit on the product. So you know, they don't, they can't sit on the shelf for three years, you know, I can't put off my launch for three years or five years, and expect my products to be still effective, and you know, even healthy for the skin. So there is a very real aspect of you know, I already have all my book oils, I just, I have not finished my labels, and I have not finished my logo. But I would really like to get started especially I would love to get started and launched you know, before the end of this year. Because I'm really feeling ready. I'm really feeling ready for putting this out into the world. It's been a long time coming. So I'm just really excited. But I'm, I guess a little bit scared or nervous about, you know which way to go financially, and to support the launch before I start making money. So I would love to hear what you to think about what is a smart way to invest in your business when you're just getting started. And any tips that you have to share or anything that you've seen people do in the past. So thank you.

Emily Thompson 3:25
All right, this is a really big question.

Kathleen Shannon 3:28
Do you love it?

Kathleen Shannon 3:34
Emily's making fun of me, because we've been going through we're recording all of our minisodes in batches. And I love every question that we're getting is you keep saying I love it.

Emily Thompson 3:43
I love this question. Love, love, love, love, love? Um, is it the question? This is a big question. And I do love it. But it also puts us in a funny little situation. Because Kathleen and I both very much believe in like in growing your business like this grassroots movement where you're not going into a lot of debt. I think that I think that the world of entrepreneurship right now is really hailing a lot of Mary's almost in terms of in terms of like venture capital, and like finding investors and going into lots of debt is like the cool way to start a business and like his isn't a startup unless it's worth a billion dollars and all that. Cool. That's not like I don't see that as being cool. I mean, I'm very grateful for Uber, like, I'm so grateful for some of those that have so

Kathleen Shannon 4:37
grateful someone went into debt for Uber,

Emily Thompson 4:39
right that lots of people I think there are lots of people going into debt because of Uber. But I think that I think that the spirit of entrepreneurship that Kathleen and I enjoy promoting most is not one where you put all of your eggs whether you have them or not into a basket and hope that that They all like, Don't crash and burn. I like the idea of you starting small and and doing lots of test marketing and finding what's going to work before you like there's a road that goes to big time. And I think you have to put in that work before you can handle what happens when you're big. But you, Kirsten are in a place where you do need branding, like you need some of the like basic pieces to get you started. And I think that if you can invest in those sorts of basic pieces, and then go from there, like going into a little debt for your business is not the worst thing, a couple $1,000 maybe. But I've also even heard like horror stories of really awesome creative entrepreneurs who put their website on a credit card, and spend the next six years paying off your website. Like, that's not cute, either. I think that saving, I think that doing your own branding and dude, starting at some farmers markets, there's, there's, you know, this idea of minimal viable product is where you go into this not with like a full line of product with like, all the branding and shebang, like you start with one, and you find the right market for that. And then you grow from there. Because if your product is is great, and you know how to sell it, you don't need like badass branding, you do kind of like that should come in the future. But I've seen plenty of branding using some Comic Sans or Papyrus that gets you started just fine. Please don't like Please don't. But I was like I won't buy. I literally have this rule where if you use papayas, I won't even like consider it won't even consider it. That's totally the designs not been me. But I like the idea of starting small. I also love the idea of doing a Kickstarter. I love Kickstarter, I think that crowdfunding is really awesome. But there's a lot of things that go into building that Kickstarter campaign, you're going to need great branding, if you want to successful Kickstarter. And you're going to need an awesome video and some copy and light and you're going to need some things there. So if you want to go big Kickstarter may be the way to do it. But you're gonna have to put some money into doing that. But I also love the idea of starting really small, take some good product to your farmers market and see what happens.

Kathleen Shannon 7:28
Kristin, I would recommend that you really look at your numbers. So what I want you to do is look at each of your five products and look at how much it costs to produce them. And whether that's in batches, but really just start to do the math, right. And then maybe you start with one or two. So like Emily, I think that starting small is really great. I'm certainly biased toward investing in branding. First, I think it's a really great investment to make that makes your brand and your products look completely legit and incredible. So again, I have a branding background and at braid creative, we do branding, for people who make body products and things like you do. And I think it's just a really great way to get a leg up on all the competition out there. And to make sure that the quality of your product is being expressed by what you're putting out, like the first thing people see, because people aren't seeing the results of your product. They're seeing your branding. So I just think it's a really great way to elevate your product to make it look really good and to sell in a Kickstarter or something along those lines. And I do certainly like the idea, I was going to say, you know, we have, we don't have experience with products, and especially products that don't have a long shelf life. But after speaking with Nicole earlier this week on our podcast, and talking about makers, I'm realizing that in the world of entrepreneurship, we're all kind of in the same boat no matter what we're selling. And so I agree with Emily and I feel like I do and I am qualified to speak on this a little bit in that if I were to start a skincare line, I would I just wouldn't go into debt I would refuse. And so again, I think that starting really small, getting some interest in the product and making it to order basically. So then what you might be doing is investing in the branding, investing in the packaging, and then making the product to order once you get enough orders. And again, that's another good reason to just sell one or two products is people can only buy one or two things so that you can make your product in bigger batches. And I think that if something doesn't feel good like getting invest money from investors, definitely Don't do it. Don't do anything that doesn't feel right from the get go. And so I think that the main thing, the main reason why I love your question is because it's the kinds of questions that every creative entrepreneur is asking themselves along the way and more than anything, I just want you To know that you're not alone, but that you do need to launch and you can't procrastinate your launch over excuses like not having enough money.

Emily Thompson 10:09
Yeah, if you want to talk about costing you some money not launching is not going to make you any money. And yeah, so I agree with all of that. I think that branding, if you're gonna invest in anything branding hardcore, but other than that, like be in this for the long haul, I think far too often, creatives go, or entrepreneurs go into whatever venture they're going out wanting to jump four steps ahead with someone else's money. And I think that if you're really an entrepreneur, and you want to experience the entirety of this process, you start small and you do it now.

Kathleen Shannon 10:45
Amen. Oh, and invest your time into building relationships that will help your launch. So creatives who are in industries that touch yours, going to markets going to trade shows, however that works in your industry, I think that that's another really great thing to invest in as well. All right, thank you so much for your question, Kristen. We appreciate you. We'll see you in the clubhouse.

Emily Thompson 11:09
Cheers. Hey there web design boss's Emily here and in case you're unaware my main hustle for the past six years has been as a web designer for creatives who want to start an online business. It's been a fun ride. And I've grown my web design business. Indie Shopography from scratch from a one woman show trying to make ends meet to a small online agency with a small team making a big impact for our dream clients. I know what you struggle with managing clients making deadlines scope creep. I've worked hard to build a business that is easy to run and that lets me focus on what I'm best at. So if you dream of having systems in place to help you better manage your projects, your clients and your time, I am here to help. Check out my free training videos for web designers at beingboss.club/indie for some insights to help you better manage your web design business so you can get back to doing the work you love. That's beingboss.club/indie. I N D I E I hope to see you there. Did you like this minisode Be sure to check us out on our website at beingboss.club. There you can find more from being boss including our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our mailing list so that you can get access to behind the scenes and exclusive content from Kathleen and myself to help you be more boss in your work and life. Do the work be boss